ICC announces cricket's global broadcast agreement with Star India, Star Middle East

The International Cricket Council (ICC) yesterday announced cricket's biggest-ever global broadcast partnership by jointly awarding its audio-visual rights for ICC Events from 2015 to 2023 to Star India and Star Middle East.

The decision was made by the ICC Business Corporation (IBC) Board, ICC's commercial arm, during a meeting at the ICC headquarters in Dubai on Sunday. The decision followed a robust tender, bidding and evaluation process, which started in July 2014.

During the process, which involved two rounds of bidding, the ICC received 17 competitive bids from various broadcasters across different territories for its audio-visual rights.

While the final value of the rights fee agreed will not be disclosed, it is significantly in excess of the ICC's previous commercial deals.

The current cycle has seen ESPN Star Sports hold the audio-visual rights until the contract expires at the end of next year's ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

Included in the new eight-year period are 18 ICC tournaments, including two ICC Cricket World Cups (2019 and 2023), two ICC Champions Trophy tournaments (2017 and 2021) and two ICC World Twenty20 tournaments (2016 and 2020).

Commenting on the decision to name Star India and Star Middle East as its successful bidders, ICC Chairman N. Srinivasan said: "We are delighted that our partnership with the Star group has extended to the next cycle of ICC Events. This illustrates the strong relationship we have built in the current cycle and the value we have delivered since 2007."

"Star has an outstanding reputation as a sports broadcaster and has played an integral role in promoting and growing the game by taking coverage of ICC Events to a truly global and record-breaking audience, and we look forward to this continuing for another eight years," he added.

"This commitment for the next eight years will ensure greater stability for ICC Members as well as increased funding for developing and established countries. Emerging nations will have access to the largest funding resource in the history of the game and the Board has fully endorsed this framework as the best means of safeguarding the future of the sport," said Srinivasan.

"The level of investment committed by Star shows that the game is stronger than ever before and hopefully with this financial stability for the next eight years, we can implement plans to strengthen and grow the game further, making it an even bigger and better global game," he added.

Giles Clarke, chairman of IBC's Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee, said, "This innovative and exciting partnership will underpin the long-term financial health of the global game and provide real stability for all our Members. It will help the ICC and our Members to grow participation in areas such as the women's game where there have been great strides made as well as supporting the emerging nations."

Saying that this partnership will guarantee increased promotion and marketing of the game in key markets across the globe, Clarke said, "This deal benefits all ICC Members and will allow them to improve their competitiveness and public interest in a targeted and sustainable way."

"This is a momentous day for world cricket which highlights the great commercial attractiveness of our sport and the ever increasing levels of interest in our outstanding world-class events," he added.

ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said, "This agreement guarantees more money for all our Members, thereby underpinning the growth and development of the game."

"Star has been an excellent partner for the ICC during the current rights cycle, promoting and supporting ICC Events and cricket in general in the sub-continent, and I am pleased that we now have a chance to build on that success over the next eight years on a global level," Richardson added.

Delighted and honoured to extend the partnership with ICC, Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India said, "This is a tribute to Star's commitment and ICC's trust in our ability to take the great game of cricket to the next level. Star will constantly attempt to reinvent the viewer experience to make cricket bigger and bigger.