ICC Media Rights: Top broadcasters raise concerns with drop in T20 World Cup ratings, says 'will hit media rights value'

ICC Media Rights: Top broadcasters raise concerns on drop in T20 World Cup ratings, says ‘will hit the media rights value’

Shweta Agnihotri

Sunday, Dec 5, 2021 11:17 pm

ICC Media Rights Tender – T20 WC Ratings Drop, Broadcasters Concerned: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is in a fix. Contrary to the claim of a “record viewership” worldwide, the fact is that the recently concluded T20 World Cup saw fall in ratings in India in comparison to 2016 edition. The top two Indian broadcasters […]

ICC Media Rights Tender – T20 WC Ratings Drop, Broadcasters Concerned: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is in a fix. Contrary to the claim of a “record viewership” worldwide, the fact is that the recently concluded T20 World Cup saw fall in ratings in India in comparison to 2016 edition. The top two Indian broadcasters InsideSport spoke to raised concerns on the drop in ratings and clearly declared that it could impact the Media Rights value of ICC – Follow InsideSport.IN for all Sports Business News.

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ICC Media Rights: Top broadcasters raise concerns with drop in T20 World Cup ratings, likely to hit media rights value

What are the top broadcasters saying? India made a early exit from the T20 World Cup as Virat Kohli’s team failed to reach Semifinals of the event. Indian team’s failure at the World Cup is likely to have huge repercussions for the ICC’s forthcoming Media Rights portfolio.

As per Star & Disney India, the current media rights holders, the tournament’s total reach in India in 2021 was 284 million, down from 293 million in 2016.

Contrary to that, ICC in its official release after the tournament had declared record reach globally but did not release India numbers separately. “We are pleased with outstanding global viewership numbers, that demonstrate the power of T20I cricket to attract a huge audience across the globe on linear and digital platforms,” ICC CEO Geoff Allardice said in a release.

“It reinforces our belief that there is a significant opportunity and appetite to grow the game in our strategic growth markets including the USA, so more fans can enjoy it, more kids are inspired by it and sponsors and broadcasters want to be a part of it.” added ICC CEO.

But the Indian broadcasters are not too amused.

“The numbers have clearly fallen in India which is not a great sign. I don’t want to comment on ICC Media Rights portfolio as such but surely the fall in viewership doesn’t augur well”, declared top executive of one of the leading sports broadcaster in India.

ICC Media Rights: Fall in Ratings, tournament in US, West Indies also area of concern for Indian Broadcasters

Modest fall in ratings is not the only area of concern for the potential bidders for the ICC Media Rights portfolio. There is a another concern area.

ICC has added the West Indies, United States of America, New Zealand as host nations of World events in the new calendar & the broadcasters are also concerned about the same.

“ICC Tournament in the West Indies, USA is great for the development of the game but sitting here in India it is not PRIME-TIME. We don’t have any say in who hosts the tournament but our future valuations are all dependent on how much we can churn out from the Indian market for the ICC events. If the tournaments are not our PRIME-TIME, obviously values will get impacted” opined one of the leading industry expert.

ICC Events Calendar 2024-2031

When will be the ICC Media Rights Tenders Released? It is yet not clear when ICC is coming out with their new media rights tender. Unlike the previous cycle, ICC is likely to break the 8 year media rights cycle into two halves.

First Half – 2024 to 2027: 2 T20 World Cups / 1 ODI World Cup / 1 ICC Champions Trophy (1 ICC Event in India)
Second Half – 2028 to 2031: 2 T20 World Cups / 1 ODI World Cup / 1 ICC Champions Trophy (2 ICC Events in India)

The tenders are now likely to be released in January 2022.

How much the rights can fetch? The ICC’s current rights cycle will end in 2023, for which the then Star India paid close to $1.98 billion. However, with the addition of new properties, including the ICC WTC Finals, the rights value was revised upwards to $2.02 billion.

According to some reports ICC is expecting more than double the value of the ongoing cycle in the media rights revenues. With increase in the number of events from 6 to 8 & also with growth in eyeballs for the women cricket, despite various concerns ICC will surely get a increase – but to touch the expectation levels of ICC, some one really needs to BID BIG.

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