Bilateral cricket media rights: BCCI stuck between a rock and a hard place

BCCI

Some news first: India’s cricket board wants to bring out the tender document to sell bilateral media rights for the next four-year cycle immediately after the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. It’s clear about that.

What the Board of Control for Cricket in India is still wracking its brains over is how to package the tender.

In 2018, when the BCCI last sold bilateral broadcasting rights, the process was held by way of an e-auction. The next media rights bundle – IPL – also was sold by way of an e-auction last year.

From 2018, when the bilateral media rights were sold, to 2022, when the IPL rights were sold, “transparency” remained the key word in Indian cricket administration even amid a debate over whether an e-auction or a closed bid would fetch the maximum value.

The BCCI is a trust that disposes the functions of a public body. Cricket is a much-loved sport in India and therefore, the cricket board strongly believes that being transparent in the eye of the public would have to be everything. Therefore, e-auction was sought as the way forward.

However, this time around, the BCCI hasn’t yet confirmed or made up its mind on whether an e-auction will be the way forward again. The cricket board is not convinced about market interest in grabbing these rights being sky high.

A leading publication recently reported that the BCCI would sell its television and digital rights separately. That, however, is the most obvious of steps the BCCI will take, given how the digital space has grown in the past five years and is busy overtaking television.

It is the other aspects of the process that the BCCI is busy mapping.

A quick FAQ before we move further:

What’s on sale: Broadcast rights for all cricket to be played in India from 2023 to 2027 (four years).

When it was sold last and who bought it: In 2018, Star India (now a part of the Disney umbrella) bought these rights in an e-auction.

At what value: At Rs 60.18 crore per match for about 102 matches, Star agreed to pay close to Rs 6,138 crore in a consolidated (television + digital) deal.

How were these rights sold: By way of e-auction.

Any other media rights sold since then: The IPL rights for the 2023-27 cycle were sold in 2022 for a combined value of Rs 48,390 crore, with Star India bidding Rs 23,575 crore for TV and Viacom18 bidding Rs 23,758 crore for digital (including the non-exclusive rights package).

The Women’s Premier League rights were sold in 2023 for Rs 953 crore for five years.

How were these rights sold?: IPL was sold through e-auction while WPL – given that it was just introduced – was sold through a closed bid.

These FAQs throw light on the path that BCCI has travelled so far.

As it gets ready to renew the media rights, the cricket board’s worry stems from its understanding that interest in grabbing these rights may not be the same as it was in 2018. Those who track numbers closely insist that while the BCCI had sold the bilateral rights at Rs 60.18 crore per game in the past, the broadcaster barely managed to recover Rs 35 crore to Rs 40 crore per game in the case of the most marquee clash.

“That’s (between Rs 35 crore and Rs 40 crore per game) as high as revenues ever crossed for the fanciest of matches. Not more,” say those who track these numbers closely.

And the fact that the BCCI may expect the previous value to get retained is perhaps not the kind of risk some broadcasters want to take at this moment, without understanding the extent of returns.

What further complicates this process is the need to sell formats separately as against what the BCCI is planning – to allow bidders to submit a consolidated bid. Moneycontrol had explained the dilemma in this piece.

However, board executives believe that, just like avoiding an e-auction, avoiding the complication of bucketing formats would also be a “safer bit.”

While the BCCI tries to play it safe, the bigger question is whether it is in the middle of taking a few regressive steps.

By avoiding an e-auction, it’s avoiding “transparency.” By avoiding the bucketing of formats, it’s pulling down the value of an average T20.

For the record, the BCCI hasn’t even appointed an outside agency yet to conduct the sale of these rights, as it had done during the time of IPL.