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"When the tender documents are given out, some changes would
be made. The period of the agreement would be for four years, for
example," Dalmiya said.
The BCCI has fixed 2 pm on 14 August as the deadline to submit
sealed bids at its office in South Mumbai. The bid document is available
for Rs 50,000 and is non-refundable.
The BCCI's five-year agreement with Prasar Bharati for telecast
rights of international and domestic matches conducted by the Board
in India ends this September and was worth Rs 2.3 billion.
The Board has added a rider at the end of its notice which says,
"the BCCI reserves the right in its discretion to cancel or
amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any
or all bids without assigning any reason."
What has left some interested parties most perplexed however, is
a rider that has been put in the tender invitation which says: "The
bidding will be restricted to broadcasters. Only those entities
having their own IN-HOUSE PRODUCTION (emphasis ours), telecasting
units and channel network and have successfully telecast live and
delayed international cricket events for a period of at least two
years (not as a licencee) will be entitled to submit documents."
Going strictly by this, there are effectively only three entities
that fall within the eligibility criteria --- national broadcaster
Doordarshan, ESPN Star Sports and Ten Sports.
Among those disqualified as a fallout of this would be Sony Entertainment
TV India (no in-house production), Harish Thawani's Nimbus (being
a licencee and not a broadcaster), Zee Telefilms and Sahara India
(no successful sports telecast within the last two years).
Asked to clarify this point, Dalmiya said various pre-conditions
in the tender notice need not necessarily disqualify players like
SET India. "Sony has telecast cricket and can also bid, I think,"
he said to a direct query pertaining to this.
Quizzed further as to whether parties like Sahara could also pitch
in with a bid, Dalmiya cautiously said, "I am not sure whether
Sahara can bid, but others like Doordarshan, ESPN-Star Sports and
Ten Sports can certainly bid." It is a pertinent point that
Sahara is the sponsor for the Indian cricket team.
Explaining the terms and conditions for bidding,
Dalmiya made it clear that any media company that has sports channel(s)
and decent experience in production of cricket-related programming
could pitch in for the four-year telecast rights. "Whether
production is outsourced or not should not be a problem for a bidder,
I think," the BCCI chief added.
When contacted today evening, Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma initially
played with a straight bat and wanted to know whether the telecast
rights also include the domestic cricket leagues like Ranji and
Duleep Trophies also.
But then like Sachin Tendulkar, changing gears to up the tempo,
Sarma said, "Offers from third parties (on collaborating on
the telecast rights) notwithstanding, we would prefer to go it alone."
ESS and Nimbus have made offers to the Indian pubcaster Prasar
Bharati, which manages DD and All India Radio, saying they would
like to (independently) collaborate with Prasar Bharati on the telecast
rights that would be beneficial for both the parties concerned.
Prasar Bharati is yet to take final call on the offers, though it
is expected that in a board meeting, slated for 10 August, this
issue may be
discussed.
Sarma also allayed fears that DD would not be able to
cough up the type of money that is generally required
to acquire sports properties. "Who says we would not
be able to bid? After all the bid amount is to be paid
in instalments and we already have a budget of Rs 300 million this
year for such a purpose."
DD, which had bagged the BCCI cricket telecast rights five years
back, is said to have paid between Rs 2.3 billion and Rs 2.5 billion.
This time round, BCCI expects the bid amount to be more than double
that.
ESPN India MD RC Venkateish acknowledged the BCCI notice, but said,
"No comments at this stage."
How much cricket are all these players actually fighting over is
worth examining as well. According to information collated from
the broadcast and sports management industries, four years’ rights
would comprise 12 Test matches and 48 one-dayers. This works out
to 60 days of Tests with four one-dayers per Test, on an average.
This season the BCCI has lined up a four-Test series against Australia
in October-November to be followed by the two-Test series against
South Africa.
A full series of three Tests and five one-day internationals against
Pakistan have been pencilled in for February-March, 2004 after the
team's return from the scheduled December-January tour of Bangladesh.
Predictably, there is a lot of cricket being squeezed into this
four-year deal. And equally predictably (after all it is the Indian
cricket board that is involved), clarity is what is lacking. Otherwise
why would board supremo Dalmiya have to offer so many clarifications
for the advertisement that went out today.
Of course, the rider the board added at the end of its notice gives
Dalmiya the legal leeway to offer these clarifications. It reads
thus: "BCCI reserves the right in its discretion to cancel
or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any
or all bids without assigning any reason."
The point made in yesterday's report needs reiterating here. When
the India rights are finally given away, expect to see more of what
may appear contradictory on the surface, lots of googlies and more
than a few surprise twists and turns.
Also Read:
Cricket
telecast bids may open next week
Cricket
rights: dealmakers on the prowl
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