Tag: BCCI

An evening dedicated to D-CODEing the digital landscape

Mumbai, 1st August, 2018: The ballroom at a posh city hotel transformed into an interaction and learning hub as the leaders of Indian media, marketing and advertising industry gathered together at The Advertising Club’s maiden edition of D-CODE: The Annual Digital Review 2018. The panel asked its members to share an example of their own work, one work they admire and 3 learnings they would want to share with the audience.

On the stage were Ajit Mohan- CEO, Hotstar, Anupriya Acharya- CEO Publicis Media, Anuradha Aggarwal- CMO, Marico, Arun Iyer- Chairman & CCO, Lowe Lintas, Juhi Kalia- Head of India & Anthology APAC for Creative Shop, Facebook, Rahul Johri- CEO, BCCI, Mohit Kapoor- VP Advertising, Reliance JIO, Sam Singh- CEO- South Asia, GroupM, Sapna Chadha- Head of Marketing, India and SEA, Google, Siddharth Banerjee- EVP, Marketing, Vodafone and Tanmay Bhat- Co-Founder, AIB.

Vikram Sakhuja, President, The Advertising Club, said, “The Advertising Club has been at the forefront of driving the A&M industry’s excellence agenda. We are constantly creating forums that enhance the learning curve of the fraternity. With D-CODE we have created another engaging property that bring together the industry to debate and deliberate on the stimulating issues of the digital ecosystem.”

Aditya Swamy – Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club said: “I have always believed in the power of colabs. Inspire and be inspired was the theme of D-CODE and bringing together key stakeholders across the industry to crack the digital code was an exciting idea. From my days at MTV where we looked to marry pop culture and brands to now at Google where we unlock the power of digital and tech to deliver value to advertisers, this is a journey that only throws up more and more interesting opportunities. I look forward to being in the center of this equation as we build centers of excellence.”

Punitha Arumugam – Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club said: “Our endeavor while curating D-CODE was to create a platform that would showcase pioneering work on Digital and facilitate ideas exchange within the fraternity. We have tried to bring representation of all facets of digital with the versatile panel of stalwarts from across the M&E industry.”

The five key learnings that the advertising, digital and marketing mavens agreed upon were:

1) Digital is a medium that everyone is experimenting with and no one exactly knows how to ‘crack-it’. The need of the hour is to approach it with an open mind, keep experimenting and learning from one’s own and each other’s strategies.

2) Digital as a medium does not exist in a silo. All that media needs are great ideas, beautiful craft and creative people who can utilize the right tools to gain success.

3) One needs to invest in the right marketing technology, tools, talent and partnerships.

4) To execute successful digital campaigns, one needs to fully leverage digital signals, customize messaging, employ data and have performance oriented goals.

5) Partnerships are critical in making digital campaigns effective. Scale for both a campaign and digital as a medium of marketing can be amplified when the power of partnerships is harnessed.
With a galaxy of the who’s who of the media, advertising and digital industries in attendance, the debut edition of D-CODE was off to a fantastic beginning.

August 2, 2018
Comment: Why it’s important for Rathore at MIB to walk the (sports) talk

He may have started the #HumFitToh IndiaFit campaign that went viral on social media last month and had celebs and plebs posting images of their health routine. He may also be a comparatively low-profile minister in the PM Modi cabinet who has delivered on various fronts, including being proactive on issues relating to sports. But Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Youth Affairs & Sports Rajyavardhan Rathore now needs to bring his Olympian attitude-to-succeed and political astuteness to marry the various causes his two ministries espouse.

Though he has been around at MIB for some years now, acting as a junior to more high-profile ministers like Arun Jaitley and Smriti Irani, Rathore’s rise at MIB has lot to do with his success as minister of Youth Affairs and Sports. And, India’s broadcast and entertainment industry, still reeling under the after-effects of a slow economy and some economic policy decisions taken by the federal government, believed they may have found a messiah in Rathore when he was given independent charge of MIB a couple of months back. The arrival in the ministry of a new Secretary (Amit Khare) raised hopes further of removal of many artificial roadblocks created by the previous regime.

Many of the earlier and controversial moves by the Ministry, headed by former TV actress-turned-politician Smriti Irani had the broadcast industry, especially, in a bind and hindered unencumbered growth and expansion. Policy decisions like introduction of hiked processing fees, new classification of `regional’ channels, unofficially nudging TV channels and teleport operators to move operations from foreign to Indian satellites, centralization of regular approval processes, etc. sent the industry into a tailspin.

