Zee, Ten Sports, ESPN to bid for ICC's rights

Leading broadcasters Zee Sports, Ten Sports and ESPN Star Sports have bid for ICC's global cricket telecast and marketing rights for an eight-year period, starting 2007 and including two World Cups. The rights will go under the hammer in Dubai on Friday, November 17.

Media reports speculate that the rights could be valued at up to one billion dollars for 2007-15. Besides the 2011 and 2015 World Cup, the rights will cover ICC's major tournaments like the Champions Trophy in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, Twenty20 World Cup, Women's World Cup and Intercontinental Cup.

The Sony board has chosen not to bid for the rights: "Cricket has become totally unviable. Restrictions that channels cannot be priced at more than Rs 5 per subscriber per month has only made it worse," Kunal Dasgupta, CEO of SET, told Hindustan Times.

ESPN-STAR has telecast very little India-related cricket of late and Zee too has not had too much international cricket on its menu. Zee had lost the 2000 race to Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) despite bidding the highest at US$600 million. GCC had bagged the rights for 532 million dollars.

Earlier, the Indian board (BCCI) had said it would also bid for the rights but later pulled out during ICC's executive meeting in Mumbai last week.