Broadcaster Disney Star has retained the rights to telecast International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments till 2027, the ICC announced on Saturday evening.
The network won the closed-loop bid process after beating rivals, such as Sony, Zee and Viacom18. The companies had submitted their bids in the Friday auction.
The winning bid could not be immediately ascertained, since neither ICC nor Disney-Star indicated the winning amount. Experts had said that nearly $4 billion was at stake for the media rights, available in lots of four years and eight years, respectively.
“Under the new four year agreement, Disney Star has retained the exclusive digital streaming and television rights for both men’s and women’s events through 2027. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with ICC in the years ahead,” K. Madhavan, country manager and president, Disney Star, said.
Madhavan added that Disney Star had played an important role over the past seven years in transforming ICC games into one of the biggest sporting spectacles in India and had expanded the viewer base of the property across geographies and demographics in the country.
The extension of the ICC rights adds to the company’s portfolio of cricket properties, which include the television rights for Indian Premier League (2023-27), digital rights to Cricket Australia (2024-31), BCCI broadcast rights through the 2024 and Cricket South Africa (end of 2023-24 season). In June 2022, Disney Star retained the IPL television rights for Rs 3,575 crore (Rs 57.5 crore per game).
Concerns had heightened over the last few days after PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) stepped down as auditor in the run up to the auction. All four broadcasters had submitted their bids after protesting about the lack of transparency in a closed-loop exercise. Though Amazon initially showed interest to bid for the rights, it was not a part of the process on Friday.
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