What was intriguing that though justified by the former minister and some bureaucrats, such moves in the MIB flew in the face of the present BJP-led government and PM Modi’s repeated assertions that India was taking policy steps to improve the country’s global ranking in the `Ease of Doing Business’ index. So much so that the Prime Minister’s Office had to intervene and order a rollback of a MIB decision under Irani on online content and fake news.

Col. (retd.) Rathore as both the Sports and MIB Minister has all the powers at his command to take right steps for the development of sports culture in the country that has produced only a handful of Olympian medalists in individual sports — he himself shot at a silver medal successfully. He has proved his determination in revamping school games with the successful conduct of `Khelo India’ (Play India), which is a holistic approach to prepare athletes from schools to Olympics. It is aimed at achieving the twin objectives of mass participation and promotion of excellence in sports through competition on ground and slick packaging through TV sports channels to give the much needed exposure to emerging Indian talents in the sporting arena.

However, some critics have questioned his commitment to promote sports through media as despite being the Sports Minister, he didn’t protest when his senior at MIB introduced in December 2017 a whopping Rs.100,000 as processing fee for channels telecasting live sporting events.

Given the fact that for the first time he has freedom and a free run to integrate promotion of sports with industry-friendly media policies, it is hoped that he uses the time wisely and work to fulfil the Prime Minister’s ambitious goal of making India both a global media and entertainment hub, and a sporting power.

The lifeline of a sports channel is to have at least three or four live sports properties in a day and channels like Star Sports and Sony-ESPN excel in such a lineup. But a high processing fee per channel per day for live telecasting sporting events could soon make such business decisions unviable for sports channels; especially when they not only invest in telecast rights, but also building up properties from the scratch — Pro Kabaddi League, Pro Wrestling League and Ultimate Table Tennis are prime examples of this model. High fees, which also include temporary uplinking costs incurred on government permissions and technologies, not only put heavy burden on sports channels but also act as a dis-incentive to invest in other non-cricket and emerging sports like badminton, table tennis, weightlifting, boxing, basketball, gymnastics, football and athletics.

Unlike in developed countries, the governing bodies in India that are running these non-cricket sports mostly survive on government grants and fail to attract major sponsors or TV channels as partners for promotional activities. Some of the recent policy decisions of MIB (in the form of high processing fee and creation of artificial barriers) have further disincentivized TV sports channels in joining hands with sports federations to showcase sporting competitions with a view to give a platform to emerging talents and bring more audience to the television screens and also on the ground.

If the government — and the MIB —believes that those managing and telecasting games like cricket can afford to pay the high processing fees and, thus, should be taxed is an argument that’s flawed. It is like in aiming to punish a high performer — also admittedly a bit controversial —for its success, the government has, in reality, managed to end up pushing those low-profile but potential target-sports further down. Controversies and opaqueness notwithstanding, it cannot be wished away that India’s cricket administrative body BCCI has successfully managed to promote the game in India and abroad with resounding success — and in turn making the country a global force to reckon with.

Even the sector regulator, TRAI, had opposed formally introduction by MIB of processing fee for live telecast by non-news and current affairs TV channels and questioned the government as why such a step was taken without due consultation process. Now that the regulator has come out with some progressive recommendations relating to Ease of Doing Business in the Broadcast sector and issues relating to uplink and downlink of TV channels, instead of acting on those suggestions, another move has upset the industry — a recent MIB reference to the regulator to study the matter of temporary uplinking has not gone down too well with the industry that was hoping some respite under Rathore at MIB.

The Sports Minister, who is also the MIB Minister, has a rare opportunity to showcase his talent — to promote sports in India through mass media by easing regulations and lessening the burden on the broadcast sector through administrative reforms, which will very well be in line with PM Modi’s vision. Khelega nahin India, toh champion kaise banega India (If India doesn’t play and gets a chance to showcase talent, how would champs be created)?

July 13, 2018
Star Plus may telecast IPL: Report

MUMBAI: According to a report by the Economic Times, the last leg of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) may be televised on Hindi general entertainment channel Star Plus in a bid to boost the tournament’s reach on TV.

The report stated that a highly placed source in Star India said that discussions were on and the “bosses have almost decided” to run the knockout, semi-finals and final matches of IPL on mass channels.

According to the source, the bosses chose Star Plus over Star Gold.

“We stated that we will reach 700 million viewers via TV and digital (Hotstar) this IPL. While Hotstar reach is great, on TV, despite being aired on 10 channels, reach is not good enough. Especially in the Hindi speaking markets, where earlier rights holder (Sony) had put the matches on Hindi movie channel, it is 15-20% lower,” the report said quoting the source.

