Star Group wins Indian cricket's broadcast rights till 2018

Chennai, Apr 2 (PTI) The Star Group today bagged the broadcast and digital rights of India's international cricket matches at home for a period of six years after bidding a whopping Rupees 38.51 billion (approx USD 750 million). The Rupert-Murdoch-owned company beat competition from Multi Screen Media (Sony) to bag rights for all international matches at home and domestic events like Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and the Irani Trophy starting from July 2012 till March 2018. The company's six-year contract is valued at Rs 38.51 billion and will cover 96 matches in all. It would be coughing up Rs 400 million per match on an average, much higher than the Rs 325 million per match that Nimbus was paying the BCCI before its contract was terminate last year due to default in payments. Star and Multi Screen Media (Sony) were the only two companies to make the bids but a total of five had filed the tenders. "The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) is very happy with the deal. Now the media rights have been fully evaluated and fully priced with Star coming out with a such a deal," BCCI President N Srinivasan told reporters while making the announcement. The second highest bidder was Multi Screen Media (Sony), which bid Rs 37.0 billion. Star Group's India CEO Uday Shankar promised that the company would provide good telecast of the matches. "I thank the BCCI for giving Star the broadcast rights. In collaboration with our partners ESPN, we will do a commendable job," he said. "We have already got channels. But the option of launching a channel, if number of matches demand that, is always open," he added. ESPN-Star already have the rights of all ICC events and also the rights of domestic cricket in England and Australia. The BCCI was forced to call for fresh tenders after it cancelled India's Nimbus Communications' contract due to payment dafaults and concerns over the company's financial status. The terminated four-year deal, starting 2010, was worth Rs 20.0 billion (USD 379.5 million). PTI