Times Internet wins IPL media rights deal

Times Internet, part of The Times of India group, has won the global media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament for four years, having bid Rs 261.6 crore.

Covered are IPL mobile, radio and internet rights, along with broadcast rights for certain territories from 2011 to 2014, said N Srinivasan, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in a statement. Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd (MSML), which owns the SET and MAX channels, has IPL broadcast rights in the Indian sub-continent until 2017.

The bidding process followed after the Supreme Court had, last Friday, given a green signal to BCCI to proceed with the tenders for new global telecast rights for IPL-4, starting on April 8. In June 2010, BCCI had cancelled the media rights it had earlier awarded to World Sports Group, Mauritius, citing an allegedly improper payment of a facilitation fee worth Rs 425 crore from Multi-Screen Media (MSM).

The controversy surrounding the facilitation fee came to light when WSG India claimed to be the original buyer of the worldwide telecast rights of IPL for 10 years (2008 to 2017), in return for $1 billion (Rs 4,600 crore). MSM secured the rights to broadcast in India for five years (2008 to 2012) from WSG (India), with the option of securing rights for the remaining five years (2013-2017) by paying $25 million.

The BCCI, represented by former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, cancelled the original deal in 2009 and negotiated a new deal with WSG Mauritius. MSM then worked out an arrangement with WSG, Mauritius, guaranteeing a facilitation fee. The firm, along with WSG, had signed a deal with BCCI in 2007 for Rs 8,200 crore.

Apart from global TV rights, WSG also had some other rights including the Internet, live-streaming (with a short delay) and mobile rights. Last year, Google Inc’s YouTube platform signed a two-year deal to stream the matches. The deal was signed with Global Cricket Ventures (GCV), that acquired the rights from WSG. As part of the deal, GCV had agreed to pay BCCI Rs 25 crore yearly for the Google deal.