Last year, Star India won the global media rights of the IPL from the BCCI for five years for Rs 16,347.5 crore.

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IPL team owners don’t expect much from mid-season transfers

Kids’ channels undaunted by IPL

May 11, 2018
Law Commission calls for BCCI to be brought under RTI Act

MUMBAI: The Law Commission of India, headed by Justice BS Chauhan, has recommended to the Centre that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) be classified as a national sports federation and brought under the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI).

BCCI CEO Rahul Johri did not respond to an email query when Indiantelevision.com reached out to him for a comment.

The commission, which held its full meeting on Tuesday, has informed Union Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad that “BCCI exercises ‘state-like’ powers affecting the fundamental rights of the stakeholders,” and that the “board has taken a flight under the radar of public scrutiny.”

It has asked the government to classify the BCCI as “state” under Article 12 of the Constitution so that it is answerable to authorities, including the courts.

In its 124-page report, the commission has stated that the “BCCI exercises ‘state-like’ powers affecting the fundamental rights of the stakeholders, guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution. It is hereby recommended that BCCI be viewed as an agency or instrumentality of State, under Article 12 of the Constitution, thereby making it amenable to the writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 32.”

The commission has also noted that since BCCI had a ‘monopolistic’ approach in regulating the game of cricket, it has often escaped public scrutiny that caused malpractices. If the government heeds to the commission’s recommendations and classifies BCCI as a public body or an organisation under the RTI Act, anyone can file PILs in the Supreme Court or high courts questioning the selection of players representing India, states and zones. PILs could also target the agreements signed by the BCCI with other cricket playing nations and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“Non-consideration of the role played by BCCI as monopolistic in regulation of the game of cricket has resulted in the Board flying under the radar of public scrutiny, encouraged an environment of opacity and non-accountability. In the past, this has probably given an impression in the minds of the general public that corruption and other forms of malpractices are adversely affecting one of the most popular sports played in India human rights are sacrosanct and innately associated with the human personality,” reads the report.

The law panel has also recommended that the government brings the cricket administration under the ambit of RTI, which it has evaded till now.

“As per the statement made in the Lok Sabha, the Central Government has already been regarding BCCI as a National Sports Federation and hence, it is recommended that, for the removal of any doubt, the same be explicitly mentioned in the list of NSFs available on the ministry’s website. This express mention would automatically bring BCCI within the purview of RTI Act,” stated the commission.

“The government in impliedly authorizing BCCI to raise funds/generate resources from numerous other sources, funds and resources, which otherwise could have been directed to the national/state exchequer, also amounts to ‘substantial financing’. It can be asserted that the BCCI has, over the decades, indeed received ‘substantial financing’ from the governments,” said the report.

Also Read:

Star’s BCCI rights bid not as astronomical as we all think

Winning bid nets BCCI Rs 6138.70 crore for home rights

April 18, 2018
Star’s BCCI rights bid not as astronomical as we all think

MUMBAI: Star India has made history by making two of the biggest bids for acquiring cricket rights in India—for the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL) along with the Indian cricket team’s home matches. After Star India successfully bid Rs 6,138.1 crore for the home matches, the question on everyone’s mind was whether the broadcaster would be able to recover and subsequently make a profit.

To acquire the IPL media rights, Uday Shankar agreed to pay Rs 16,347.5 crore for five years. For the first 10 years of the league, Sony Pictures had paid nearly half that amount to the BCCI for double the period.

The BCCI rights were conducted through e-auction, which went to Star India after three long days of competitive bidding between Star India, Sony Pictures and Reliance Jio.

The Indian team’s future tours programme (FTP) for the current five-year cycle includes 102 matches with 22 tests, 45 ODIs and 35 T20Is. Meanwhile, the next four seasons of the IPL, along with the ongoing year, will constitute 300 T20 matches.

When calculated by hours of mandated play, the 300 matches in the IPL add up to 900 hours while the home matches have a tally of 1080 hours. Star India paid Rs 54.5 crore per match for the IPL rights and, after protracted bidding, paid Rs 60.1 crore per match for the 2018-23 home rights across five years. This was nearly a 50 per cent increase from the Rs 40.1 crore the broadcaster paid for the 2012-18 cycle cycle when it bid Rs 3851 crore for 96 matches. The 96 matches included 33 tests, 48 ODIs and 15 T20Is with 1371 hours of mandatory play.

