Viacom 18 has bagged the TV and digital rights for the Indian cricket team’s home matches for the next five years on Thursday. Viacom 18 outbid Disney Star and Sony Sports to grab the BCCI media rights for home matches.
Viacom18 won the media rights for both television and digital platforms, for Rs. 5966.4 crore for the period of 2023 to 2028.
Over the decades, the Indian cricket have seen an array of media rights holders and the mind boggling money that came with it. Here’s a list of all the BCCI media rights holders throughout the decades.
Doordarshan (DD) – 2000-2004
Doordarshan, the public broadcaster, was the first broacaster to gain the rights of BCCI’s home games. Earlier, Doordarshan used to be the national broadcaster of the cricket matches in India. However, there was no sales of rights. But it changed with start of 21st century.
The DD bagged the BCCI media rights for home games in 2000 for an estimated 240 crores, 35 crores per match for period of 5 years.
Also Read: Viacom18 seals both TV & digital rights in BCCI media rights auction
Nimbus (2006-2010) (2010 – 2011*)
The success of Indian cricket team saw a big boom in the market as well. The second ever BCCI media rights auction saw Nimbus winning the contract for satellite and domestic television rights with a winning bid of Rs 2,755 crore.
The deal between the Indian cricket board and Nimbus extended to another 4 years after another successful bid from the latter, this time Rs 2000 crore.
However, the deal was terminated by BCCI in 2011 over delayed payments.
Star (2012-2018) (2018-2023)
After contract termination with Nimbus, BCCI held a fresh auction for the media rights, this time for 6 years. While many were expecting Sony to bag the rights, Star came as a winner in the end and bagged the broadcast and digital rights for Rs 3,851 crore.
Star India extended the media partnership with BCCI after bagging the rights to broadcast Indian cricket matches on TV and digital platforms for Rs 6138.10 crore from 2018 to 2023 in the first ever E-Auction.
Viacom18 (2023-2028)
Viacom18 has now taken the BCCI bilateral media rights from Disney Star with a successful bidding of Rs 5,966.4 crore for the five-year cycle, Rs 67.8 crore per match. The Reliance-owned Viacom18 is also the holder of TV and digital rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) & Women’s Premier League (WPL) till 2027.
In June 2022, Viacom18 (which owns JioCinema app) bagged the IPL digital rights for a whopping Rs 23,575 crore. They later grabbed the media rights for the WPL for Rs 951 crore for five years.
