Live Current Media, the operator and owner of IPL’s online rights, filed its quarterly report earlier today with SEC in U.S. (it is a public company here), and some interesting till-now-undisclosed details of its $50 million deal with Board of Control for Cricket in India and the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) on developing the IPL portal and BCCL.tv. The interesting part of the deal is it is still not fully done, possibly because of the “exclusive” rights which means other bigger and established sites won’t be able to use clips of the games on their sites.

The details are worth posting in full:

“On April 17, 2008, the Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (“BCCI”) and the DLF Indian Premier League (“IPL”) to build, operate and promote two cricket-related web sites — IPLT20.com, the official web site of the IPL, and BCCI.tv, the official web site of the BCCI.  Pursuant to the MOU, the BCCI granted the Company exclusive and non-exclusive rights to digital cricket-related content (e.g. video, photos, etc.).  The Company also gained rights to use this content to launch cricket.com, a global portal for cricket enthusiasts.  The MOU has a term of ten years and renewal rights for an additional ten years.  The IPLT20.com website was launched on April 18, 2008.  The parties are currently negotiating further, definitive agreements, to memorialize the terms and conditions of the deal.

The Company subsequently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on May 19, 2008 to form Global Cricket Venture with netlinkblue (“NLB”) to combine digital assets around the IPL.  In addition to the digital assets referenced above, Global Cricket Venture controls the right to live stream IPL matches and has the exclusive global mobile rights.  The parties are currently negotiating further, definitive agreements, to memorialize the terms and conditions of the venture.

On April 18, 2008, the Company launched the IPLT20.com website in conjunction with the inaugural Indian Premier League season.  Consistent with a highly successful first season for the league, the website saw extremely high levels of traffic and fan engagement during the 44 day tournament.  However, since the MOU was signed just prior to the commencement of the league’s first season, revenues for the first season were immaterial.

On August 8, 2008, the Company formed a wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore, LCM Cricket Ventures Pte. Ltd. (“LCM Cricket Ventures”).  The new subsidiary is intended to be a holding company to support the Global Cricket Venture with NLB and the Company’s activities relating to cricket and the IPL.  It is anticipated that LCM Cricket Ventures will become a shareholder in Global Cricket Venture Pte. Ltd. (“Global Cricket Venture”), a Singapore company that was formed by NLB on June 10, 2008 for the purpose of conducting the activities outlined in the MOU’s.  To date, the new subsidiary has no or nominal assets and no operations.

The Company has incurred substantial costs relating to negotiating and performing under the terms of the MOUs with each of the BCCI and the IPL, and establishing the venture with NLB.  During Q2 of 2008, these costs totaled $678,222 (Q1 of 2008 - $55,317) including, but not limited to, expenditures for business development, travel, consulting, and salaries.  There were no such costs in Q2 or Q1 of 2007.  It is anticipated that the costs incurred by each party to the venture in the launch phase will be reimbursed by Global Cricket Venture, which may seek its own funding from outside sources.  As a result, the Company has recorded these costs as amounts receivable from the Global Cricket Venture at June 30, 2008.”