In the current FTP, the number of test matches has reduced by 11 and the sport’s most sellable format, T20I, has increased by 20 matches.

Interestingly, the 2012-18 cycle had more test matches and fewer T20Is compared to the 2018-23 cycle and, therefore, the per hour rate has doubled in the current cycle. In the 2012-18 cycle, the per hour rate was Rs 2.80 crore as compared with Rs 5.88 crore in the ongoing cycle.

For the first 10 years of the IPL, Sony Pictures Network coughed up Rs 12.69 crores per hour of play as compared to Rs 18.16 crore being paid by Star India to the BCCI for the IPL between 2018 and 2023.

Analysts in many quarters felt that Star India paid a hefty premium per match for the BCCI rights thereby making it hard for the broadcaster to recover money leave alone profit. However, an analysis of the per hour rate of mandated play reveals that the company didn’t overstretch its bid. Armed with its regional feeds along with production rights, it seems that Star India may still gamely monetise the rights.

Also read:

The rise and rise of Uday Shankar the gambler, the decisive risktaker who does not flinch

Winning bid nets BCCI Rs 6138.70 crore for home rights

Star India bags production rights for IPL 2018

April 18, 2018
The rise and rise of Uday Shankar the gambler, the decisive risktaker who does not flinch

MUMBAI: The Great Gambler. The Decisive Risk Taker. If there are sobriquets, which can be attached to Fox Asia president and Star India CEO Uday Shankar, they are these two. And when the next chapter in the history of Indian television is written thaese two labels will aptly fit him.

When the once-journo bid an audacious $2.37 billion to bag the IPL global media rights last year, many thought he had bitten off more than he could chew; that he had stretched his bid too far. At Rs 43 crore per IPL match, many felt that Uday and team Star India would be hard-pressed to recover that kind of expense per match, and that Star India would have red ink splattered all over its balance sheet.

Media observers believed that India’s largest TV network in terms of revenue — surprisingly not yet listed on the Indian bourses even after almost over two decades of presence here — would take time to digest the huge bill Uday had agreed to pay for a prestigious cricket property, which Sony Pictures had earlier valued at half of what Star India agreed to pay to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). And for double the period.

Clearly, everyone thought that the odds were stacked against him, and that he would be struggling just to get his act together on the IPL bid.

But you can’t keep Uday down for too long. He is a man with a vision and in a hurry to achieve that. And building India’s sports ecosystem is what excites him, apart from expanding Star network’s reach in India further. The former is a challenge many – including the Indian government over decades – have balked at taking up.

Hence, when the bidding for BCCI’s India home turf cricket media rights came up, Uday was actually licking his chops, itching for the scrap that was to come. In the fray were much larger players with supposedly deeper pockets like Reliance Jio, Facebook, Google and, of course, old time rival, the NP Singh-headed Sony Pictures Networks India. As day one moved into day two, and the price went from the stratosphere to outer space, crossing unimaginable levels, one heard media reports that the network had walked out of the game. That Star India had lost the stomach for the ferocious battle that was being waged. That it was licking its wounds in a corner.

But actually, Uday and his teammates were playing wait and watch. Both Sony and Jio scrapped and took the rates even higher and higher. Many old timers were nodding their heads wondering whether the world had gone crazy.

Then in one fell swoop, Star India came in from nowhere and made one last bid, which would result in it paying up Rs 60.1 crore per match, giving a cumulative Rs 6138.10 crore for the 102 international matches team India would play domestically.

That offer proved to be something both Sony and Jio could not better, despite the data-pricing disrupter’s deep pocketed owner Mukesh Ambani. For Star India, it proved to be the winning offer. BCCI officials were of course grinning from ear to ear. In less than eight months, Star India had made the world’s richest cricket board even richer by Rs 22,500 crore.

By ratcheting up the price tag for the media rights, Uday has ensured that cricket as a sport has caught the world’s – especially the non-cricketing nations’ – attention. And probably put BCCI in a different league of sports association or bodies. Sports such as football and the English Premier League command around Rs 80 crore to Rs 95 crore per match.

It also raises questions: Will Uday and Star India be able to recover and profit from the property they have just acquired? What will BCCI do when the next term comes up? Is Rs 60.1 crore a match the peak or will the rates rise to newer levels or sink to another adjusted level depending on the general economy? What if the BCCI cannot command the same rate next time around?

