For the past two weeks, we have been saying that the Indian Premier League is off to a hugely successful start and is taking India by storm. However, you don't have take our word for it. The Economic Times reports:

The ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches have virtually taken the life out of cinema theatres and television programmes....

Star Plus sources said the fresh Television Audience Measurement (TAM) ratings are expected in a day or two. However, till April 22, the IPL dominated the TAM ratings.

I read another report that the TV commercial inventory for the IPL was already oversold and that Sony was selling commercials for IPL matches at a 30% to 40% premium to Cricket World Cup ad rates. The fact that Live Current has the exclusive online rights for all things IPL and BCCI for the next ten years is just awesome, and presents us with amazing opportunities. The IPLT20.com site received millions of visitors within days of its beta launch -- with no SEO, marketing etc. -- with Alexa ranking it in the top 400 of all sites last week.

How successful is the Indian Premier League? Enough so that the England and Wales Cricket Board are reportedly planning to launch its own version of the IPL.

Read the report at BBC Sport.

To view this report, which includes an interview with Live Current CEO Geoff Hampson, please visit the web page of RCI's "Indo-Canadian Report with Wojtek Gwiazda."

You can listen to the actual audio file HERE.

In my opinion, this report is 'must listen' material.

Communicate.com Inc. dba Live Current Media Inc. (OTCBB:CMNN), a media company built around content and commerce destinations, announced today that Geoffrey Hampson, Chairman and CEO, will present at the inaugural LD MICRO Conference on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. PST on Track 1 at The Omni Los Angeles at California Plaza. Hampson will conduct a breakout session immediately following the presentation and will meet with institutional investors to discuss the company’s business strategy and market opportunity for developing subject-specific DestinationHubs™, from its premium online properties.

LD MICRO publishes a by-invitation only newsletter focusing on discovering undervalued companies in the micro cap space overlooked by institutional investors. Since 2002, the firm has published an annual list of recommended stocks as well as comprehensive reports on select names throughout the year. The conference will include a select list of 60 companies presenting and will have over 250 institutional and private investors in attendance.

Please read the whole press release HERE.

The IPL and BCCI are the focus of a Brandchannel.com report on the huge and lucrative Indian cricket market:

Cricket's branding is being repositioned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), through the Indian Premier League (IPL).

It’s the most in-your-face sports commercialization and branding exercise to date, where every team—down to individual players—has the ability to be branded and utilized as an endorsement vehicle to sell products from FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), and apparel and electronics, to telecom and banking services. Moreover, corporations like Reliance Industries and United Breweries Ltd. that have bought IPL teams, will use the league and the players to promote their brands. By capitalizing on the vast numbers of fans and their high level of enthusiasm for the game, the new campaign is comparable in size and scope to the National Football League (NFL) in North America and the English Premier League for football (soccer, for US readers).

Please read the whole thing HERE.

The Hindustan Times, India's largest English language newspaper, interviewed Live Current Media CEO Geoff Hampson for a piece titled, "They don't know cricket, but know their business":

Geoffrey Hampson doesn’t know much of the rules of cricket. But, as the CEO of the Vancouver-based Live Current Media group, he pulled off a major coup by upstaging many mainstream media companies and bagging a $50 million (Rs 200 crore) contract to host the IPL’s online content.

Read the whole article HERE (the e-paper version, with picture, can be seen HERE)

In my prior post, I mentioned that I would link to some media coverage of our agreement with IPL and BCCI. Here are some that you might want to read in full, from two of the top internet technology & finance sites:

 click HERE

 click HERE

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Live Current Media Inc. and DLF Indian Premier League to Launch IPLT20.com as Official IPL Online Destination

Exclusive Ten-year Partnership with IPL and BCCI Represents First Steps Toward Bringing Global Cricket Fans Closer to the Game Through In-Depth, Interactive Experiences

Read the whole press release HERE.

This is clearly a milestone event for Live Current. Cricket is one of the world's most popular sports, and in India, the world's largest cricket nation, the IPL and the BCCI are king. Blue chips are spending huge amounts of ad dollars to reach India's massive, passionate cricket audience.

There has been a substantial amount of media coverage about the Live Current-IPL/BCCI agreement, and we'll post some links at the blog a bit later.

It’s been a rainy week in Vancouver; and today’s news from Forrester Research definitely brightened our day.

The State of Retailing Online 2008: Marketing Report, was released this morning at Shop.org's Online Marketing Workshop in Scottsdale, Ariz. Despite reports of sluggish retail industry growth, online retail will remain a bright spot with retail sales. The report estimates online retail sales will rise 17 percent this year to $204 billion.

"What's spearheading online retail sales growth is a tale of two shoppers who visit the Web for very different reasons," said Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research principal analyst and lead author of the report. "The casual shopper goes online to look for the best price, leveraging the transparency of the Internet to save money. However, more affluent customers appreciate the convenience of shopping online and are not necessarily looking for the best deal. Retailers would be wise to recognize that there are significant opportunities within both audiences and should market to them accordingly."

More info on the report findings are included in the press release.

In the Apr. 14 issue of Newsweek, Steven Levy writes about Auctomatic and Live Current's acquisition of that company. Please read, "Take the Millions Now."

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UPDATE, April 9th: The article was published in today's Washington Post, under a different headline. 

Internet Retailer has a cool interview with Live Current's Jonathan Ehrlich:

Communicate.com Inc. is undergoing a significant makeover. It is in the final stages of an acquisition, it recently changed its name and it’s stepping up efforts to build a network of e-commerce and information sites to accompany the hundreds of domains it owns...

Now, the company is looking to turn that prime real estate into profit by building destination sites for its domains under a new brand, Live Current Media Inc. Late last month it announced it will buy e-commerce auction software firm Auctomatic for $5 million to help. Live Current says it plans to use much of Auctomatic’s technology and staff to create and manage the web sites.

“The domain name business was a low-cost way to get access to consumers, and now we want to bring products and value to those consumers,” says Jonathan Ehrlich, chief operating officer and president of Live Current Media... Ehrlich says creating informational and revenue-generating sites is now a top priority. “This is kind of like our coming-out party,” Ehrlich says. “We are now totally focused on getting users to spend as much time at our sites as possible,” Ehrlich says.

Read the full piece HERE.