NEW DELHI, Aug 31:
Viacom 18 on Thursday created a near monopoly in Indian cricket broadcasting sphere by bagging both TV and digital rights of the national team’s home series for the next five years with a cumulative bid of approximately Rs 6000 crore, beating Star India and Sony in a three-way battle.
The BCCI had invited separate e-bids for both linear (TV) and digital for best price discovery.
“Viacom 18 paid Rs 3101 crore (approximately) for digital and Rs 2862 crore for linear (TV). As has been the trend, digital has fetched more in Rs 5963 crore (approx) deal. “With IPL digital rights being bought by Viacom for Rs 26,000 crore plus, they now have almost all the high profile cricket properties save IPL linear (TV) and ICC events,” a broadcasting industry source, tracking developments closely, told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
The rights will come into effect with India’s three-match home series against Australia beginning September 22 and end on March 31, 2028. “Congratulations @viacom18 for winning the @BCCI Media Rights for both linear and digital for the next 5 years. India Cricket will continue to grow in both spaces as after @IPL and @wplt20, we extend the partnership @BCCI Media Rights as well,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.
India will be playing 88 international games across three formats including 25 Tests, 27 ODIs and 36 T20Is with per match value of the deal standing around Rs 67.76 crore. This is nearly Rs 7.76 crore more than last cycle’s Rs 60 crore per match value. However, the BCCI is getting Rs 175 crore less than Rs 6138 crore it received during last cycle which had more games, specifically 102. (PTI)
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