Read the press release HERE.

This is exciting news that reinforces our belief that each of our top domain names can be built into thriving businesses over time with the right relationships and resources.

From an LIVC press release that was issued this morning:

Live Current Media Inc., a media company built around content and commerce destinations, is pleased to announce that on September 27, 2008 at a press conference in Mumbai, India, the outgoing President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (“BCCI”), Shri Sharad Pawar, launched the BCCI’s very own website, www.bcci.tv. The all new official home of Indian cricket on the web will offer fans an enriched digital user experience featuring deferred streaming video and mobile content as well as a live scoreboard, official photographs, player interviews, profiles, schedules, statistics, fan interaction and newsletters.

BCCI.tv is operated and monetized by Global Cricket Ventures, a joint venture between Live Current Media and NetlinkBlue Holding, a global provider of technology and enriched media and digital solutions, who has secured the exclusive rights to the digital assets of the BCCI and Indian cricket.

Geoffrey Hampson, Chairman and CEO, Live Current, said, “The launch of the Official Site of Indian Cricket, BCCI.tv, represents the next important development in the growth of Global Cricket Ventures. In combination with the highly successful Official Website of the DLF Indian Premier League (“IPL”), IPLT20.com, BCCI.tv gives Global Cricket Ventures two incredibly valuable online sports media properties. We continue to be extremely excited by our close partnership with the BCCI and look forward to continuing to bring their highly valuable digital assets to market.”

The launch of BCCI.tv has already received global press coverage and I will link to some of the more exciting article later at the blog. As many of you probably know, Australia is currently in India for a four-match Test series that kicks off October 9, so we expect the site to receive a large amount of traffic from the get-go.

It keeps getting bigger each week.

NDTV reports:

India have agreed to allow their top stars to play in Australia's domestic Twenty20 competition. Cricket Australia (CA) is considering an IPL-style franchise system for the tournament.

The six-state T20 competition is going ahead this season but from the following year the tournament will follow a completely different format. Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman and commissioner, said India would have no problem releasing its players to take part.

Modi, who is also the vice-president of the BCCI, said Cricket Australia was gracious enough to release many of their players for the IPL and now it was the Indian Board's turn to reciprocate.

Modi said he had already cleared Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni to play for Australian state teams if they wanted to.

"It may not be on the same scale as the IPL. It may not be eight, 10 or 12 teams, but it may be six teams in Australia," Modi told Herald Sun.

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On to a completely different topic: Domain Name News reports that the domain name financialaid.com sold for $800,000 at the Moniker auction at the Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in New York this week.

With 5-year revenue growth of 638%, Live Current has been ranked in the top 40 on Business in Vancouver's 'Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in BC' list.   

This is the third consecutive year the company has been on BIV's Fastest 100 list.  

We are extremely encouraged by recent $1 billion-plus investments in cricket broadcasting rights and media plays, spurred by the tremendous success of the inaugural season of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) and the exciting Twenty20 (T20) format, cricket’s shortest, newest and fastest growing format.

In the latest mega investment in T20 cricket, ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) network, owned jointly by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and Walt Disney, agreed to pay $975 million for the 10-year global telecast rights to cricket's Champions League Twenty20 competition. The Champions League is an annual 10-day event that begins in December in India and features eight teams from India, South Africa, Australia, Pakistan and England. This deal takes ESS's investment in cricket to the $2 billion mark. Additionally, on September 7, 2008, Indian telecom and media conglomerate Reliance ADA Group acquired a 70 percent stake in Willow.tv, a cricket webcasting site based in Sunnyvale, CA for a reported $60 million to $70 million. Earlier this year, Sony Entertainment Television and World Sport Group bought the 10-year broadcasting rights of the IPL for $1.03 billion.

Live Current, in partnership with netlinkblue, has secured the 10-year digital media content, live streaming and mobile rights for the IPL and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and these recent transaction further validate the strategic and economic value of these rights.

paidContent.org, via washingtonpost.com, reports:

Reliance ADA Group, the Indian telecom and media conglomerate, has bought a 70 percent stake in Willow.tv, the Cricket webcasting site based in Sunnyvale, CA. The price was undisclosed, but according to Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment, the company will spend about $60 million to $70 million in this acquisition and expansion together, quoted in WSJ.

Willow TV has been around for about five years, and named after the tree from which Cricket bats are made. It was among the first to start live webcasting cricket matches for expatriate audience worldwide, though a big part of its audience is South Asians in U.S. (including me). It charges anywhere from between $10 for a short series to $150 a full cricket tournament, depending on the countries and number of games involved....

This push is part of Reliance's big push into U.S., which is has already started with Hollywood, and has stated its intentions to buy mobile content companies in U.S. as well. It will also extend the brand into mobile and TV as well, it said. "What we are looking to do is to create a triple play, using three passions that South Asians have...One in cricket, one is [Bollywood] movies, and the third is communications, as they want to call their families back home," said Sawhney.

I look at this as exciting news that Reliance is investing so much money in Willow.tv. With our partership with netlink, we have the online streaming rights for most countries other than the US, as well as US and international digital and mobile rights.

Perfume.com this week launched The Daily Spritz; our blog for all things perfume, fragrance and scent. We will share timely fragrance and beauty news, tips and tricks, perfume or cologne endorsing celebrity info, and anecdotes. The blog is one of many exciting features that will be added to the site to enhance customer engagement, bringing our customers closer to the brands they love, as the Perfume.com transforms from a pure play eTailer to a true DestinationHub™.