BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary confirmed on Thursday that Star Sports India has retained the Board for Cricket Control in India’s (BCCI) exclusive media rights for the broadcast of the Indian cricket team’s home matches for the 2018-2022 period.
“The final consolidated bid was (Rs) 6138.1 crore, which translates to a per match figure of (Rs) 60.18 crore, over 102 matches,” said BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary.
“The other relevant numbers are that we have gone up from 43.2 crore per match to this figure, which is climbing up by Rs 17 crore and if you compare with the IPL broadcast rights and the current, then the IPL figure per match, for 300 matches was Rs 54.4 crore and this figure is ahead of that. It was a learning experience.
“I would also like to express my gratitude to Sony Pictures, who helped us achieve this milestone and they had bid last (Rs) 6118.59 crores,” he added.
The 21st Century Fox owned-Star claimed the rights for a record INR 6,138.1 crores for the coverage of 102 matches scheduled to be played in India in the next five years, paying the BCCI an approximate sum of INR 60 crores per match.
After an intense bidding war spread over three days, Star edged past Sony and Reliance Jio for the Global Consolidated Rights (GCR) starting from April 2018 to March 2023. It was for the first time that BCCI staged an e-auction to sell the home media rights.
Previous record was demolished of INR 3851 crores the channel had paid for the BCCI broadcasting rights between 2012 and 2018 period.
Star had also won the IPL rights for a record Rs 16,347 crore ($2.55 billion) last year. They also own the rights for all ICC tournaments (men’s and women’s 50-over World Cup, World T20). Star is also the home to Indian hockey, Indian badminton and several leagues like Pro Kabaddi, Hockey India League, Ultimate Table Tennis and Premier Badminton League.
