The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday awarded Nimbus global media rights for all international and domestic cricket owned or controlled by the BCCI, to be played in India.
The media rights comprise of all television, internet and radio rights excluding mobile. The coverage obtained will require all Test matches and ODIs be telecast in India, the visiting team's nation and the world over.
The deal, secured by domestic television company Nimbus Communications from among eight bidders, ends a protracted legal battle for rights in world cricket's commercial hub.
"Nimbus was the clear winner with the highest bid in all combinations," Lalit Modi, the marketing committee head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, told reporters.
The privately-owned Nimbus also clinched the television production rights last week for all international and domestic matches in India until 2010.
The Indian board has signed contracts worth $754 million for the next four years, marking an almost 10-fold jump in revenue from the previous four years, Modi said.
The television deal would roughly cover 23 Tests and some 55 one-dayers, he added.
Although Nimbus does not have its own sports channel, unlike rival bidders such as ESPN Star and India's biggest listed media firm Zee Telefilms Ltd., its chief Harish Thawani said it might seek tie-ups with other networks.
"We could be close to buying a network, we could do multiple networks or partner one, but we want to stop this thing about exclusivity," he said.
Controversy has surrounded telecasts of India games due to a government directive that private channels must share the feed with state broadcaster Prasar Bharti.
Thawani said government channel Doordashan would not be "blacked out".
Cricket telecast rights in India had been mired in legal cases since September 2004 after the BCCI backed out of a $308 million, four-year deal with Zee, after being taken to court by unsuccessful bidder ESPN Star.
With this, the BCCI's total income from sale of rights and sponsorship amounts to Rs 3354 crores, as compared to Rs 359 crores for the previous four years.
