BCCI media rights e-auction: Suspense not over, bid reaches Rs 4442 crore

For BCCI media rights e-auction, there are three parties in the fray: Star, Sony and Jio. BCCI broadcast rights will be for a five-year period till March 31, 2023

cricket Updated: Apr 03, 2018 19:12 IST

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) bagged INR 16,347.5 crore (USD 2.55 billion) for its IPL television and digital rights from Star India.(Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

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

The media rights e-auction is a slow process. It started on Rs 4176.00 crore while the next bid was Rs 4201.20 crore, then Rs 4244.00 crore and Rs 4303.00 crore and Rs 4328.25 crore. Rs 4442.00 crore was the last bid of the day.

There is 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 about five minutes before the closing time of 6PM, forcing the auction into the second day.

There are three parties in the fray: Star, Sony and Jio, after all three were cleared in the technical evaluation done in the morning. Google, Facebook and Yupp TV had also bought the tender documents but did not submit their bids for technical evaluation. It is understood they could have tied up with anyone of the three to bid.

Looking at the activity so far, the parties have bid for only consolidated package.

In e-auction, the identity of the bidder is kept secret and only the bids can be seen by those participating.