The IPL Governing Council met here today to open the bids for the new IPL franchise and Sun TV was found to have the highest bid amount.
"SUN TV Network have won the Hyderabad Franchise for an amount of Rs 85.05 crores per year. This Franchise fee represents a premium of over a 100 % above the amount paid by DCHL for the Hyderabad Franchise in 2008," BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a release.
"The SUN TV Network bid was substantially higher than the second bid of PVP Ventures, which was Rs 69.03 crores," Jagdale said.
In an effort to attract more bidders, the BCCI had kept the base price at a reasonable Rs 60 crores per year. Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited had bought the Hyderabad franchise for Rs 428 crores for a period of 10 years.
Chennai-based Sun TV Networks Limited is one of India's biggest television networks with 32 TV channels and 45 FM radio stations primarily catering to an audience in the four southern languages of India. Their network includes channels covering news, entertainment, film, documentary and music.
The BCCI had floated the tenders for a new IPL franchise after terminating Deccan Chargers' contract on September 15 but the team owners DCHL had challenged it at the Bombay High Court.
The High Court had ruled in favour of the BCCI after Deccan Chargers Holdings Limited failed to furnish bank guarantee of Rs 100 crore before October 12 5pm deadline. Later, an arbitrator had ordered for status quo but the High Court again ruled in favour of the Board.