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Nimbus Communications' composite bid was far higher any which way
you slice and dice it than the sum of the parts total which came
to $ 550.49 million. This breaks up as follows: ESPN Software $
401.89 million for the India territory, Nimbus Sports International
Pte Ltd $ 126.18 million for international territories, Ad Labs
Ltd $ 14.8 million for radio rights, and Reliance Infocomm $ 7.8
million for broadband rights. Zee Telefilms, with a composite $
513 million global bid, could therefore effectively be said to have
put in the third highest bid.
Echostar Satellite Ltd, meanwhile, put in a $35 million tender
for US, Canada, Caribbean all media and for international broadband
rights outside India.
Two of the bidders --- SET Satellite Singapore Pte ($478 million
global and $397 million India) and British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB)
--- were disqualified because they had caveats included in their
bids. BCCI vice-president and marketing panel chairman Lalit Modi
had clearly specified yesterday at the time of submission of tenders
that any conditions or caveats introduced as adjuncts to any bid
would mean automatic disqualification.
The sheer scale of revenues that the BCCI has been able to extract
from its cricket property thus far works out to a mind-boggling
$ 752 million (Rs 33.54 billion). That is Rs 27.24 billion for the
media rights, Rs 4.15 billion through selling the team sponsor rights
to Sahara and Rs 2.15 billion for sale of kit sponsor rights to
Nike.
Drawing a comparison with the value of the same rights for the
previous four years, Modi pointed out that there had been a massive
ten-fold jump in net worth.
"This has happened because of the transparency that the BCCI
has insisted upon, going forward. We did not disqualify anybody
because they were a marketing agent or a channel," said Modi.
Modi also made a pointed reference to the recent government legislation
on must provide for national broadcaster Doordarshan. Said Modi,
"There was a lot of talk around the new legislation enacted
by the government of India in terms of the downlinking norms that
the rights fee would go down. You can all see today that even with
the new legislation in place, the rights fee has not only gone up,
it's gone up multiple fold.
This is not all however, as far as the money that the now seriously
cash overloaded Indian cricket board hopes to extract out of this
property. Modi says that the BCCI has withheld from the purview
of the tender mobile telephony rights, IPTV rights, all future technologies
including ADSL, archive rights after a 72-hour period and public
exhibition and film rights.
The schedule: In total there are 23 test matches and 54-56
ODIs subject to ratification by the ICC and 72 days of domestic
cricket.
It starts with England coming down soon to play three tests and
seven ODIs. In 2007 there is a tri-series with West Indies and Sri
Lanka at the start of that year. Australia play seven ODIs. Pakistan
play three tests and seven ODIs. South Africa play four tests. Some
ODIs may also be thrown in for the South Africa series in which
case one test match will not be played.
In 2008, Australia play a test series. England come down for three
tests and seven ODIs.
In 2009 Australia once again come down for seven ODIs. Sri Lanka
play three test matches and seven ODIs. The contract concludes with
South Africa playing three test matches and five ODIs.
Production Values: On the production side, Modi says that
this is the first time that Indian cricket will be produced in HDTV
for some markets. Its logo will be carried on all channels. At least
25 cameras will be used to cover matches. New technology, some of
which has not been used to cover India cricket before like Dartfish,
Snickometer, will be in operation to enhance the viewing experience.
The BCCI will also have 72 days of domestic cricket. Through an
earlier announced deal with Nimbus the BCCI managed to bring down
the production costs from $125,000 a day to $102,000. The BCCI expects
to save $4-6 million on a like to like basis. Modi stressed that
Nimbus was a clear winner here also.
The complete list of bids submitted yesterday reads as follows:
Nimbus Communications Ltd, Nimbus Sports International Pte Ltd,
Zee Telefilms, ESPN Software Ltd, SET Satellite Singapore Pte, Reliance
Infocomm, Ad Labs Ltd (Reliance's FM arm), British Sky Broadcasting
(BSkyB) Ltd and Echostar Satellite Ltd.
($ = Rs 44.44 at today's exchange rates)
Also Read:
India
rights bids submitted, nine in the fray
BCCI
to issue fresh tender combining satellite, terrestrial rights; floor
price $ 450 million
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