With the menĄ¯s?ODI world cup just two months away?from being held in the?cricket-crazy nation of India, the country's cricket governing body, the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), seems to be taking big steps for media rights.
BCCI is reportedly trying to attract global giants?Amazon and Google's parent company?Alphabet?to join the bidding?for the media rights auction of its teamĄ¯s games.
The proposed starting date of the auction process for the media rights of the so-called bilateral series, played by the Indian team against other countries,?for the next five years got postponed by at least two weeks as the BCCI reaches out to more firms to drum up interest in the property, according to people familiar with the matter, as per a Bloomberg report.
The lukewarm response by media firms ahead of the auction seems to highlight the struggle to make money amid weak advertising revenues, with the shorter-format?IPL?being the top cricket property and garnering higher viewership over the years.
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BCCI tweeted yesterday to invite bids for the media rights on Wednesday and gave firms time up to August 25 to buy the bid documents, the governing body said on its website.
The sale process is running two weeks behind a timeline suggested by its adviser, Ernst & Young, under which auctions would have been completed by August's end, they said, asking not to be named as the information is not public.?Audit giant and BCCI's adviser EY expects the sale of rights to 102 matches to raise at least $750 million, almost the same price as what it was sold for five years ago, the people said.
In contrast, the rights to the IPL, which were auctioned last year, had surged almost threefold from the previous offering. It's fair to say that the IPL still remains one of the worldĄ¯s most popular sporting contests and continues to garner the most eyeballs among cricket events.
BCCI?raised record amounts of money by selling media rights for the IPL through an auction as Viacom 18 Media Ltd., controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and Walt Disney Co. outbid rivals, including Sony Group Corp. However, AmbaniĄ¯s?JioCinema put the 2023 edition of the IPL?online for free,?and Disney struggled to make profits due to weak advertisement revenues.
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As per the Bloomberg report. Viacom 18 will aggressively bid for the digital media rights to the bilateral series, while Disney, might take a cautious stance as it is undergoing a round of cost reduction globally, the people said.
Star India, a Disney unit since 2019, had bought rights for the bilateral series in the five years starting from 2018 for Rs 61 billion ($741 million) and has clocked losses of about Rs 10 billion from the asset, the people said. A decision on breaking up the media rights into digital and linear this time around and conducting an e-auction is yet to be taken, they said.
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