icc: ICC looking to halve media-rights cycle from eight years to four, could float territory bids starting with India | Cricket News – Times of India
MUMBAI: Six months after the International Cricket Council (ICC) asked its chief executive officer (CEO) Manu Sawhney to go on leave and two months after Sawhney resigned from his position, the game’s global body is busy chalking a new path for itself.
In a first, the ICC intends to lay out a fresh plan altogether on how it intends to go about with the sale of media rights starting January 2024. Moving away from the traditional style of selling the broadcast rights – both traditional and digital – for an eight-year window, the governing body is now planning to halve that eight-year cycle into two.
Further, the ICC is also planning to sell the halved four-year rights cycle separately in territories – starting with the India market – and not by way of inviting consolidated global bids.
To simplify it: The ICC had last sold its broadcast rights in 2015 for a period of eight years, ending 2023. While the industry expected the ICC to sell those rights once again for a period of eight years, as it comes up for renewal, the game’s parent body could decide to sell the broadcast rights for the first four years only and then sell them again in 2027 for the next four-year cycle.
The last time the media rights got sold, the ICC had floated an Invitation To Tender (ITT), asking for a consolidated global bid and Uday Shankar-led Star India bid US$1.98b (approx. Rs 11,880 crore at the then exchange rate) to bag the rights. Also in the race were Sony Pictures (then Multi Screen Media), Ten Sports (then owned by Zee Entertainment) and Nimbus-led Neo Sports.
This time, ICC does not want to ask for a consolidated global bid. In an effort to maximise revenues, the governing body wants to invite territory bids and will begin with India first.
“A year ago, the ICC began working on this plan. They realized that opting to float a tender just for the India market – their biggest revenue-earner – would help them consolidate their biggest market first and then allow them the necessary time and resources to tender other global territories such as UK & Europe, Americas, African countries, Australia and New Zealand,” say those tracking developments.
The ICC has planned a board meeting on November 16 to get the ITT approved.
The BCCI, looking to sell the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the next five years starting with the 2023 season, threw a surprise this week when it released a statement saying the IPL tender would be made available soon after the board concludes the sale of two new franchises in its T20 league on October 25.
“That clearly took the industry by surprise because the ICC was trying to work out and see if they could bring a tender ahead of the BCCI. This BCCI move stumped the ICC and other stakeholders. Now the ICC has no choice but to wait for the IPL tender to come out, else they position themselves in a stand-off with the BCCI,” say those tracking developments.
However, stand-offs aside, the ICC has much to gain even if it waits for the BCCI to first conclude the IPL media rights sale.
Any bidder that does not win the IPL will want to bag the ICC rights – even at the cost of BCCI bilateral rights coming up next – simply for the fear of getting locked out of the cricket-rights industry.
“It’s a win-win for the ICC if they do this correctly. They earn BCCI’s friendship; they get desperate players in the market queuing up for their rights. They get enough time to lock host countries for their next rights cycle and most importantly, their tender can technically come ahead of the IPL in 2027 when new sale of rights will begin again,” sources say.
Viacom, Amazon, Disney and the Sony-Zee combination (should the merger go through) will continue to be in the race for these rights.
In a first, the ICC intends to lay out a fresh plan altogether on how it intends to go about with the sale of media rights starting January 2024. Moving away from the traditional style of selling the broadcast rights – both traditional and digital – for an eight-year window, the governing body is now planning to halve that eight-year cycle into two.
Further, the ICC is also planning to sell the halved four-year rights cycle separately in territories – starting with the India market – and not by way of inviting consolidated global bids.
To simplify it: The ICC had last sold its broadcast rights in 2015 for a period of eight years, ending 2023. While the industry expected the ICC to sell those rights once again for a period of eight years, as it comes up for renewal, the game’s parent body could decide to sell the broadcast rights for the first four years only and then sell them again in 2027 for the next four-year cycle.
The last time the media rights got sold, the ICC had floated an Invitation To Tender (ITT), asking for a consolidated global bid and Uday Shankar-led Star India bid US$1.98b (approx. Rs 11,880 crore at the then exchange rate) to bag the rights. Also in the race were Sony Pictures (then Multi Screen Media), Ten Sports (then owned by Zee Entertainment) and Nimbus-led Neo Sports.
This time, ICC does not want to ask for a consolidated global bid. In an effort to maximise revenues, the governing body wants to invite territory bids and will begin with India first.
“A year ago, the ICC began working on this plan. They realized that opting to float a tender just for the India market – their biggest revenue-earner – would help them consolidate their biggest market first and then allow them the necessary time and resources to tender other global territories such as UK & Europe, Americas, African countries, Australia and New Zealand,” say those tracking developments.
The ICC has planned a board meeting on November 16 to get the ITT approved.
The BCCI, looking to sell the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the next five years starting with the 2023 season, threw a surprise this week when it released a statement saying the IPL tender would be made available soon after the board concludes the sale of two new franchises in its T20 league on October 25.
“That clearly took the industry by surprise because the ICC was trying to work out and see if they could bring a tender ahead of the BCCI. This BCCI move stumped the ICC and other stakeholders. Now the ICC has no choice but to wait for the IPL tender to come out, else they position themselves in a stand-off with the BCCI,” say those tracking developments.
However, stand-offs aside, the ICC has much to gain even if it waits for the BCCI to first conclude the IPL media rights sale.
Any bidder that does not win the IPL will want to bag the ICC rights – even at the cost of BCCI bilateral rights coming up next – simply for the fear of getting locked out of the cricket-rights industry.
“It’s a win-win for the ICC if they do this correctly. They earn BCCI’s friendship; they get desperate players in the market queuing up for their rights. They get enough time to lock host countries for their next rights cycle and most importantly, their tender can technically come ahead of the IPL in 2027 when new sale of rights will begin again,” sources say.
Viacom, Amazon, Disney and the Sony-Zee combination (should the merger go through) will continue to be in the race for these rights.
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