Media rights: BCCI set for rich haul

MUMBAI: The suspense over Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) coveted media rights for matches at home, both domestic and international, for the 20182023 cycle, continued at the end of the first day.

There are only three parties in the fray, Star India, Sony Pictures Network and Jio Infocomm, and all three are bidding for the Global Consolidated Media Rights (GCR). The e-auction is a slow process. The bidding started on ~4176 crore while the next one was ~4201.2 crore, then ~4244 crore, ~4303 crore and ~4328.25 crore. ~4442 crore was the last bid of the day, which is already 15% more than what BCCI got from

the sale of their previous media rights to Star TV for ~3851 crore in 2012. India will play 102 matches in the next five-year cycle. They had played 96 in the last cycle.

In e-auction, the process is

transparent but there’s no time limit for bidding. It will stop after there is no further bid received for one hour after the last one.

On Tuesday, the last bid was received five minutes before the closing time of 6 PM, forcing the auction into the second day.

Google, Facebook and Yupp TV had also bought the tender documents but did not submit their bids for technical evaluation. It is understood that they could have tied up to form a consortium with either Sony or Jio. The two, along with Star, were cleared in the technical evaluation done in the morning and will now renew the bidding war on Wednesday morning at 11 am.

In e-auction, the identity of the bidder is kept secret and the bids can be seen only by those participating. The GCR comprises worldwide TV broadcast rights as well as digital rights for 102 matches (across three formats) that India will play at home over the next five years.