BCCI defers decision on telecast rights

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has deferred its decision to award the four-year live-telecast rights for matches in India. The marketing committee of the board - consisting of all the current office bearers, the immediate past president, the secretary, the treasurer and a special invitee - considered the tenders of the five bidders along with the report presented by the audit firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers and decided to postpone the announcement.

Explaining the decision, Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, told The Times of India: "We want some clarifications from some of the parties. Once we get all the responses we will announce our decision. It's likely to take ten to 15 days."

Meanwhile, The Hindu quoted RC Venkatesh, the managing director of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, who said that the delay in coming to a final decision was a "positive development". Though ESPN-Star had bid less than Zee Telefilms, they were considered the favourites to get the rights. Venkatesh continued, "Obviously the BCCI is not only looking at the monetary aspect of the broadcasting rights, but also at other aspects, most importantly technical expertise and experience in telecasting international cricket matches. The BCCI is taking time to evaluate the entire gamut of the bids and I am confident it will call us for negotiations."

However, Ashish Kaul, the vice-president of Zee, was totally confident of winning the bid. "There is nothing to say except that the BCCI will have to come to us in the end. There is no reason why the BCCI will not do so. We have met all requirements. We have also offered a special package for branding India's domestic cricket."

There was also a reaction from Kunal Dasgupta, the chief executive of Sony Entertainment Television (SET). He said that SET was not willing to take as big a risk as Zee Telefilms and ESPN-Star. "Zee and ESPN-Star are seeing something we are not able to figure out. Add production costs [of] between US$100-S$150million to the marketing expenses. We cannot take such a big hit. Probably Zee and ESPN-Star are prepared to take a hit of US$100million. Advertising revenue cannot change much over the next four years."

SET bid for US$142million, which was nearly US$120million less than Zee Telefilms. ESPN-Star comes closest to Zee with a bid of around US$250million. Dasgupta said that SET were on the same level as Prasar Bharati, the national broadcaster, who he said had bid US$150million and Dubai-based TEN Sports (US$115million).