Mumbai: The online auction process of the BCCI India International and Domestic Cricket media rights for the period from 15th April 2018 till the 31st March 2023 commenced on Tuesday, April 03, 2018 at the BCCI headquarters and the first day of e-auction ended at the biddding price of Rs 4,442 crores and it will escalate further in the 2nd day of the bidding.
As of now, Star India, Sony Pictures Network and Reliance are fighting for the Broadcast Rights. At this rate of bidding, the rights for Indian cricket is set to break the record of Rs.54 crore mark achieved by Star when it won the Indian Premier League (IPL) Rights in September 2017.
Speaking to cricketnext, a BCCI official said that the board of officials are also trying to understand the whole process and the way things unfold in an e-auction. It is very difficult to pick an exact figure as this is the first time that we are having an e-auction and everyone is trying to understand how the whole process works. But yes, it should end at something around Rs 55-60 crore per match,” the official said.
This means that BCCI would get more than Rs.54 crore it is set to get from broadcasting every IPL match.The e-auction stopped at Rs. 4442 crore which is already 15% more than the Star TV’s bid of Rs. 3851 crores in 2012. With only Star, Sony and Jio submitting the technical bids, Facebook, Google and Yupp TV may have entered into consortium with the primary bidders.
Star India paid Rs. 3851 crore for the right to broadcast the matches from July 2012 to March 2018. SPN lost out to star India for the Indian premier league, after televising the cash rich league from 2008 to 2017. It will be interesting to see if Star complete a monopoly in the Indian market or Sony and Jio manage to keep themselves afloat in the Indian broadcast business.
