Sony, WSG bag IPL global media and production rights

Mumbai, Jan 14 (UNI) Leading sports broadcaster Sony Max and World Sport Group (WSG) has bagged the Indian Premier League's (IPL's) global media and production rights for the inaugural IPL season in 2008 and then on to 2017.

The deal gives Sony Max the exclusive audio visual rights to all the 59 matches in the inaugural IPL season, which is due to start in April 2008.

The Media Broadcast Rights were won by Sony Max and world sport group through a fair and transparent bid process, with the broadcasters bid of USD 1.026 billion being the highest.

Sony and WSG won the bid quoting a price of 918 million dollar and a committed 108 million dollar as promotional expenditure over a 10-year period for a total of 1.026 billion dollar.

Incidentally, bids were received from WSG and Sony Max, Network Solutions-a consortium led by NDTV and ESPN-Star Sports for what is being viewed as perhaps the greatest sporting extravaganza ever being undertaken in India.

Indian Premier League Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi said, ''We are absolutely delighted that after a fair and transparent process, we have what we believe to be the best deal for the IPL and Indian cricket fans. All the bids received were of a very high standard and we would like to thank all of the organisations for their submissions.'' However, the IPL Governing Council was unanimous in the view that the Sony Max and WSG bid was the best, and we believe that the IPL will significantly benefit from an agreement with Sony Max and WSG,'' he added.

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