BCCI panel for closed bidding to award IPL media rights

Five-year broadcasting right may fetch ~16,000 crore

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the committee of administrators (CoA) to file an affidavit on Monday clarifying its stand on the ongoing bidding process for media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The direction to the courtappointed panel came after the counsel representing the CoA, headed by retired Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, informed the Bench its preference for closed bidding.

The matter pertaining to the broadcasting rights for the flagship cricket league is of huge concern for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The cricket board is in favour of issuing the rights through the closed bidding process. A public interest litigation (PIL) filed by parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy had brought the process under the court’s scrutiny. The PIL had sought e-auction, instead of closed bidding, to bring more transparency. However, sources said, the BCCI is afraid of losing revenue if e-auction was introduced. Given the interest that has been shown by the companies since the process started, the BCCI is expecting more than ~16,000 crore for five years – nearly double the ~8,200 crore that Sony Pictures had paid for 10 years (from 2008 to 2017). The tendering process for the rights to five IPL editions – 2018 to 2022 – is underway. Over 20 entities have already bought the invitations to the tender.

According to sources, closed bidding has the potential to attract bids that are exponentially higher than the floor rate as no bidder would be aware of the competing entries. In case of e-auction, the BCCI would lose this advantage as bids would be open to the scrutiny of all bidders during the process.

The CoA’s opinion in the matter would be crucial as the committee was appointed by the apex court to oversee the BCCI’s functioning and to bring transparency into its financial dealings. BCCI reforms In a separate matter, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued show-cause notices to the top three members of the BCCI, including its acting president C K Khanna and acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary, for failing to implement reforms suggested by the R S Lodha committee. It has also asked the members to appear before the court on September 19.

The cricket board is in favour of issuing the rights through the closed bidding process