BCCI to sell media rights of home series through ‘first ever’ E-auction

The Board of Control for Cricket In India (BCCI) has decided to award media rights for the bilateral series to be hosted in India between April 2018 and March 2023 through E-auctions, a process which BCCI is using for the first time to sell media rights.

The E-auction begins on Tuesday and is supposed to continue until Wednesday. The first time e-auction is conducted to make BCCI’s financial aspects transparent as the previous media right auctions happened behind closely guarded doors and had little public information about them.

Six heavyweight companies are in the contention for winning the media rights for 22 Tests, 42 ODIs and 38 T20I that will be played during the five-year cycle.

BCCI declared that the rights are sold for three sections- 1. Global TV Rights for these international cricket matches including Rest of the World Digital rights package. 2. Indian Sub-continent digital package. 3. And Package for Global Consolidated Rights.

As the internet is quickly becoming the most preferred medium to watch sports, the battle for Digital Rights Package is considered to be an intense one. Currently, Facebook and Google are in the hunt to win this package and both companies are said to be ready to invest a huge sum.

Sony and Star Sports too are hooting heavily and will most probably battle deep to win the Global Consolidated Rights package. It is believed that these giants will bid aggressively and it will result in a multi-million dollar bid for BCCI.

The entry of Jio telecom in this E-auction has stirred the environment and has forced other competitors to raise their bid price. Jio is looking to expand its operations and is backed up by huge capital so it won’t be a surprise if Jio offers a massive amount to win the media rights.

It is believed that the E-auctions will bring more fairness to the entire process and in fact conducting an E-auction was a part of the Lodha committee recommendations.