IPL’s 10-yr TV rights sold for $1 bn

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s deals get bigger and bigger.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) deals get bigger and bigger. Even at the Twenty20 level, where the Board has announced the Indian Premier League as its prime property, it has sold a $ 1 billion 10-year deal.

In one of the biggest telecast deals that the game has ever seen, the consortium of Sony Entertainment Television (SET) and Singapore-based World Sports Group won the rights to the BCCI’s league, following an unconditional bid.

It is also a tactical blow for the ‘rebel’ Indian Cricket League, run by Subhas Chandra’s Essel Group.

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IPL Commissioner and BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi explained that Sony and WSG would now pay the BCCI close to a sum of $ 908m for the rights and $ 108m towards the promotin of the tournament.

The league would have eight franchisee teams scheduled to play 59 matches over a period of 44 days beginning April 18. The IPL’s governing council, headed by Modi, will open the franchisee bids on January 24 with many Indian and global entites touted to be in fray.

Modi further said that “initially, 80 per cent of the revenues from the sale of media rights would go to the IPL franchise and would gradually be tapered down to 60 per cent in the coming years.

There will be eight city-specific teams, where the franchisees would have to pay player and staff salaries, stadium lease, travel, accommodation and such other — apart from the franchise fee — and ensure that the city plays host to matches scheduled there. Twelve cities across the country have been marked as possible venues for the league.

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The IPL will put in place a list of 80 players – foreign and those under BCCI contract – who will be available for auction. However, as Modi explained, that icons like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly would continue playing for their respective city teams, considering the fan following.

“Tendulkar will play for Mumbai, Dravid for Bangalore and so on,” he said. Apart from these three players, Yuvraj Singh would also be playing for his city team in Mohali.

The average fee for players is expected to be around $ 250,000 while the highest – in the case of former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne – could be expected to reach the bracket of $ 400,000.

It is quite likely that players of the calibre of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly will feature in the same bracket.

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Modi also said that “not all the overseas cricketers and national players might be available for the tournament this year if the ICC’s international calendar does not permit it.”

New Zealand’s tour of England and Australia’s tour of West Indies will be played in May. Also, it will have to be seen whether Australia end up touring Pakistan in the month of April.