The bespectacled humble professional is, however, quite sanguine hat he has not overpaid and that cricket has been severely underpriced in India. As have been television advertising sticker prices. The only way to get a sport, which is a religion for a billion plus people, its true value is to raise the bar and get advertisers to pay more. At the same time lay out the pathway for subscribers who are willing to cough up a few hundred rupees extra a month to do so. Offer them a package, a deal, they cannot refuse. Additionally, get the south Asian diaspora worldwide to do the same. Finally, add a new bunch of viewers – whether on OTT or on TV – in newer nations to experience the sport and pay for it.

Uday has built a reputation for himself as the executive who can make happen what others think impossible. Industry observers scoffed when he was made CEO of Star India. What could a journo know about entertainment and sports and running a TV network?

But he proved them all wrong. Not only did he build Star India into India’s No 1 media and entertainment company – through a mix of mergers acquisition and new launches — with a bouquet of channels in several languages, he has also pioneered many initiatives and fought tooth and nail for what he believes in. Like bringing in programming with a purpose. Like creating a writer’s room where young talents from the hinterland are trained to write television and digital shows under the expert guidance of international trainers. Like battling the regulator TRAI in the courts for trying to dictate pricing of channels, and stalling a regulation, which he thinks is unfair. Like investing thousands of crores of rupees in building an OTT Hotstar, which has earned the respect of much better pocketed global rivals like Netflix. Like launching a league for an indigenous sport like kabaddi and several other sports leagues that will over the years give a boost to Indian sports and yield profits to the Star Network.

Will Uday Shankar’s IPL gamble work? Will the BCCI home rights bet prove a winner? Well we for one at indiantelevision.com believe that Uday and team Star India will emerge triumphant by year three and will be laughing all the way to the bank by year five. (Our earlier prediction that the BCCI home cricket rights would go for between $800 million to $1 billion proved true; hopefully this one will too.)

And Uday will have another chapter to write in his autobiographical book – when he does choose to do so –about how he and his team made it happen.

Also Read:

Comment: The rise and rise of Uday Shankar

Uday Shankar sole media exec in top-100 powerful Indians list

Star’s Uday Shankar on distribution challenges, IPL, FTA vs. pay TV, innovations, Made in India content…and much more

April 6, 2018
Winning bid nets BCCI Rs 6138.70 crore for home rights

MUMBAI: The battle for the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) home media rights has finally ended with the e-auction coming to a close after a three-way fight between Star India, Sony Pictures Network and Reliance JIO for the past two and half days. The bidding value has reached Rs 6138.10 crore. The BCCI will announce the winner of the rights at 5 pm today.

The penultimate bid at the auction was Rs 6,111.70 crore. The first bid on day three was recorded at Rs 6,085.30 crore. Within minutes, the bid bar was raised by another Rs 26.4 crore.

April 5, 2018
Star India beats Sony, Jio to win media rights for BCCI’s home matches

MUMBAI: You never know who the winner is till the last ball is bowled in an India-Pakistan match. Since this morning most media were reporting that Star India was out of the race to pocket the media rights to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) home cricket featuring the Indian team. And that it was a two horse race between Jio and Sony Pictures Networks India.

But the Uday Shankar-headed network came out of nowhere in a rapid sprint to the finishing line and breasted the tape to emerge the winner of BCCI’s worldwide media rights sweepstakes. It thus strengthened its hold on television and digital rights to cricket in India, by coughing up a staggering Rs 6138.70 crore for the 2018-23 window.

The broadcaster now holds the two most valuable broadcast rights in cricket, having bought the IPL global media rights for Rs 16,347.50 crore in September 2017 for 2018 to 2022.

The battle for the BCCI home media rights finally ended today with the e-auction coming to a close after a three-way fight between Star India, Sony Pictures Network and Reliance JIO for the past two and half days. The BCCI will formally announce the winner of the rights at 5 pm today.

The penultimate bid at the auction was Rs 6,111.70 crore. The first bid on day three was recorded at Rs 6,085.30 crore. Within minutes, the bid bar was raised by another Rs 26.4 crore.

April 5, 2018
Star India launches MI Vs CSK IPL opening game campaign

MUMBAI: With just two days for the gripping cricketing action-entertainment of the much anticipated VIVO IPL 2018 to begin, Star India has unveiled yet another feisty campaign; this time, it’s the ‘Best vs Best’.

The narrative stokes passion of the fans around the high-octane action promised highly awaited opening clash between current champions Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), returning after two editions.

