Media rights deal for Indian cricket for 2023-2027 cycle could be completed by July, hints Jay Shah

The secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Jay Shah, hinted the media rights deal for the upcoming cycle (from 2023 to 2027) will be completed by July and will kick off with the ODI series against Australia in September. In the meantime, a short agreement will come in place for the Afghanistan series in June. 

“The BCCI Media Rights tender will be on schedule this year (June-July) and will depend on the Afghanistan tour, but more likely, the process will start from the Australia series. The Board will speak to all stakeholders concerned and will come up with an interim decision,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said on Friday, as quoted by Cricbuzz.

As reported earlier, the BCCI had planned to organise a short ODI series against either Sri Lanka or Afghanistan only to give the Indian team more ODI matches in the World Cup year. However, with a three-match ODI series against Afghanistan now being sealed, at least informally, the board, which is out of a formal media partner following the end of a previous contract with Disney Star in March, will have to seek an interim agreement. 

Shah hinted the tendering process would take around one and a half months and that Disney Star, Sony-Zee, Viacom and FanCode are among the front contenders. He also added the board is likely to get in touch with an external agency on a smooth and transparent tendering process to ensure revenue optimisation.

BCCI earlier hired KPMG for the sale of the IPL rights, which got sold for an unbelievable cost of Rs 48,390 crore ($ 6.2 billion) last year.

Currently, the Indian players are involved in the Indian Premier League, following which they will take on Australia in the WTC final, scheduled on June 7th at the Oval. After that, India will host Afghanistan and then will travel to West Indies and Ireland for bilateral tours.

The Men in Blue will then participate in the 2023 Asia Cup and then will host Australia for the ODI series before hosting the 2023 World Cup which is likely to begin on October 5th.