In the e-auction for IPL Media Rights, Disney Star and Viacom18 emerged as winners. As per reports, they are in the talking state with the private and public sector banks for a bank guarantee. In the recently held e-auction, Disney Star won the broadcasting bagged the broadcasting rights for Rs 23,575 crores and Viacom 18 bagged the digital lights for Rs 23,568 crores.
“Both companies need to submit bank guarantees (BGs) to fulfil their obligations toward the cricket board and are in advanced talks with more than half a dozen lenders to complete their respective deals,” an official told to Economic Times.
Disney and Viacom 18 are in talks with the banks
- Disney-Star is currently in talks with Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and BNP Paribas.
- Viacom18 on the other hand is having a conversation with ICICI, State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC for bank guarantees.
- Disney-Star and Viacom18 together are making plans to raise 9,600 crores for non-fund-based guarantees.
- The BCCI has the flexibility to encash if there’s an issue with payments during the period of the next five years.
- The bank guarantees will renew every year.
- It’s mandatory for Disney-Star to have a safe amount of 80% of the total money to pay BCCI before the first year of the broadcast.
Disney-Star is currently having discussions with four banks Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank. Disney may also reach American banks like JP Morgan or Bank of America to secure the rest 20%.
Viacom18 on the other hand is all set to seal the deal with three banks, including State Bank of India, HDFC and ICICI.
After using it for the first time in 2018 for the sale of India’s bilateral cricket rights, this is the BCCI’s second time using an e-auction to sell rights. In a five-year agreement (2018–203) for INR 6138 crore, Star India had already secured the international media rights for Indian cricket. The average match price in this cycle was around INR 60 crore, which is less than half of the IPL’s match price.
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