Star India wins BCCI cricket's TV, mobile & internet rights for 6 yrs

MUMBAI: The Rupert Murdoch-owned Star India has won the much-awaited bid for the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) television, mobile and internet rights for all international and national matches to be played in India for the next six years.Star beat Multi Screen Media (MSM), its closest rival and other bidders, to add the coveted India rights to its portfolio of rights for ICC and other international matches.

Star India will pay BCCI Rs 3,851 crore or Rs 40.11 crore per match over six years and across 96 matches. This is much higher than Rs 32.5 crore that Nimbus Communications, the previous rights owners, paid for every match.MSM, the official IPL broadcaster bid Rs 3,700 crore, falling short by Rs 151 crore. "The BCCI is very happy with the deal. Now the media rights have been fully evaluated and fully priced with Star coming out with such a deal. Following a transparent process of verifying the eligibility of each bidder, the winner was chosen," said BCCI President N Srinivasan speaking post the announcement.

BCCI called for bids again after scrapping its four-year deal with Nimbus Communications last December due to non-payment of dues."BCCI is a great property and we are overjoyed to have an opportunity to develop it further. It was decided among ESPN Star Sports (ESS), ESPN and Star that Star would bid for the rights and if Star were to win the rights it would be exploited in collaboration with ESS," Star India CEO, Uday Shankar said. ESPN-Star also own the telecast rights of all International Cricket Council (ICC) events and the rights of domestic cricket in England and Australia. The deal also includes rights for domestic tournaments such as the Ranji trophy and the Irani trophy apart from all the international games such as ODIs, Tests and T-20s.