The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday announced an open tender process for allocating the Indian Premier League's (IPL) global broadcasting rights for the next 10 years.
"It gives me an immense pleasure to announce that the BCCI is going to have a tender for next 10 years for the IPL," BCCI President Anurag Thakur told the press conference.
"IPL today is world's fastest growing league. It is the most popular cricket league in the world. And the sixth most popular league in the world. So it is very important for us when we announce the next tender process. We want to be very transparent because it is not only going to be a bid, but it is going to be a historic bid," he added.
At present, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) is holding the rights of the IPL. However, their deal is going to an end after the event's next edition.
The move is likely to find favour with the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha panel, which has advocated transparency in the BCCI's business deals.
In 2008, the Singapore-based World Sports Group bagged the IPL television rights for a ten-year period with a USD 918 million bid.
It simultaneously signed a deal with Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. (MSM) that Sony would be the official broadcaster. The contract was recast before IPL 2009, with MSM agreeing to pay USD1.63 billion for nine years.
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