This match and all the matches will be aired on the Star Sports bouquet (Star Sports 1 English, Star Sports 1 HD English, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 HD Hindi, Star Sports 1 Tamil, Star Sports 1 Select SD English, Star Sports 1 Select HD English), Suvarna Plus, Star Maa Movies, Jalsha Movies and live streamed on Hotstar in India, US and Canada.

The narrative of the latest campaign created by the Star Sports creative team rekindles the greatest rivalry of IPL between the two teams, who amongst them have won five IPL trophies out of the total ten leagues organised so far. The campaign drives a gritty face-off between MI and CSK in an opening encounter that promises great action with some of the best players in the VIVO IPL 2018.

What is already fuelling fan frenzy is that VIVO IPL 2018 is set to witness CSK’s return under the iconic MS Dhoni’s leadership, after a two-year absence. The fact that these fierce rivals, who have clashed in three of eight past finals, will square up for the opening game of the VIVO IPL 2018, will give a dream start to the single largest event. The film, driven by a catchy, clever script, gives strident voice to the fanatic support of fans of CSK and MI, with each side throwing the gauntlet at the other, confident that their team will crush their rivals in the opening match.

Star India president of consumer strategy and innovation Gayatri Yadav says, “With the combined power of digital and television and a first-ever six-language presentation including, Star Sports Tamil for CSK fans who have waited patiently for two long years for their heroes’ comeback, we are confident our presentation of the Vivo-IPL 2018 will deliver never-before fan experience.”

BCCI CEO Rahul Johri adds, “The IPL is the biggest and widely followed cricketing properties in the world. Over the years, each of the franchisees has developed a strong and loyal fan following, globally. The opening game between MI and CSK will serve as the perfect start to the action-packed season. The latter will be returning after two years amidst much hype and celebration and led by none other than MS Dhoni while the former is a three-time champion and one of the most consistent T20 teams.”

Star India will broadcast live matches of the league in six languages – Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Kannada on its broadcast network. The VIVO IPL will also be beamed live in these six languages on Hotstar.

April 5, 2018
BCCI rights: Day 2 top bid ends at Rs 6032.50 crore

MUMBAI: The bid for the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) home matches has reached a whopping Rs 6,032.50 crore at the end of the e-auction process on day two according to India Sports TV’s twitter handle.

The e-auction process will resume at 11 am on Thursday.

The last bid on day two stood at Rs 6,032.50 crore for the consolidated rights–amounting to a per match value of Rs 59.14 crore. The figure has already bettered the Indian Premier League’s per match record value of Rs 55 crore.

On Wednesday, the bids that were made public stood at Rs 4517.25 crore, Rs 4565.20 crore, Rs 5488.30 crore, Rs 5748 crore, Rs 6001 crore, Rs 6003.09 crore and Rs 6032.50 crore.

And so the bidding for the 102-game BCCI FTP for five years (2018-2023) continues. There is a feeling within the BCCI that the final bid may touch the magic number of Rs 6,500 crore for the consolidated rights.

Bids for BCCI’s home rights close in on Rs 6000 crore

As the bidding for the media rights for the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) home matches intensifies, the bid price has breached the Rs 5000 crore mark. According to Insidesport.co, the latest bid (in the round that concluded at 3:40 pm) was at Rs 5748 crore, translating into an astronomical Rs 56.3 crore per match. For the 2012-18 cycle, Star India paid the BCCI Rs 3851 crore or Rs 43 crore per match.

Three companies – Star India, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Reliance Jio—are currently in the middle of an intense bidding war for the rights, which include 102 international matches across 190 days in the 2018-23 cycle. The bidding started on April 3 and was carried forward to the next day when no successful outcome was reached on the first day of the e-auction.

Three categories of rights have been put on sale by the BCCI–global television rights and rest of the world digital rights (GTVRD), digital rights for the Indian subcontinent alone (ID), and the global consolidated rights comprising worldwide TV and digital rights (GCR). As was the case with the Indian Premier League, if the global consolidated bid exceeds the sum of the GTVRD and ID, then that bid wins. If not, the individual bids–India television, global digital and India digital rights—will be deemed winners.

The base price for the 2018-19 season for the GTVRD is Rs 35 crore, Rs 8 crore for ID and Rs 43 crore for the global consolidated rights. For the 2019-2023 tenure, the base price for GTVRD is Rs 33 crore, for ID is Rs 7 crore and Rs 40 crore for GCR.

Also Read:

Bidding takes BCCI home matches’ media rights to a new high

BCCI strengthens IPL ACU, appoints Ajit Singh as head

April 4, 2018