BCCI gears up for the first ever E-Auction for the Digital Media Rights

The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) will be conducting its first ever e-auction this afternoon. As many as six technological giants will lock horns to acquire the rights for India’s bilateral cricket series at home. Conglomerates such as Star, Sony, and Jio along with digital majors Facebook and Google, will bid for media rights today in Mumbai.

The bidding process will be a marked departure from BCCI’s conventional closed bid auction model (sealed envelope process). The Committee of Administrators (CoA) felt that the online bidding is a far more transparent method for competitive price discovery. The media rights will be for a period of five years from April 2018 to March 2023.

Tech giants battle it out

The BCCI is selling media rights for three specific categories –i) the Global TV Rights plus Rest of World (ROW) Digitals Rights package, ii) Indian sub-continent Digital Rights package and iii) Global Consolidated Rights package. For the 2018-19 season, the per- match value for the global TV and ROW Digital Rights is Rs 35 crore, Rs 8 crore for Indian sub-continent while Rs 43 crore will be the starting bid for the Global Consolidated Rights.

For the period between 2019-2023, the per match value package is Rs 33 crore, Rs 7 crore for Indian Subcontinent and Rs 40 crore for the Global Consolidated Rights. India is expected to play 22 Tests, 42 ODIs, and 38 Twenty20 Internationals at home in the next five-year cycle.

Star, Sony, and Jio will be battling for the broadcast rights. Yupp TV will also be fighting hard to acquire these rights. Facebook and Google will be battle for the Digital Rights Package. With Star, Sony and Jio also expanding their presence in the digital market, it won’t be surprising if there are big bids for the Global Consolidated Rights package (which includes both i) and ii)).

The Star network has already acquired rights for the IPL. They’ll be hoping to bag the other rights as well which will help them turn out into broadcast giants in India. Furthermore, Star also has ICC tournaments such as World T20 (men and women), men’s and women’s 50-over World Cup along with the Champions Trophy.

Facebook had placed a whopping bid of Rs 3900 crore (USD 600 million) for exclusive digital rights of IPL but lost to Star who acquired the rights to a consolidated bid. While the closed bidding is a one-time process, the e-auction will allow the companies to file incremental bids (with fixed slabs) after each round till competitors pull out of the race. Technically, the e-auction may spill over to the next day if the bidding process is not completed by 6 pm.

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