The Board of Control for Cricket in India has opted to postpone a decision on its next set of broadcast and digital media rights to all international and domestic matches played in the country amid strong interest in the digital packages on offer, according to The Hindu.
The Indian newspaper today (Monday) reported that the new e-auction process to assign the rights will now be held on April 3 instead of March 27, as was originally announced last month.
The BCCI is said to have received queries from prospective bidders for the digital rights and has decided to grant them more time to understand the whole process.
The BCCI is marketing rights for a five-year period commencing April 1, 2018. Pay-television broadcaster Star India currently has the contract having paid Rs38.51bn (€492m/$602m) for broadcast, online and mobile rights to Indian cricket.
The tender covers all international matches staged by the BCCI in India and domestic tournaments including the Ranji Trophy and the Irani Cup.
Three packages are being offered – global television rights plus rest of the world digital rights, digital rights for the Indian subcontinent and a global consolidated package. The deadline for submission of offers had been set at March 27, with the online auction expected to begin later that day.
The Hindu added that the BCCI has set a base price or per match value of Rs330m for the global television rights plus rest of the world digital rights package, Rs70m for the Indian subcontinent digital rights package and Rs400m for the global consolidated package.
The tender offers the potential for Star to tie-up rights to India’s major cricket properties. In September, Star was awarded television and digital rights for the 2018 to 2022 editions of the Indian Premier League under an agreement with the BCCI worth Rs164.375bn.
Star acquired all rights packages on offer to oust Sony Pictures Networks India as the main broadcaster of the Twenty20 competition.