Last Updated on 3 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: ICC eyeing $4 billion from media rights from Indian market for 2023-31 | Indian cricket media rights could go for $4 billion
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is aiming to garner close to $4 billion from selling the media rights for 16 men’s and women’s tournaments for the Indian market until 2031. The rights have been unwrapped and different packages will be sold for television (TV) only, digital only along with TV and digital combined this time around.
The ICC will be opening the window to sell the rights for the second four-year period considering that any of the packages are sold for only the first four years.
Disney Star among those in the running for Indian market media rights
The likes of Disney Star, Sony, Amazon, Viacom and Zee are reportedly in the running to claim the bragging rights from these auctions. Several broadcasters have expressed reservations over the bidding process and raised their concerns with the ICC in recent times.
For example, the bids are not going to be shared once they will be opened. The interested parties will not have clarity over the margin of difference between the best bids. This could prohibit a second round of bidding whereas broadcasters have also demanded greater transparency with respect to ICC’s judgment of a four-year bid against an eight-year one.
As per ESPNcricinfo, the ICC addressed these issues by extending the option of a second round of bidding through an e-auction if a bid is within a 10 per cent range of the highest bid. Moreover, a four-year bid will be compared against an eight-year one via a pre-determined multiplier. The ICC will look at the ratio between the best bids for both the tenures. It will be comparing them with a reported multiplier of 2.8.
The ICC will be picking the winner for the eight-year period if its ratio exceeds the multiplier. Provided that the ratio is less, then the winner for the four-year period will be chosen. The ICC is first tapping into the Indian market as the rights for the coming cycle of the Indian Premier League (IPL) concluded merely a couple of months ago.
Disney Star and Viacom strong contenders after landing IPL rights
The global cricketing governing body believes that there will be greater intensity and willingness amongst Disney Star and Viacom to bag the ICC rights given that they recently won the broadcasting and digital rights respectively for the IPL as well. The ICC is aiming to collect a significantly greater amount for the 2023-31 cycle than it did for the preceding ones. The unbundling of the packages coupled with the specific targeting of particular geographical regions are steps taken towards a similar direction.
They have set a ballpark target amount of $1.44 billion and $4 billion (=$1.44×2.8) for the four-year and eight-year deals respectively. Moreover, it is only the benchmark amount that they are expecting to collect from the Indian market. So, the final value of these rights can substantially exceed the aforementioned planned targets.
There is one ICC men’s event scheduled annually for the coming cycle and six of them fall under the Indian time zone. Four of them will take place during the Diwali season and this has shot up the anticipated value of these media rights quite remarkably.
Just to put some context, the ICC collected only $2 billion globally from selling the media rights for its previous cycle. This time around, it is aiming for a figure close to double of that and that too only from the Indian market.
The rights for the women’s game will be sold albeit in a different manner. The highest bidder for the women’s events will have to make a presentation regarding their vision for the growth of female cricket in front of the Media Rights Advisory Group (MRAG). MRAG has been made particularly to adjudicate the bidding and their outlook for the game is supposed to be broadened for the overall game and not just the global events.
