Star India bagged the IPL media rights for TV and digital broadcast worth £1.64 billion with a single consolidated bid worldwide. It pipped Sony to acquire the rights from 2018 to 2022. A total of 24 companies had picked up the Invitation To Tender (ITT) to bid. However, only 14 of the 24 names turned up with their respective bids, which meant that there was no participation by the likes of Yahoo, Amazon and ESPN digital.
After a long technical evaluation, it was announced by BCCI CEO Rahul Johri that for broadcast rights, Star and Sony had emerged as eligible candidates while Times Internet, Reliance Jio, Airtel and Facebook could rightfully bid for digital acquisition. However, it was later revealed that Star had launched a consolidated bid and was declared winner.
Interestingly, rival Sony's individual bid for broadcast (TV rights) this time was £1.10 billion compared to Star's £619 million. But as per rule, the companies could form a consortium and if its consolidated global bid happened to be greater than the sum total parts of every individual bid they stand to win the rights.
"We believe the IPL is a very powerful property, and we believe there is lots more value that can be created for fans of cricket on digital and TV," Uday Shankar, chairman of Star India, said. "We would remain committed to ensure the growth of sports in this country continues to be driven by the power of cricket."
