Mumbai, Sep 4 (IANS) Star India on Monday bagged the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for TV and digital broadcast worth Rs 16,347.50 crore with a single consolidated bid worldwide during the auctions here.
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\r\nStar India edged out Sony to acquire the rights from 2018 to 2022.
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\r\nInitially, 24 companies picked up rights papers to contest for the several rights up for grabs in the auction organised by the BCCI.
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\r\nSeveral bigwigs of the ilk of Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Yahoo, Reliance Jio, STAR India, Sony Pictures, Discovery, Sky, British Telecom and ESPN Digital Media purchased the bid rights papers.
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\r\nThe BCCI will now earn nearly double that amount in half the duration (five years) with earnings of Rs 3,270 crore from IPL media rights per year.
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\r\nThe amount the BCCI will earn from an IPL match would be around Rs 55 crore compared to Rs 43 crore for each international match that India play.
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\r\n"India, cricket and IPL have changed dramatically since its inception (in 2008) and this bid is a reflection of that," Star CEO Uday Shankar told reporters here.
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\r\nThe media rights include broadcast (TV) and digital (mobile and internet) for a host of segments including India, Middle East, Africa, Europe and America.
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\r\nWith Star India winning the rights, it is expected its digital vertical HotStar would be used for live streaming of IPL matches in India.
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\r\n"Even if it was slightly less, we would not have got the rights. In every category, it was so competitive," Shankar added.
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\r\nOn the popularity of the game, Shankar said: "Despite the off-field issues of BCCI, watching a cricket match in India remains an amazing experience."
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\r\nBCCI CEO Rahul Johri added: "Our main endeavour to the stakeholders was to provide a transparent process where there should not be any iota of doubt."
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\r\nEarlier, 14 out of the 24 companies that had bought the Invitation to Tender document bid for various rights, turned up for the auction.
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\r\nBamTech was disqualified as they did not meet the requisite criteria.
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\r\nSony and Star were the two companies which stood the test of scrutiny for India broadcast rights.<\/p>\r\n\r\n