Clear winners spotted after four-way bidding for ICC media rights

There will be no second-round e-auction for the ICC media rights after a clear winner - or winners - emerged when the sealed bids were opened on Friday. The identity of the winner/s for the right to broadcast ICC events in India has not been disclosed yet - the ICC board makes that call on Saturday after a recommendation is sent to it by the media-rights advisory group appointed to adjudicate on the bidding process.

There has been no official communication from the ICC on whether a solitary winner won both the TV and digital rights or whether there were separate winners in the two categories. What is also not yet confirmed is whether the rights have been sold for four years or eight, as the ICC had kept the tenure of the rights flexible, in order to exploit the best number commercially.

Though the value of the winning bid is unlikely to be made public, the ICC is believed to have set a base price of USD 1.44 billion (for a four-year deal) and USD 4 billion for an eight-year one. Its last rights deal, for eight years, was worth approximately USD 2.1 billion. Because of the changing nature of the market and especially the digital streaming landscape, as well as the increased number of ICC events in this cycle, the expectation was that any new deal would be considerably bigger than the last one.

A total of six packages were on sale with the sealed bids opened on Friday at the ICC headquarters in Dubai in the presence of the bidders. It is learned that four bidders participated, including Disney Star*, Sony, Viacom and Zee.

After facing mounting pressure from the bidders over the past month over concerns about the transparency of the process, the ICC had said that an e-auction would take place as a second round of bidding should the value of the two best bids in the first round be within 10% of each other.

By Saturday, it is expected that the ICC Board comprising 17 directors will discuss the recommendations of the rights advisory group and announce the identities of the winner/s. The five-person advisory group includes ICC chair Greg Barclay, Ross McCollum (the chair of the ICC's Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee), Anurag Dahiya (the ICC's chief commercial officer), Richard Freudenstein (finance & commercial affairs director) and BCCI acting CEO Hemang Amin.

*Disney Star and ESPNcricinfo are part of the Walt Disney Company

#Clear #winners #spotted #fourway #bidding #ICC #media #rights https://www.globalcourant.com/clear-winners-spotted-after-four-way-bidding-for-icc-media-rights/?feed_id=16350&_unique_id=63096bcde565c

Four major broadcasters concerned over transparency of ICC rights bidding

Less than a week away from the bid submission date for ICC's broadcast rights in its biggest market, significant concerns remain among media companies in India, concerns that manifested themselves through the absence of four major broadcasters from 'mock auctions' organised by the ICC on Wednesday.

Disney Star*, Zee, Sony and Viacom, the companies which recently participated in the highly competitive e-auction for the IPL rights, did not attend training sessions the ICC had set up ahead of the actual submission of the bids for the next cycle of ICC events. The sessions are intended to familiarise bidders with the platform through which bids will be submitted.

A number of bidders have completed the sessions or are scheduled to do so on Thursday and the ICC, for their part, are expecting the rest to provide slots to do so in the next couple of days.

Those who have stayed away from the sessions have raised concerns to the ICC around the transparency over the process of awarding these rights, for ICC events from 2023 to 2031. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that all four broadcasters are uncomfortable with the fact that the bids will not be made public, or even shared among those participating in the process.

The ICC has reserved the rights to conduct an e-auction in the event of the top bids being close, or not meeting the ICC's expectations - the broadcasters are believed to be unhappy about the opaqueness in this instance of what would be considered close. They say it is reasonable to expect to know what margin of difference would trigger a second round of bidding.

Until recently the ICC had ruled out an e-auction, their chief commercial officer Anurag Dahiya arguing that the way they were unbundling their rights - for men's and women's events separately, for digital and TV and across four- and eight-year packages - meant it would be too "complicated" for an e-auction of the kind the BCCI held for the IPL.

But ESPNcricinfo understands that if a second round of bidding is now needed, that will take place as an e-auction. Broadcasters are also seeking more clarity from the ICC as to how bids for a four-year package and an eight-year one will be judged against each other. It is understood that the ICC has an algorithm in place and a multiplier figure that produces the best benchmark figure for them to be able to compare bids across different durations and platforms. That mechanism is not public, however.

The bids are meant to be submitted by August 22, when the technical elements will be assessed and due diligence carried out to make sure each one meets ICC requirements. The financial aspect of the bid will be kept with an independent body and will not be opened until August 26. The ICC is believed to not want a public opening in case the bidding is competitive and close enough that there may be a need for subsequent rounds.

The ICC continue to work through clarifications with the bidders but it is unlikely that any part of the bidding process will change now - as bidders have suggested different processes, changing it now might seem to be favouring one bidder over another, a situation the ICC want to avoid.

The game's governing body sent out its first Invitation to Tender (ITT) for its rights in June, for TV only, digital only and for both; women's event rights have been unbundled from that of men's events and packages are available for four and eight years.

*Disney Star and ESPNcricinfo are part of the Walt Disney Company

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/four-major-broadcasters-concerned-over-transparency-of-icc-rights-bidding/?feed_id=12358&_unique_id=62fda64dc9c12