New Delhi : Potential bidders for the IPL media rights will get a week more to decipher the Indian cricket board’s well-crafted doosra in the form of new terms.
The BCCI on Tuesday announced that it has extended the deadline to submit bids for IPL media rights to February 10.
The board recently invited bids for media rights for the 2015-2017 editions of the cricket tournament. But in contrast to terms in the previous bidding round in 2011, it excluded the lucrative television and digital rights for the UK, US and Africa and also audio rights, which will be offered separately.
Media planners and broadcasting executives say this is likely to drive down bid value since the US, UK and Middle East together account for anywhere between 60-70% of Indians who watch the game outside the country.
The rights offered by the BCCI this time include Internet and mobile rights for the Indian subcontinent and exclusive television, Internet, mobile and audio rights for the rest of the world, excluding the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the US. Segregating it further, Internet rights for the Middle East have been kept non-exclusive while mobile rights in the region are exclusive. “This takes away a large chunk of money,” said a top executive with a broadcaster, not wanting to be named.
Viewers in the US and UK are high-value consumers and these territories are valuable in terms of rights for anyone who bids, he said.
A media planner said these territories accounted for close to 50% of the total bid value in 2011.
Internet and mobile rights for the Indian subcontinent, however, are likely to be valued higher this time because Internet and mobile coverage has risen over the past four years. “From a monetisation perspective, the bet will be on improved advertising revenues from (Internet) streaming,” said the media planner.
“However, mobile revenues which are usually earned by partnering with telecom companies have declined in value as the VAS ecosystem has not done as well.” Times Internet Ltd, part of the Times of India group which also publishes this newspaper, had paid just over Rs 260 crore in 2011 for IPL rights that covered mobile, radio and Internet along with TV rights for certain territories for 2011-2014.
According to industry sources, the likely bidders for these rights are Star India, Sony, Times Internet and Zee group. TV rights for the Indian subcontinent are held by SET Max till 2017.
