The five one-dayers, to be played in Los Angeles, US, from September 15, will be aired at prime time (8.30 am to 4 pm) on the AXN Action channel. Sony Entertainment Television distributes and markets AXN in the country.The matches will be broadcast live across Asia, Australia and the UK. "We want to popularise cricket in the US. There are many big countries which do not play the game and we want to take it to those places," said Rajesh Pant, executive vice-president, Sony Entertainment Television.

Sony is looking at cricket and events as strong elements for programming. The Hindi entertainment channel is currently broadcasting the Sri Lanka-Australia Test matches. Recently, it telecast The Singapore Cup, played between India, West Indies and Zimbabwe.

But why put the matches in the American CricketChallenge on AXN? One reason could be that the matches are played at prime time and would upset the Hindi entertainment channel's loyal programme viewers. Besides, cricket could be one way of increasing the penetration of AXN, a pay channel. "Cricket drives viewership. We feel these matches would be better utilised on AXN," said Pant.

Sony is planning to start a separate feed of the Hindi entertainment channel to broadcast cricket, special events and movies to give its viewers the option of watching their popular programmes. Besides, advertisers will not like to be displaced of the regular shows.

So is Sony using AXN as a stop-gap arrangement? Not really, said Pant. "We are not parking any programmes on AXN. We see the America Cricket Cup as a right opportunity to drive the channel. We use the strength of programmes per channel."

Though AXN has been promoted as an action TV with a male skew, media analysts say it has not made much of an impact in the country. Sony's move to put cricket on the channel isseen in this background.

Sony has acquired the telecast rights for the matches played in Sri Lanka till the end of next year. It has also procured the rights for "The Singapore Challenge."