Star India bags BCCI media rights

Star India has bagged the BCCI media rights for India’s bilateral home series, for both television and digital media platforms, for a period of five years (2018-2023) at an astounding bid of Rs 6138.1 Crores. That means Star India will pay a whopping Rs 60.1 crore per match to the BCCI, 5.6 Crore more than an IPL match (54.5 Crores).

BCCI Treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary took to Twitter to announce the winner of the digital and media broadcasting rights:

Congratulations @StarSportsIndia on bagging the BCCI Media Rights @ 6138.1 crores at an average of 60.1 crore per game.

— Anirudh Chaudhry (@AnirudhChaudhry) April 5, 2018

In a drastic change of events, this time around the bidding for the media and digital rights took place online this time around. Six companies initially were in contention for the coveted rights spread across two categories: Indian sub-continent and Rest of the World. The packages of rights on sale were Global Television and Rest of the World Digital Rights (GTVRD), Indian Subcontinent Digital Rights (ID), and the Global Consolidated Rights (GCR).

The e-auction began at 2 PM IST on Tuesday (April 03) with only three competitors-Star India Pvt Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd, and Sony Pictures Network India. While the total bid at the end of the first day was Rs 4420 Crore, 15 percent in excess of the winning bid of the previous 5-year cycle (2012-2017), and it escalated to a whopping Rs 6032.50 Crore by Day 2.

By winning this bid, Star India has now strengthened its hold over digital and media broadcasting rights, having already bagged IPL rights for a period of five years at a whopping price of Rs 16,347.5 crores.

In the five-year cycle, India is scheduled to play 102 International matches across formats.