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BCCI to tap the market with four-year media rights tender
Bilateral international cricket is Indian cricket’s second biggest revenue generator. BCCI set to issue the media rights tender after Sunday’s Apex Council meet
Will Indian cricket fans stay invested in watching multi-format bilateral cricket at home the same way they lap up Indian Premier League (IPL) action?
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will search for an answer as it prepares its media rights tender which will hit the market following discussions in its Apex Council meeting on Sunday. Bilateral cricket continues to be BCCI’s second biggest revenue generating avenue, IPL being the top earner.
It is learnt that BCCI plans to issue a four-year tender (2023-27) -- it is currently five years (2018-23) -- to streamline its rights in line with International Cricket Council’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) and other premium properties like ICC events and IPL. As per the current FTP, the Indian team is slated to play 20 Tests, 21 ODIs and 31 T20Is at home, over and above multilateral events such as ICC World Cups and Asia Cup.
While there can be periodic additions to the calendar, a BCCI official confirmed there will not be any major changes in the FTP which has been thought through with 5-Test series against England and Australia earmarked as marquee properties. ODIs and T20Is have been scheduled to help India’s preparations for annual ICC events slated for that particular year.
The BCCI has been employing e-auction as a means to extract true valuation. The online auction process was first employed during BCCI rights in 2018 and for IPL rights last year. It also has the option to go back to a closed tender, a method used successfully by ICC. Also, whether to sell digital and TV rights separately or allow consolidated bidding has to be decided.
“We have time till September before our full-fledged bilateral cricket resumes. We are in the process of speaking to domain experts on how to frame the tender,” the board official said.
All the three leading networks – Disney Star, Viacom 18 and Sony-Zee (soon to be a merged entity) are expected to be in the fray. Disney Star last held BCCI rights (2018-23) for ₹6,138 crore. They also won the ICC rights (2024-27) for $3bn, but sub-licenced the TV rights to Zee for $1.3bn, a source privy to the deal said. The IPL rights (2023-27) were split with Disney Star acquiring TV rights for ₹23,575 crore and Viacom 18 digital rights for ₹23,758 crore.
Women’s head coach
The Apex Council is also expected to give a go ahead to invite applicants for the Indian women’s team head coach’s post. This year, India went to South Africa for the T20 World Cup with batting coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar doubling up as acting head coach. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led team lost to Australia in the semi-finals.
With Women's Premier League making the case of having a number of specialist coaches, the same way as men's cricket, the board's move will be closely watched.
