Indian cricket media rights set to be e-auctioned on March 27

Six months ago, the BCCI pulled off a sensational deal as they managed to sell the IPL broadcasting rights to Star for a record-breaking amount INR 16,347.5 crore (USD 2.55 billion). Under this deal between both parties, which included both broadcast and digital rights, Star will pay the BCCI a sum of INR 55 crore (USD 8.47m approx) per IPL match.

Now the BCCI are looking to pull off a similar coup as they plan to auction off the media rights for Indian cricket that will include domestic as well as International broadcasting rights. These media rights are scheduled to be sold via e-auction, on March 27. The media rights period will run from April 1 this year to March 31, 2023 as per a five-year contract.

Splitting the rights, the BCCI have decided to go break it up into three different categories. A global television rights package which would also include a rest-of-world digital rights package would be accompanied by another one that would deal with the Indian-subcontinent digital rights.  The final one would be a global consolidated rights package.

Almost six years ago, in 2012, Star TV won the bid, after they paid Rs 3851 crore (at the time, USD 750 million approx) for the media rights for approx. 96 matches. That contract is set to end on March 31, 2018.

The invitation-to-tender document will be made available to interested parties up until March 5, and is valued at USD 10,000 (INR 6.5 lakh approx). The BCCI will then conduct a workshop on the details of the online auction for the interested bidders on March 7. The BCCI had revealed that bids can be submitted till 10 am IST on March 27, an approximate five hours before the start of the e-auction.