The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Sunday announced an open tender process for allocating the Indian Premier League’s global broadcasting rights, a move that conforms to the Lodha Committee recommendations on transparency. The combined media rights for rest of the world will be for 5 years, spread across six different groups. The move is likely to find favour with the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha panel, which has called for transparency in the board’s business deals.
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However, one of the top board officials confirmed to TOI that media rights tender would be announced after Sunday’s conference.
Thakur said that Sony has been asked to participate in the bid process. “Our offer is to come and participate in the bidding process”, BCCI president Anurag Thakur said.
“Star has waited very patiently for this but that doesn’t mean Sony Pictures can be underestimated here”, an industry expert tracking developments had told Times of India. We were supposed to offer-this is our offer to them. “The final definition of the best offer for the BCCI has to be left to the financial advisors”, BCCI chief executive officer Rahul Johri said. “Deloitte will do the financial due diligence”.
Of these, only the Indian subcontinent TV rights are for a period of 10 years (2018-27) while the remaining two rights packages are for five years (2018-22) each. However, the field has been thrown open to broadcasters, mobile operators and internet operators for both the digital and RoW rights, with marketing agencies also being permitted to throw in the hat into the ring for the latter.
Despite the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal and the betting scandal that resulted in the two-year suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals – arguably two of the most widely supported franchises in the IPL – the 2016 edition of the T20 tournament attracted enormous viewership, thus stamping its authority on the Indian television market. Group D has the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The Indian subcontinent digital rights along with TV rights of certain worldwide territories are with Star India-owned Novi Digital, which runs VoD service Hotstar.
The contract was reworked before the 2009 IPL edition with Multi Screen Media working out a $1.63 billion deal for nine years with the BCCI.
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The BCCI has said that television broadcasters in non-news category are eligible to bid for Indian subcontinent TV rights. The last date for submission of bids – at a venue specified in the Invitation To Tender which will be available for purchase from Monday (September 19) – will be October 25 at 9.30 am IST. Novi had bagged certain media rights for Rs 302 crore (Rs 3.02 billion). The last date for seeking clarification is set on October 4, while the last date for purchasing the tenders has been set on October 18. Financial Bids of only compliant bids will be opened, Johri clarified.
