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THEY GAVE YOU NHL & NFL Now ATN Gives You IPL

April 15, 2008

TORONTO, CANADA April 15, 2008 -- Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) (TSX-SAT) announced today that it has secured the exclusive Canadian Broadcast Rights for five years (2008 to 2012) of the new Indian Premier League (IPL).

“IPL is the most exciting new phenomena in World Cricket and we are delighted to acquire the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights," said Shan Chandrasekar, President and CEO of ATN, Canada’s pioneer South Asian Broadcaster. ATN is Canada’s largest distributor of World Class Cricket including the recently completed ICC World Cup and the Twenty-20 World Cup.

The IPL will debut on April 18, 2008.  It is a tournament of elite international players in a league of cricket games on par with the North American (NHL) National Hockey League or the (NFL) -National Football League. Top Bollywood stars are lending their support to the league’s eight teams.

ATN will broadcast the 2008 games live on television on the Commonwealth Broadcasting Network (CBN) and re-broadcast on ATN- Cricket Plus.  The audio commentary will be broadcast on ATN Asian Radio XM 159 across Canada and the United States.

"We expect that the extraordinary combination of Cricket and Bollywood stars will make a massive impact on our television viewers and radio listeners," Mr. Chandrasekar added.

IPL players are of international World Cup stature and include such names as Jacques Kallis, (South Africa), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, (West Indies), Rahul Dravid (India) will play for Banglaore   Royal   Challengers.   Muttiah   Muralitharan,   (Sri   Lanka),   Matthew   Hayden (Australia), Stephen Fleming, (New Zealand), Mahendra Singh Dhoni, (India) will play for Chennai Super Kings. Virender Sehwag (India), Shoaib Malik, (Pakistan), Glen McGrath, (Australia), will play for the Delhi Dare Devils. Andrew Symonds (Australia), Shahid Afridi, (Pakistan), will play for the Deccan Chargers, Shane Warne, (Australia), Grahme Smith, (South Africa), will play for the Rajasthan Royals. Sourav Ganguly, (India), Chris Gayle, (West Indies), Ricky Ponting, (Australia), will play for the Kolkata Knight Riders, Yuvrai Singh,( India), Bret Lee, (Australia), will play for the Kings XI Punjab, and Sachin Tendulkar, (India), Sanath Jayasuriya, (Sri Lanka), will play for the   Mumbai Indians. Many more International Star players have signed to play in this exciting world class series.

Ownership  of  these  new  teams  is  an  impressive  mix  of  corporate  India  and  Bollywood interests who view the IPL as a serious business venture. Ownership includes Reliance Industries, for instance, which paid $111.9 million USD for Mumbai while the UB Group shelled out $111.6 million USD for Bangalore. Chennai Super Kings is owned  by India Cements. The IPL will have the flair and the flamboyance of Bollywood. Shah Rukh Khan

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paid  $75.09  million  USD  for  Kolkatta.  Preity  Zinta  took  Mohali  for  $76  million  USD. Emerging Media, associated with Lachlan Murdoch, paid $67 million USD for Jaipur. The international broadcasting rights for the IPL were sold for almost a billon US dollars.

Bangalore  Royal  Challengers  have  also  engaged  actresses  Katrina  Kaif  and  Deepika Padukone to record a music video to promote their Royal Challengers. Hritik Roshan  and Shahrukh Khan have shot music videos for their respective teams that is Mumbai Indians and the Kolkatta Knight Riders. Whereas the Delhi Dare Devils have roped in Akshay Kumar as their brand ambassador.  In addition India will experience their first North American style tailgate parties with cheer leaders, song and dance by top Bollywood artists, all this before , during and after the game.

The 2008 Indian Premier League season will be the debut season, established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2007 and sanctioned by the ICC-International Cricket Council. Each year the season is scheduled to have about 59 games. The league matches will be followed by two semi-finals and a final match. The aim of the IPL is to broaden the appeal of the game. Since matches will take place in the daytime EST the hope is that families including women and children will tune in large numbers to watch this new and very popular Twenty 20 format.

“We are very happy to bring Canadian cricket fans an exciting line-up of matches as international and Indian cricket stars offer the very best in Twenty 20 Cricket. For the first time you will have International players on the same team,” said Mr. Chandrasekar.

CBN and ATN-Cricket Plus are part of the 14 channels that ATN operates. ATN also operates ATN Asian Radio on XM 159 the only Satellite Radio serving North Americas  South Asian Diaspora. ATN has programming alliances with leading International Broadcasters. To subscribe to CBN, ATN-Cricket Plus or ATN-Asian Radio and for more details about the cricket schedules and times of live broadcast please visit  www.asiantelevision.com or contact your local service provider.

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We rely on safe harbour provision.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

B. Fulton CFO
Asian Television Network International Limited
Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 7B6
905-836-6460

 

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