Battle royale for BCCI media rights

Who will win the BCCI media rights? Star or Sony?
Urvi Malvania reports.

IMAGE: The BCCI media rights will be for a period of five years from April 2018 to March 2023. Photograph: BCCI

The Indian sports broadcast landscape could look like a mirror image of itself from last year if the Board of Control for Cricket in India gave the rights of the matches to Sony Pictures Network India (SPN).

Last year around this time, Star India had the rights to events from three major boards: BCCI, Cricket Australia and the England Cricket Board, along with those from the International Cricket Council.

SPN on the other hand had the Vivo Indian Premier League at the centre of its cricket portfolio along with international boards, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

At present, Star India has the ICC events rights and the IPL under its belt among major cricket media rights.

SPN has over the past year acquired the rights to CA, ECB and the South Africa Cricket Board.

In February, Star India also won the rights for audio-visual production services for the IPL and BCCI domestic cricket for the 2018-19 season.

The BCCI, earlier this year, called for bids for media rights for the 2018-2023 period. Interested bidders could pick up tender documents for Rs 680,000.