TORONTO, March 18, 2016 /CNW/ - Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) (TSX-V-SAT), Canada's largest South Asian Broadcaster, is pleased to announce that it has acquired exclusive Broadcast rights for the ICC World T20 Tournament which is currently being held in India.

The ICC World Twenty20 (also referred to as the World T20) is the international championship of Twenty20 cricket. Organised by cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the tournament currently consists of 16 teams, comprising all ten ICC full members and six other associate or affiliate members chosen through the World Twenty20 Qualifier. All matches played are accorded Twenty20 International status.

The 2016 ICC World Twenty20 is the sixth ICC World Twenty20 tournament for men's and fifth event for women's and is being held in India from March 8 to April 3. There have been five different winners of the men's event while the England women's team won the inaugural tournament at home in 2009 before Australia won three straight titles in the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2010, 2012 and 2014, respectively.

"We are delighted to bring the ICC World T20-2016 to Canada and I am sure that this shorter version of the game will generate a massive interest and viewership" said Dr. Shan Chandrasekar President and CEO of ATN. "ATN was the first to bring the Cricket World Cup to Canada in 1987 and our commitment to World Class Sports programming continues even today" he added.

The men's event format will see eight sides, in two groups of four, feature in the first round matches with the group winners joining eight sides in the Super 10 stage, which will split into two groups of five. The top two sides from both the Super 10 Groups will then qualify for the semi-finals and the final will be held at the historic Eden Gardens. In the women's tournament, the eight sides in the ICC Women's Championship have been joined by the top two sides from the ICC Women's Twenty20 Qualifier in Thailand. Tournament winners Ireland and runners-up Bangladesh both qualified for their second ICC Women's World Twenty20 appearance.

The Teams for Men`s and Women`s are as follows….

Men's:
First Round
Group A - Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands, Oman.
Group B - Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Scotland, Zimbabwe.

Super 10
Group 1 - England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Group B winner
Group 2 - Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Group A winner

Women's:
Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka & West Indies

ATN serves Canada's diverse cultural communities with 54 specialty television channels. The Company offers its flagship ATN-HD general interest service, 3 sports Channels, 4 news Channels, 5 Bollywood movie channels and a variety of channels that include 4 music Channels, 4 lifestyle Channels, 3 Chinese Channels, 6 Punjabi channels, and several regional language channels. ATN operates a South Asian Radio Service on Satellite Radio across The United States and Canada. Some ATN content is also available on any Bell mobile phone that supports video. ATN has programming alliances with leading international broadcasters like Doordarshan, Star Network (News Corp), Sony Entertainment Television, Viacom, Times Television Network, B4U Network, NDTV, Disney, ARY Group and many more. ATN channels are available on various Cable, Satellite and IPTV Platforms across Canada like Shaw Cable, Bell TV, Rogers Cable, Bell Fibe TV, TELUS Optic TV, Shaw Direct, Cogeco Cable, V Media and Others.

All 46 games (35 Men`s & 11 Women`s) will air LIVE on Various Pay-per-View Platforms across Canada.

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SOURCE Asian Television Network International Limited