Star India outbids Sony, Reliance Jio to bag BCCI media rights for Rs 6,138.1 crore

Star India has emerged as the highest bidder in the e-auction for Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) media rights. Star India placed a record bid of Rs 6138.1 crore to bag the broadcast and digital rights for international bilateral cricket in India for the next five years (2018-23).

The bidding for the media rights of the BCCI got closer to the billion dollar mark for the first time. The auction, which saw the participation of Star India, Sony Pictures Networks Pvt. Ltd and Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio closed at Rs 6,032.5 crore on the second day. The broadcasting majors continued their bidding slugfest on the third day along with the new entrant Jio.

The Global Consolidated Rights (which includes broadcast as well as digital rights for India and Rest of the World) bid has already witnessed a quantum jump from the 2012 Star TV bid of Rs 3,851 crore. Last year, Star India with its aggressive bid of Rs 16,347.5 crore had won the five-year broadcast and digital rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), India's most expensive sports property.

Jigar Rambhia, who is national director, sports and entertainment partnerships at Wavemaker India had told Mint, "My sense is that there has been a lot of focus on the digital media rights, bids for which are increasing each day. The five-year calendar is packed with 102 matches which will be played by teams which have posed good competition to Team India. In that case, it is only fair to command a high sum for the media rights to these matches."

After the second day, BCCI's media rights value has already gone up by 56 per cent with the per match value touching nearly Rs 60 crore (Rs 59.16 crore) for 102 international games across three formats. This is already Rs 17 crore more compared to Rs 43 crore (per match) during the earlier period (2012-2018).

The battle for cricket rights will not be restricted to broadcasters alone. Last year already saw digital media companies such as Facebook and Twitter jumping into the fray and it won't be too long before Netflix is vying for the same space. If they spend Rs 1-Rs 2 crore per episode on their 'original' shows, spending a fortune on cricket rights will certainly be part of their strategy.

with PTI inputs