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Star Sports To Broadcast U19 World Cup 2024 After Zee Fails To Complete Merger With Sony

image-lrdthh3aICC U19 World Cup 2024 Trophy (Source: X.com)

In a dramatic turn of events, Disney-Star Network is set to broadcast the upcoming ICC U19 World Cup 2024 on its television channels and OTT platform, Disney+ Hotstar, after the deal with Zee Network couldn't take off due to merger issues with Sony Sports Network. 

In the agreement announced between Star and Zee after the sale of the ICC media rights last year, both parties were slated to share the broadcast cost of $3.1 Billion for the upcoming four-year period between 2024-27.

The television rights would have gone to Zee, while the digital rights were kept with Star only during the forthcoming cycle. However, the pending merger between Zee-Sony, slated to be completed last year but unfortunately could not, has caused Star to continue its broadcast since Zee provided no bank guarantee.

This means that the two parties (Star & Zee) could not strike an agreement, causing Star to look out for commercial spots themselves while working with the ICC to televise the event. 

It is worth noting that the next big ticket tournament after this is the Men's T20 World Cup that will be held in June in the Caribbean and the USA, as by then, the picture will be more precise on who will be broadcasting the event cycle till 2027.

Additionally, Disney has been actively involved in selling its India business to Reliance's Viacom18, which means Star might not even consider the Zee deal in the future since its new company would like to keep the entire chunk with itself. Meanwhile, it could not be confirmed that the pause in the deal is temporary or that the entire plan has been shelved.

Coming back to the U19 World Cup, matches will be broadcasted on the Star Sports channels alongside Disney+ Hotstar as the 16-team tournament will feature a total of 41 games, with the first one to be played on 19th January while the final is slated to be held on 11th February with the entire event scheduled in South Africa.