NPL Season 3 Media Rights: NetTV, Himalaya TV & eSewa Deal

The Cricket Association of Nepal has settled the biggest commercial question of the NPL Season 3 build-up, awarding the media and ticketing rights for the 2026 tournament to three partners — NetTV, Himalaya Television and eSewa — in a package reported to be worth Rs 33.53 crore.

The award, reported in late September 2026, bundles the league's broadcast, streaming and ticketing businesses into one rights cycle. Selling media and ticketing together follows the playbook of established franchise leagues, where a single rights window gives commercial partners clarity and hands the league one revenue backbone to fund production, prize money and match-day operations.

NetTV takes worldwide streaming

NetTV takes the worldwide OTT streaming rights, which makes it the single official digital home of the tournament. For the large Nepali diaspora — in the Gulf, Malaysia, and further afield in the UK, US and Australia — this is the most important slice of the deal. Previous seasons were dogged by fragmented, unofficial streams of wildly varying quality, and a single rights holder means one app, one fixture schedule and one consistent feed. Fans who watch on phones and laptops no longer have to hunt across platforms on match day or gamble on whether a link will survive the powerplay.

For NetTV, the acquisition is a content play as much as a cricket play. Live sport is the hardest programming to pirate and the easiest to build subscriptions around, and a month-long tournament with a fixed nightly window is ideal subscription inventory. Expect match passes, tournament passes and bundled offers to be announced in the run-up to the October 26 opener — and expect the streaming guide to matter more than ever.

Himalaya TV becomes the domestic television home

Himalaya Television becomes the Nepal television broadcast home of Season 3. That matters because a large share of the domestic audience still watches cricket on television rather than on data-heavy streaming apps, especially outside the Kathmandu Valley where mobile broadband can be patchy during peak evening hours. A dedicated TV broadcaster also gives the league appointment viewing — pre-match build-up, studio analysis and post-match reaction — which is exactly how franchise leagues turn a tournament into a nightly habit.

Himalaya TV's role also settles the presentation question for the home audience: Nepali-language coverage, local advertising and studio guests who know the domestic players by name. That local texture is something international feeds rarely provide, and it is a large part of why television still anchors cricket viewing in Nepal.

eSewa takes charge of ticketing

eSewa takes charge of ticketing, becoming the single official platform for match tickets at Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. Digital ticketing through a wallet that most Nepali fans already use should cut the queues and counter-side confusion that plagued big match days in earlier seasons. A single verified channel also makes life much harder for touts selling fake or duplicated tickets — the message for supporters is simple: if it is not on eSewa, it is not official. Our ticket guide walks through what to check before you buy.

The ticketing partnership also gives the league something it never had before: real-time sales data by stand, category and match. That lets organisers open additional stands, adjust pricing and plan security staffing around actual demand rather than guesswork — the kind of operational upgrade that fans feel as shorter queues and better-managed crowds on the day.

One streaming home, one TV home, one ticketing platform

For supporters, the deal reduces a messy three-way question — where do I watch, and where do I buy — to three clean answers. One official streaming home on NetTV, one television home on Himalaya TV, and one ticketing platform on eSewa. That simplicity is not cosmetic. It is what lets a league convert casual interest into sold seats and steady viewership, and it gives sponsors a clean funnel from broadcast exposure to ticket sales. With the eight franchises already set after the July auction, the commercial side of Season 3 is now as settled as the cricket side.

A reported Rs 33.53 crore for media and ticketing combined is also a statement about where Nepali franchise cricket now sits. Rights holders were bidding on momentum rather than promise — two seasons of full houses, a title race that ran deep, and a television audience that held up across the tournament. The three-way split shows bidders were willing to pay for distinct slices — global streaming, domestic television and the match-day transaction itself — rather than one buyer taking everything.

Season 3 at a glance

The timing gives all three partners a clear runway. NPL Season 3 runs from October 26 to November 21, 2026, with every match at Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, opening with Lumbini Lions against Sudurpaschim Royals. The full Season 3 schedule is the reference to bookmark now, because fixture timings, gate information and ticket on-sale dates will all flow through the official channels in the weeks before the opener.

What to watch next

The next announcements are the practical ones fans are waiting for: NetTV's streaming packages and pricing for the diaspora, Himalaya TV's broadcast schedule and studio plans, and eSewa's ticket categories and on-sale dates for the Kirtipur matches. Catch every update in our news hub as the Season 3 countdown begins.