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Sony catches $1bn Indian Premier League

Sports broadcaster Sony Max and sports rights company World Sport Group have jointly paid US$1.026bn for the rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket championship.

The deal gives the partnership shared rights to the series for 10 years, and brings with it a change of direction for Sony Max parent Sony Entertainment Television (SET), which previously backed the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup.

The change of heart follows the Indian cricket team’s early exit from last year’s ICC World Cup, which resulted in a significant financial loss for SET. Reports put SET’s accumulated debts as high as US$100m.

And as a result of advertiser uncertainly over the prowess of the Indian cricket squad, coupled with the rising cost of ICC rights, SET has now turned to the IPL for its future cricket coverage.

The new arrangement gives World Sport Group the international media rights for internet, mobile and radio, with Sony Max bagging the South Asian TV rights to the competition, which begins on April 18.

Kunal Dasgupta, CEO of SET India, said: “We officially broadcast the ICC events for seven years, from 2000 to 2007. We are not interested in the next ICC events because it is becoming a little expensive. We have decided to go for the shorter version of 20:20 matches.

SRK, Ambani, Mallya win bids for owning IPL teams

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has announced its much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) bid winners for the respective teams. GMR group has won the bid for Delhi team whereas UB group’s Vijay Mallya bagged the contract for Bangalore team. Ness Wadia takes control of Chandigarh team and Mukesh Ambani has been declared the bid winner for Mumbai team. Bollywood king, Shah Rukh Khan has been given charge for Kolkata team.

India cements hold the rights for Chennai team and Deccan Chronicle has Hyderabad. ‘Investors’ in cricket have been given rights for Jaipur team.

The following are the bid amounts and winners for various teams in the Indian Premier League:

Vijay Mallya won the bid for the Bangalore team for $111.6 million.

Shah Rukh Khan won the bid for the Kolkata team for $75.09 million.

GMR Holdings won the bid for the Delhi team for $84 million.

Mukesh Ambani won the bid for the Mumbai team for $111.9 million.

India Cements won the bid for the Chennai team for $91 million.

Deccan Chronicle won the bid for the Hyderabad team for $107.01 million.

Emerging Media won the bid for the Jaipur team for $67 million.

Ness Wadia won the bid for the Mohali team for $76 million, reportedly.

The auction includes players’ contracts and team franchisee.

According to the IPL tender document, the franchisee revenue is divided into two sections. The first is centralised revenue under which falls the title sponsorship, media right and official umpires’ sponsorships.

The second is franchisee revenue which primarily deals with team naming rights, team shirt sponsorship and ticketing revenues. Based on the calculations of the media rights, some of the bidders have reached the conclusion on Wednesday evening that earnings from the sale of different rights are not going to exceed more than $8 million (Rs 320 crore).

“It is natural for any business to break even in a couple of years. IPL is a big venture and it’s certainly going to do wonder to the world of cricket,” a top IPL official told TOI on Wednesday. If that happens, Indian cricket will surely benefit from the 10-year event on and off the field.

In the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) which starts from April 18, BCCI has decided to pay them and some other senior cricketers 10-15% more money than the highest auctioned player of the Twenty20 event.

Sources said BCCI has shortlisted five cricketers - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh - who will be called “icon players” and will be the highest paid players in the league. They will not be auctioned if they have a city team.

IPL chairman Lalit Modi confirmed, “This is one of the BCCI suggestions and it awaits the nod of the IPL board. The player bids will take place next month.”

A top BCCI official added that regular members of the Indian team will probably make Rs 1.2 crore to Rs 2 crore from the 44-day event, with the icon players getting the highest amount.

The Future Group too made a late entry. And other bidders included DLF, Private Equity Fund and Videocon.

Current players can’t own a stake in IPL teams: BCCI

As it received an overwhelming response to the offer of franchise for owning cricket teams in the Indian Premier League, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday made it clear that no current player can have a stake in a company owning any of the teams.

The BCCI stand came in the wake of media reports that star batsman Sachin Tendulkar was in talks for a joint bid with the Future Group, which has expressed interest in becoming a franchisee of the BCCI’s Twenty20 venture. However, the company itself maintained that reports about Tendulkar were mere speculation.

“He is playing, so where the question of buying a team comes from? When someone is playing, how can he buy a team?” BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla, who is also a member of the IPL Governing Council, told a news channel.

His views were shared by BCCI Joint Secretary MP Pandove who said, “Any player contracted with the Board can’t have stakes in participating teams.”

Shukla said at the BCCI briefing that the IPL had received overwhelming response from companies