ICC Media Rights: Broadcasters like Disney Star, Sony, and Viacom18 submit their technical bids

The International Cricket Officials are over the moon at the moment since the top broadcasters have submitted their technical bids to ICC. The broadcasters were quite disappointed after ICC changed some norms in the tender document. Some of the top broadcasters who have submitted their technical bids are Disney Star, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), Viacom18, and Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE). They have even deposited their BID Collateral amounts.

The financial bidding among the eligible parties will take place on August 26, 2022.

“ICC has made some desired changes to the tender. It has brought in some clarity. We have submitted our Technical BID to the ICC and have followed the deadline set by them”, said the Senior Executive of one of the top broadcasters.

Besides the Technical bids, the bid collateral amount of 3.25 million has to be submitted by the interested broadcasters.

It’s to be taken into consideration that the governing body of cricket has made some transformations in its bidding documents. The Indian broadcasters further demanded that the ICC must be very transparent in its bidding documents so that there’s no scope for misunderstandings in the process. ICC did refuse initially but later agreed with it.

Changes made by ICC in the bidding documents

1. The base price is set at $1.44 billion for the 4-year cycle.
2. ICC cleared that the second round of auction will be called only if there’s a 10% difference between the highest and second-highest bid. The second round is going to be an e-auction.
3. The ICC proposed a 2.8 multiplier formula if a broadcaster desires to bid for eight-year cycle. In this case, the broadcaster has to pay $4 billion which is double the amount of four years.
4. Many of the broadcasters are not really content with the 2.8 multiplier formula but they have to go with the flow.

Reasons why broadcasters walked away from the mock auction

1. The tender document didn’t encourage them to submit a bid.
2. Broadcasters felt there wasn’t any clarity in the whole process.
3. They suggested a few changes in the rules particularly over the bid submission schedule.
4. ICC agreed to it later, but still, the broadcasters weren’t happy but now, ICC has addressed the issue.

“ICC officials have made a mess of this. The answers to our queries have made it more confusing for us. All their answers are ambiguous. We asked them who qualifies for STAGE 2? What are the criteria? They don’t have clear-cut answers. Our board may decide to boycott the tender completely. We may, unfortunately, have to take that course,” a senior official of a top broadcasting company said.

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