Star India secures BCCI media rights for an average of INR 61 Crore per match
After securing the IPL deal for INR 16347.5 crore, Star Sports India Pvt Ltd has again beaten the Reliance Industries Limited and Sony Pictures Networks to secure the BCCI media rights for a period of five years. The deal includes both Television and digital rights for next five-year period.
On April 3, the BCCI had started the e-auction process for the media rights for international bilateral cricket in India for the next five years and it was the first time in the game of cricket that the TV rights were sold in an e-auction instead of through a closed-bid auction. And that ensured the bidding process remained fair throughout and also provided various TV players in the market a level-field to go for as big as an amount possible so as to outplay the other.Ā
Congratulations @StarSportsIndia on bagging the BCCI Media Rights @ 6138.1 crores at an average of 60.1 crore per game.
ā Anirudh Chaudhry (@AnirudhChaudhry) April 5, 2018
A strong sense of satisfaction for those of us who had been considering an e-auction even for the @IPL Media Rights.
ā Anirudh Chaudhry (@AnirudhChaudhry) April 5, 2018
However, Star Sports, who has already left Australia and England to Sony, to capture the IPL rights was expected to be the biggest playersĀ but suffered a body blow (pun not intended) when Reliance Industries Limited, led by Telecom tycoon Mukesh Ambani, entered the fray and disrupted their plans. However, Star, who secured the India rights back in 2012, decided to go all-out for the same and eventually, won the bid for worldwide rights to Indian cricket for INR 6138 crore (USD 944 million). Star's eventual bid was 59% more than their previous cycle of the BCCI rights, which were sold for INR 3851 crore for the period of 2012 to 2018.Ā
So, Star Sports will now get to televise 102 men's international matches over the next five-year period, which is six more than the previous six-year cycle. Among the 102 matches, India will play 18 in theĀ 2018-19 seasonĀ and will play eight more in the next season. The team will play considerably lesser matches in the next three seasons as the team will play 14 in 2020-21, 23 in 2021-22, and 21 in 2022-23. The rights will also pertain to the telecast of men's domestic matches as well as the India women's international matches.