The Indian cricket Board raked in the mega bucks on Thursday after Star India retained the worldwide TV and digital rights to Indian cricket for a whopping Rs 6,138 crore ($944 million) for the period 2018-23.
Star India, which had paid Rs. 3,851 crore for the broadcasting rights to India’s home matches from 2012-2018 won the e-auction after a battle that stretched into the third day.
The BCCI took the e-auction course for the first-time ever, and it proved to be a grand success going by its windfall. Star India
prevailed over Sony Pictures Network and Reliance Jio in the bidding.
Star, which had outbid Sony to land the Indian Premier League (IPL) rights for first years from 2017-2022, will pay an average of Rs 60.1 crore per game for Indian cricket for the five-year period. The rights are for a proposed 102 matches of the men’s team while it will also telecast international matches involving the national women’s team as well as domestic tournaments.
The winning bid by Star means BCCI stands to gain over 62% from what it had been paid for the previous cycle from 2012-2018 while the latest bid is also higher than what it paid per match while successfully bidding for the IPL rights pouring out Rs. 16, 347.5 crore in September that ended Sony’s run as broadcasters of the glitzy T20 league.
Thursday’s successful bid gives Star India a virtual stranglehold on cricket broadcast rights, while it also holds the broadcast rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) matches. The global body gave the rights from 2015-2023 to Star India.
The BCCI could not be happier. With the per match value touching Rs 60.17 crore, it is Rs 17.17 crore more than the Rs 43 crore/match) Star paid during the 2012-2018) phase. The present deal includes the digital rights.
The robust bidding on the first two days itself saw the value per match outstrip Star’s IPL bid, in which BCCI is being paid around Rs 54.49 crore per match.
The bid had halted at Rs 6,032.50 crore on Wednesday. As expected, there was limited activity on Thursday morning.
One fresh bid was received around noon at Rs. 6,111.7 crore. There was complete lull for three hours thereafter before the process closed at the final figure.
The massive bid by Star India has proved fears about the process of e-auction and whether it could hurt the value of Indian cricket matches were unfounded. The BCCI’s ‘acting’ office-bearers had expressed reservations over using e-auction, though the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administration (CoA) gave the go-ahed to CEO, Rahul Johri.
The grin on Johri’s face when action picked up on Wednesday said it all as he, along with CoA, had been under fire for taking the call.
Experts had predicted that Sony and Star would face stiff competition from Jio if they pitched for the consolidated bid and the process seemed to have followed that script. (HT)
