‘Could be difficult to match IPL returns as 40% in deal are Tests’
NEW DELHI: Star India Pvt Ltd on Thursday won the global television and digital media rights for all cricket played in India for ~6,138.1crore outbidding rivals such as Sony Pictures Networks India and Reliance Jio Infocomm till March 2023.
Star India won the global consolidated bid for all international and domestic cricket matches to be played in India.
“We are the biggest creators of content in Indian languages and we believe its only natural for us to be the destination of the biggest Indian sport. Having IPL and BCCI both gives us that special position,” said Uday Shankar, chairman, Star India.
STAR MONOPOLY
This effectively establishes Star India’s monopoly in cricket.
“This is a considered bet. Star is now home for cricket. They have cornered the market. Star’s actions demonstrate they have faith in the Indian market and faith in the popularity of cricket. They have faith that the sports broadcast market is growing in terms of advertising, subscription and digital revenue,” said Sameer Nair, a media veteran who now heads Aditya Birla Group’s production firm Applause Entertainment as chief executive.
MORE THAN IPL
Star India will effectively pay ~60.1 crore per match through the current deal with the BCCI compared to ~54.4 crore per match for the IPL.
“It will be harder to get returns on this compared to the IPL deal simply because in theory every IPL match is considered to be interesting while the BCCI matches include 40% of Test matches. But Star’s is probably best described as blocking of shelves, where you don’t allow anybody else to exist,” said Harish Krishnamachar, co-founder, Sportoid, a sports consultancy firm.
In less than nine months the company has spent ~22,485.6 crore on cricket rights. Star India operates 12 sports channels and streaming platform Hotstar. In 2012, Star India had spent ~3851 crore for the same broadcast and digital rights. The deal gave it exclusive media rights to cricket matches organised by BCCI until 2018.
The rights cover all international cricket matches played in India and domestic tournaments, including the Ranji Trophy and the Irani Cup.