On the first day of the much hyped BCCI’s e-auction for India’s international and domestic media rights, five rounds of bidding took place. The auction, which began from 2 pm on Tuesday, lasted till 6 pm and will resume at 11 am on Wednesday.
This is the first time in the history of Indian sports that e-auction is taking place.
After five rounds of bidding on Day 1, the last bid amount was Rs 4,442 crore, which is already 15% more than the previous deal with Star India for 2012-2018, which made BCCI richer by Rs 3,851 crore.
Incidentally, all the three bidders chose to bid for the global consolidated rights (GCR), which include the global television as well as digital rights of all the cricket matches played in India.
While six companies had picked up the tender documents, Facebook, Google and YuppTV did not bid for the rights. However, it was the entry of Reliance Jio in the GCR category, which has surprised many, and could upset the strategy of Star India and SPN,
The auction began with an initial bid of Rs 4,176 crore, which subsequently went up to Rs 4,201.20 crore, Rs 4,244 crore, Rs 4,328.25 crore and finally Rs 4,442 crore.
As per the auction process, each participant had one hour to raise the bid by a minimum amount of Rs 25 crore. The bidding will continue till participants decide to exit.
The rights are for a 5 years starting April 1, 2018. As per the future tours programme, BCCI will host 18 matches in the first year, 26 in year two, 14 in year three, 23 in year four and 21 in year five.
(With inputs from PTI)
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