Star Sports bags BCCI media rights for Rs 6138.1 crore

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengaluru, April 5: Star Sports India on Thursday (April 5) bagged the BCCI media rights for Rs 6138.1 crore to cover India's bilateral home series for the period of next five years after the three days of intense bidding war.

Read in Telugu

Star Sports India emerged victorious ahead of Sony and Jio (Reliance) in the e-auction of television and digital rights for a period between 2018 to 2023. Star Sports had paid Rs 3851 crore for the rights to telecast India's home matches for the 2012-2018 cycle.

With the India home cricket rights, Star Sports now has a virtual monopoly in the cricket broadcasting world having bagged the IPL rights for a record Rs 16,347 crore.

They also own the rights for all ICC Tournaments (men's and women's 50-over World Cup, World T20).

The bidding went for three days with the first day ending at Rs 4442 crore while on Wednesday, it breached the Rs 6000-crore mark.

"Like everything else, BCCI rights come a little expensive. But it has been a good experience with BCCI all these years," said Star Sports India CEO Uday Shankar.

"We are focusing more on consolidated rights. We have always believed in looking rights as combo offerings. The experience of the auction was great bit it was like a movie that it just went on and on. It was good from BCCI's point of view because it got them more revenue.

"I don't think a tender in any sport that has gone for as long as. It took time to understand but it was as transparent process. You always knew who the highest bidder in each category was. You had enough time to process and react.

"Both (advertising and subscription) have their own roles. Need to monetize both streams. We are equally focussed on both the aspects. There are forms of cricket where advertising works better, there are forms of cricket where subscription works better," he said.