In the next day or two, the media rights auction for the international cricket matches in India will be made public. The potential parties have been advised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its advisers, Ernst & Young, that the much-awaited announcement will be made by Tuesday (July 25), if not within the next 24 hours. August 19 has been designated as the deadline to conclude the media rights auction.
Since there seems to be some disagreement on this, prospective participants have not been explicitly notified as to whether the mode of sale will be through an electronic auction or closed bidding. However, it is assumed that the sale will be performed through online bidding given the BCCI’s prior expertise and the successful sale of the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights last year. The media rights are valid from 2023 to 2027 for a five-year period.
The BCCI has reportedly still to finalize a few series, thus the precise amount of games and their breakdown into Tests, ODIs, and T20Is have not been determined. However, it is anticipated that there will be about 100 matches, which is comparable to the quantity in the previous cycle. For comparison, there were 103 games in the last cycle. The new cycle is anticipated to continue the current pattern in international cricket, with fewer One Day Internationals (ODIs) and more Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) than the previous cycle, but the number of Tests is likely to stay the same.
The BCCI had previously sold the bilateral rights to Disney Star for INR 6138.10 Crore, or around INR 61 Crore per international game across formats, in an agreement that expired in March. This time, the base price is anticipated to be significantly greater than that sum. The linear and digital rights will be offered separately in distinct packages, and bidders won’t be able to submit a single bid for all of the rights at once.
There will also be additional packages available, such as non-India/rest of the world rights. A unique non-exclusive package like the one that greatly increased the IPL tender’s final INR 48390 Crore ($6.2 Billion) value is unlikely to be included in the tender, though.
By completing the sale by August 19, the BCCI hopes to give the new owner at least one month to promote the cycle’s opening three-match ODI series against Australia in September, which is intended to serve as a warm-up for the World Cup in October-November.