1st day of e-auction stops at Rs 4442 Crore
3 April 2018 4:54 PM GMT
New Delhi/Mumbai: The BCCI is set for another massive windfall as Star, Sony and Jio engaged in a bidding war for the Global Consolidated Media Rights (GCR) for the 2018-2023 cycle of India's home bilateral series, which is currently valued at Rs 4442 crore, after the end of the opening day of the first ever e-auction.
The current valuation is already 15 per cent more than Star TV's erstwhile record bid of Rs 3851 crore in 2012.
The GCR comprises worldwide TV broadcast rights as well as digital rights for 102 matches (across three formats) that India will play at home in the next five years.
The first top GCR bid was Rs 4176 crore followed by 25 crore incremental bids. Some of the top bids were Rs 4201.20 crore, Rs 4244 crore, Rs 4303 crore and Rs 4328.25 crore.
The e-auction will start at 11 am on Wednesday and as per norms, no one save the bidders know who has the top bid with him. All the three bidders are bidding through an unique log-in id that is provided to them.
Only three companies -- Star, Sony and Jio -- submitted the technical bids and it is a foregone conclusion that the likes of Facebook, Google and YuppTV may have entered into a consortium with the primary bidders.
"Since Star has digital platform HotStar, they are unlikely to partner Facebook or Google. But you never know if Sony has entered into a consortium with either of the two. Google has Youtube. But again it is being evident that cricket sells in India and despite not so favourable publicity at times, Indian cricket still rakes in the moolah," a senior BCCI official said on Tuesday.
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