BCCI reduces IPL Media rights from 10 to 5 years

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which is spearheaded by Rahul Johri currently and supported by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), have come to a decision to reduce the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights tender period from 10 years to five.

The latest ITT (Invitation to Tender) will be released as soon as the IPL concludes on 27th May 2017, which will now be only a period of 5 years only instead of 10 years. An accountable source of TOI suggested that there apparently will be a 45-day window for bids for the new IPL rights.

“The ITT will be brought out soon after May 21, 2017, and bids will be opened after 45 days, The 45-day window to submit bids will conclude a good 10 days after the ICC’s Annual Conference scheduled from June 19-23. That is bound to keep the member boards guessing over how the IPL media rights auction will play out.” said the source.

“It will be clear that these (IPL) broadcast rights will next come up for renewal only after five years, which will then clash with the ICC global rights. So, that’ll be an interesting proposition for stakeholders” he further added.

Previously the deal was held by WSG (World Sports Group) for a whopping sum of  US$ 918 million in 2008 for 10 years. However, the deal was renewed with Sony Pictures – Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd for an amount of  US$ 1.63 billion for 9 years.

The Tender Document will allow segregative bids for overseas rights, TV and digital, dividing them into five categories instead of six in the previous ITT. With this act, BCCI will levy maximum revenue with Sub-Saharan territory looking to club along with the global rights. The bid is exclusive of the sub-continental region as mentioned in the previous ITT. The overall process of due diligence will be monitored by Deloitte and Amarchand Mangaldas will look after the legal due diligence