Cricket board set to score Rs 1 cr a day

Bids for cricket rights to close tomorrow.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to rake in up to Rs 1,500 crore by auctioning the rights for satellite & terrestrial broadcast, international broadcast, in-stadia advertising as well as radio, mobile and Internet broadcast for test matches and ODIs to be played in India between 2004 and 2007. Interested parties have been asked to submit their bids by this Saturday.

In other words, BCCI is set to earn over Rs 1 crore a day till the rights run their course till end-2007.

According to leading broadcasters and companies involved in the exercise, while the satellite rights for the cricket matches are expected to fetch BCCI Rs 500-700 crore, Prasar Bharti is expected to pay another Rs 300 crore for the terrestrial rights.

The international rights are tipped to net in Rs 180-200 crore. While in-stadia advertising rights are expected to be sold for Rs 225 crore, the radio/Internet/mobile/broadband rights are slated to go for Rs 100-200 crore.

The money being talked about now is substantially higher than the $54 million (over Rs 200 crore at Rs 40 a dollar) forked out by Doordarshan for both satellite as well as terrestrial rights for a five year period between 1999 to 2004 for domestic international cricket.

But it compares well with the $225 million (over Rs 1000 crore at Rs 45 a dollar) paid by Sony Entertainment Television for the rights to telecast ICC matches including the 2003 and 2007 World Cups.

But it is way below the $3 billion paid by NBC to bag the broadcast rights for the Athens Olympics in the US and Europe. The rights for the Euro Cup was sold for $800 million.

Boradcasters say BCCI could have raked in another Rs 500 crore had the satellite rights been exclusive. With the sharing of the feed with Prasar Bharti a certainty, broadcasters feel the bids could end up being substantially lower.

To be sure, Prasar Bharati has called upon the government to enact a legislation which will give the state-owned broadcaster access to events of national importance. Government sources also said that they were considering the option of a legislation to ensure that Prasar Bharati also gets the feed.

To queer the pitch further, the state broadcaster today said that it also plans to submit a competitive bid for the BCCI matches in the next few days.

For top companies like ESPN-Star Sports, Ten Sports, Sony TV, Nimbus Corporation, these rights are crucial as most of India's key cricket matches in the next fifteen months are going to be played within the country and not in foreign soil.

For instance coming October India will host Australia as well as South Africa in India for both test as well as one dayers. In 2005 teams from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will play in India. The only series for which the Indian team will go overseas is in Zimbabwe.