Star bags TV rights for Indian cricket

[Cevno]

Star TV, owned by Rupert Murdoch, has won the rights to broadcast Indian cricket for 2012-2018. The deal was valued at Rs 3851 crores (approximately $750 million) for 96 matches. The other bidder was Sony, which currently owns the rights to the IPL. Star TV also won the digital media rights.

The board was forced to issue a new tender after it terminated its contract with Nimbus in December 2011, claiming the latter had defaulted on its payments. The matter has subsequently been referred for arbitration, with the Bombay High Court ruling that Nimbus must deposit Rs 305 crores (approx US$60 million) with the court as security for the amount the BCCI claims it is owed by the company. Nimbus has also made a counter-claim of Rs 600 crores (approx US$118 million) from the board.

The BCCI's marketing committee set the price for category A games at Rs 31.25 crores per match (approx $6.1 million) plus Rs 1 crore (approx $0.2 million) while category B games were set at Rs 34 crores (approx $6.67 million) plus Rs 1 crore. The contract with Nimbus had a base price of Rs 31.25 crores (approx $6.1 million) per game for each of the three formats purely for the broadcast rights.

The board did attempt to sell the internet rights separately last year, but the tender found no takers at the initial base price of Rs 3 crores (approx $0.6 million) or its subsequently reduced price of Rs 2 crores (approx $0.4 million).

More to follow ..........

India news: Star bags TV rights for Indian cricket | India Cricket News | ESPN Cricinfo

Impressive amount.

Good news on one count as Star India(and ESS) are easily the best in terms of broadcasters in India right now, but bad on another as they have most of the cricketing properties now (ICC rights, England rights, Australia rights,CL T20 and now India too.) and can monopilise the market. Also, with more cricket on their network they might have less time for Football now with EPL rights. As it is they have given up Carling cup, FA cup, La Liga, Serie A and UCL.

 

[nsniks]

Impressive amount.

Good news on one count as Star India(and ESS) are easily the best in terms of broadcasters in India right now, but bad on another as they have most of the cricketing properties now (ICC rights, England rights, Australia rights and now India too.) and can monopilise the market. Also, with more cricket on their network they might have less time for Football now with EPL rights. As it is they have given up Carling cup, FA cup and UCL.

@venkatananth Also means that ESPN/Star split is official. This is backed by Rupert Murdoch. Star wins the rights for Rs. 3851 crores.

@venkatananth ICC WT20 will be last event together. ESPN will do football etc. Star - tennis/cricket.

 

[Burgey]

Has India previously been exposed to the way Mr Murdoch operates?

People interested in the future of media coverage in India might want to do a Google news search on his companies.

 

[Spikey]

AFL does better tbh

 

[Eds]

Has India previously been exposed to the way Mr Murdoch operates?

People interested in the future of media coverage in India might want to do a Google news search on his companies.

Haha, this.

Have fun, chaps.

 

[Cevno]

@venkatananth Also means that ESPN/Star split is official. This is backed by Rupert Murdoch. Star wins the rights for Rs. 3851 crores.

@venkatananth ICC WT20 will be last event together. ESPN will do football etc. Star - tennis/cricket.

"STAR India would work collabaratively with ESPN-STARSports to exploit the rights", said Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India. Right now, we have three sports channels Star Sports, ESPN and Star Cricket to broadcast the cricket on. However, if required, we could explore the launch of new channels.


Those rumours of a split are doing rounds for dogs years now, but it hasn't happened. Recently with Disney acquiring UTV channels it has gathered more steam, but splitting so many rights ESPNSTAR have including the Olympics this year won't be easy. Also, Star with Sky and other associated channels has a production advantage in different countries.


Btw, wonder what this does to the plans of Sony to launch a sports channel called "Six" (they were banking heavily on this) and the plans of TV - 18 / Reliance to launch one as well.

 

[Cevno]

Has India previously been exposed to the way Mr Murdoch operates?

People interested in the future of media coverage in India might want to do a Google news search on his companies.

Haha! I know but he hasn't been able to do it mostly in India so far if you are referring to subscription amounts.

The Indian TV market works on a completely different model to the rest of the world right now. Most of the money comes from advertising, not from subscriptions plus Important India matches have to be shared with Govt owned FTA channel Doordarshan.

As for the rest of the dirty tricks, Indian channels/Media houses are probably ahead of him there already.

 

[Arachnodouche]

The asshole tries to get political traction wherever he goes though. FOX, Stateside, is a joke as far as news outlets go. What's more damaging is the inflammatory role it plays in spearheading his political agendas.

 

[biased indian]

Haha! I know but he hasn't been able to do it mostly in India so far if you are referring to subscription amounts.

The Indian TV market works on a completely different model to the rest of the world right now. Most of the money comes from advertising, not from subscriptions.

