Viacom18 bagged the media rights of the Indian cricket board (BCCI’s) home international and domestic games for the next four-and a-half years - from September 2023 to March 2028 - for a cumulative figure of £596.3 million in an e-auction. The newcomer, which broadcasts live action on its digital platform Jio Cinema and Sports18 television channel, won both digital as well as television rights, having agreed to shell out a price of £6.78 million per game, thus outbidding Disney Star and Sony.
The TV component amounted to £3.25 million per game (approx), while the digital valuation stood at £3.53 million (approx), culminating in an aggregate sum of £6.78 million, which is £7.8 million, or 12.92% higher than the £6 million that Star India had paid the BCCI in the previous cycle. In simple terms, in the digital category, Viacom18, which now takes over from Disney Star, bid £310.1 million for the digital rights, and for television rights, it bid £286.2 million.
Owned by the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and led by Uday Shankar, who revolutionized the broadcast industry in India during his time as the head of Star India, Viacom 18 already owns digital rights for the IPL (2023-2027), and both digital and TV rights for the Women’s Premier League (2023-2027). The network will broadcast 88 games (25 Tests, 27 ODIs and 36 T20I) over the course of 4.5 years in an agreement that starts with a three-match ODI series against Australia at the end of September, just before the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.
The latest development marked the end of an 11-year Star Sports era for India’s home matches, both domestic and international, which started from 2012.