BCCI invites bids for media rights

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has invited bids for media rights for cricket matches to be played in India for six years starting July 2012.

Media rights include those for television, internet and mobile. The BCCI had terminated its four-year contract with Nimbus Communications in December, after the latter defaulted on payments.

According to industry sources, apart from Multi-Screen Media, which telecasts the Indian Premier League on MAX and is launching a sports channel, the broadcasting arm of Sahara Parivar, and a Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL)-led consortium are keen on these rights. MSM president Rohit Gupta declined to comment, while BCCL chief executive Ravi Dhariwal said it was a confidential matter.

BCCI officials who attended the marketing committee meeting on Wednesday said the minimum bid price had been set at Rs 32.25-34 crore (per Test, one-day international and Twenty20). “The bid price of Rs 32.25 crore was for 2012-14 (the remaining part of the cancelled contract with Nimbus Communications) and Rs 34 crore for 2015-18,” said a BCCI official. Nimbus, which signed a four-year deal with BCCI in October 2009, was paying Rs 31.5 crore a match.

An advertisement in a leading daily on Saturday said the BCCI would sell the tender documents from March 12 to March 26 for a non-refundable sum of Rs 5 lakh each.

"The marketing committee will meet in Chennai to receive the bids on April 2," said the official.The higher bid price comes as a surprise, given that the Indian cricket team's performance in the recent tours to England and Australia had plunged. Experts feel fatigue from an overdose of cricket could make it unattractive to bid at the high price.

Sports management executives say irrespective of who secures the deal, BCCI may have to settle for less. For instance, last year, the global internet and mobile rights found no takers, though BCCI reduced the base price to Rs 2 crore a match.

Indranil Das Blah, chief operating officer of Kwan Entertainment and Marketing Solutions Pvt Ltd, said the rate (paid by Nimbus) was steep, given the recent form of the Indian team. "There may be few bidders who could be interested, but it would be difficult to make the economics of the business work," he said, adding for Nimbus, recovering Rs 31.5 crore a match was not easy.