As for the rest of the dirty tricks, Indian channels are probably ahead of him there already.

ya agree with cevno here...

and if iam correct star has been in india now for 20 years and ESPN 15 years..so don't see anything suddenly changing...now almost all major sporting events are with ESPNStar and TEN...why both of them didnt go for EURO 2012 is big question for me..its being shown on NEO !!!

 

[biased indian]

The asshole tries to get political traction wherever he goes though. FOX, Stateside, is a joke as far as news outlets go. What's more damaging is the inflammatory role it plays in spearheading his political agendas.

its difficult in india with all the ownership restriction currently in place for news channel's

 

[nsniks]

"STAR India would work collabaratively with ESPN-STARSports to exploit the rights", said Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India. Right now, we have three sports channels Star Sports, ESPN and Star Cricket to broadcast the cricket on. However, if required, we could explore the launch of new channels.


Those rumours of a split are doing rounds for dogs years now, but it hasn't happened. Recently with Disney acquiring UTV channels it has gathered more steam, but splitting so many rights ESPNSTAR have including the Olympics this year won't be easy. Also, Star with Sky and other associated channels has a production advantage in different countries.


Btw, wonder what this does to the plans of Sony to launch a sports channel called "Six" (they were banking heavily on this) and the plans of TV - 18 / Reliance to launch one as well.

Yahoo cricket columnist was reporting this that split is taking place. Glad, that its all false.

Neo is screwed coz they relied heavily on India home matches for their viewership, now with that gone, dont expect them to be on the air for too long as they now only have broadcasting rights to Bangladesh and New Zealand home matches only

 

[Cevno]

its difficult in india with all the ownership restriction currently in place for news channel's

Yeah, same with newspapers. It is restricted to 26% FDI for both IIRC.

In any case right now Star India only has stakes in Star News in Hindi and 1/2 regional news channels.Also don't think he has much stake in newspapers at all.

 

[biased indian]

Yahoo cricket columnist was reporting this that split is taking place. Glad, that its all false.

Neo is screwed coz they relied heavily on India home matches for their viewership, now with that gone, dont expect them to be on the air for too long as they now only have broadcasting rights to Bangladesh and New Zealand home matches only

they have lot of other sports(EURO,French open,US PGA,Badminton) but as you said dont see them getting much revenue out of those

 

[nsniks]

they have lot of other sports(EURO,French open,US PGA,Badminton) but as you said dont see them getting much revenue out of those

They started two channels Neo cricket and Neo sports with the idea that Neo cricket will only broadcast cricket as they had India's home matches broadcast right while other sports such as EURO 2012 will be broadcasted on Neo sports. I expect Neo sports to go on but Neo cricket doesnt have a good future

 

[smash84]

As for the rest of the dirty tricks, Indian channels/Media houses are probably ahead of him there already.

lol.....

 

[Cevno]

They started two channels Neo cricket and Neo sports with the idea that Neo cricket will only broadcast cricket as they had India's home matches broadcast right while other sports such as EURO 2012 will be broadcasted on Neo sports. I expect Neo sports to go on but Neo cricket doesnt have a good future

Yeah probably one of the 2 channels will have to go(will more likely retain Neo Sports as it is a general name), though they may bid for other sports rights + foreign tour cricket rights more aggresively from now to add with Newzealand and Bangladesh.

Won't be surprised to see ESS launch (even if they split) another Football or Cricket channel seperately now for their properties, as they will have to do domestic Indian cricket too. The whole segment is moving in the direction of specific sport channels with 3 cricket channels, a soccer focused Ten Action + and a new golf channel in Ten golf.

 

[smash84]

Ten has so many sports channels?

 

[honestbharani]

I am not sure why Sony wanted another sports channel.. As I understand, they and TEN have some sort of understanding in the One Alliance thingy.. They should just use TEN Cricket for showing whatever cricket they have, IMO and use MAX just for movies.

 

[Cevno]

I am not sure why Sony wanted another sports channel.. As I understand, they and TEN have some sort of understanding in the One Alliance thingy.. They should just use TEN Cricket for showing whatever cricket they have, IMO and use MAX just for movies.

Ten sports used to be in that alliance with sony, TV 18 ETC.... for distribution only when they werw owned by some middle east company. Now they have been bought over by ZEE and that is why ZEE sports changed into Ten action +. They will move into zee'S alliance once their distribution contract ends with one alliance,which i am not sure may have happened too.

Sony already have recieved some of the clearances for "six", which will be their first sports channel. They were banking on these heavily though.

 

[honestbharani]

yeah seems a waste of time for me.. And I do hate that we have these many sports channels and yet there is a bit of a monopoly on the cricket market.. Ideally, the IPL rights should have been clubbed with all domestic and international rights. I would rather that Star produced all the content but it is all driven by the money