On April 3, all eyes will be on the e-auction of BCCI’s digital rights for home international matches and domestic matches for the next 5 years. The industry is keen to understand how the process will work when bidding commences at 2 PM on Tuesday.
According to a report published in the Times of India, MJunction -- a joint venture of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Tata Steel -- has been tasked with the responsibility to help sell rights to all cricket in India (broadcast and digital) over the next five years. Moreover, six companies -- Star/Hotstar, Sony Pictures Network, Facebook, Google, Jio Infocomm and Yupp TV -- have picked the Invitation To Tender (ITT) and are expected to participate in the bidding.
Reports further suggest that the technical bids will have to be submitted by 10 AM and the online auction will start at 2 PM.
Let’s have a look how e-auction for BCCI rights will play out:
=>E-auction will be held for the following packages:
(a) Global Television Rights plus ROW Digital Rights Package
(b) Indian Subcontinent Digital Rights Package
(c) Global Consolidated Rights Package. Bidders are free to bid for any package and enter/exit the bidding process at any period of time during the e-auction.
=>Bidding can begin at reserve price. BCCI has kept the first year’s reserve price for TV rights at Rs 35 cr and for the next four years at Rs 33 cr. Reserve price for digital for the first year is pegged at Rs 8 cr and at Rs 7 cr for the next four years.
=>A bidder can make a minimum incremental bid of Rs 20 cr for TV rights, Rs 5 cr for digital rights and Rs 25 cr if bidding for consolidated global rights.
=>This means, if the rights are sold at reserve price alone for these 102 matches, BCCI is guaranteed to rake in a minimum of Rs 4134 cr from the rights sale – the total sum of all reserve prices, across platforms, over a period of five years.
=>The FTP for all India matches being played in this rights window has 18 matches scheduled in Year One, 26 in Year Two, 14 in Year Three, 22 each in Years Four & Five.
=>Bidders will have to notify BCCI with necessary contact details in order to procure all particulars required to participate in the e-auction. MJunction will then send exclusive individual log-in ID and passwords that the bidders will use to participate in the bid process. MJunction will not share these details with the BCCI either.
=>All participants will be able to see the other bids being submitted online but will not be able to determine the company making that bid. Neither party will get to identify the other bidder till the entire process concludes.
=>Bid time is one hour but if a bid comes in last-10 minutes of that hour, the round will be extended by another hour.
=>A bidder will be able to see all the other bids as the process continues. However, the bidder will only be able to see the value submitted and not the details of who has submitted that value.
=>The auction will go on as long as bids keep coming in, meaning it can continue on April 4 and beyond. It will conclude once all parties notify that they do not wish to go any further.
(With inputs from TOI)
