Tuesday saw the announcement of a strategic licencing agreement between ZEE Entertainment and Disney Star for the exclusive TV rights to ICC Men’s Cricket Tournaments in India.
In accordance with the agreement, Disney Star will pay ZEE an undisclosed sum in order to licence ZEE the television broadcasting rights of the Men’s and Under 19 (U-19) global events of the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a term of four years (2024–2027).
All ICC tournaments will continue to be streamed exclusively through Disney Star’s online service, Disney+ Hotstar. This contract has received in-principle approval from ICC. The Men’s T20 World Cup (2024, 2026), Champions Trophy (2025), and One Day International World Cup (2027), as well as important U-19 competitions, would be seen exclusively on ZEE thanks to this affiliation.
IPL Media Rights: Disney Star Sports Wins TV Rights In Indian Subcontinent For 2023-27 Cycle – Reports
Disney Star Had Won Both The Digital And TV Rights Last Week
“This is a first-of-its-kind partnership in the Indian media & entertainment landscape, and this association with Disney Star reflects our sharp, strategic vision for the sports business in India. As a one-stop television destination for ICC men’s cricket events until 2027, ZEE will leverage the strength of its network to offer a compelling experience for its viewers and a great return on investment for its advertisers. Long-term profitability and value-generation continue to be our areas of focus across the business, and we will always evaluate all the necessary steps that will enable us to make sports a compelling value proposition for the company”, Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. said
Disney Hotstar, Tata IPL (Image Credits: IPL)
For $3 billion, Disney Star last week renewed its contract to air International Cricket Council (ICC) competitions through 2027.
After defeating competitors, the network won the closed-loop bid procedure. The agreement covers both digital and television rights for ICC competitions for men and women. It is a significant win for Disney Star, which in June lost to Viacom18 the digital rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the cycle 2023–27.
The ICC will confirm the hosts for four marquee women’s global events in the 2023-27 period during their annual conference starting in Birmingham this weekend. The four tournaments feature two T20 World Cups, one 50-over World Cup and one T20 Champions Trophy, which were part of the half a dozen events the ICC recently finalised as part of the women’s rights, which for the first time will be sold separately from men’s rights.
The host venues for the women’s events will be finalised by a working group comprising ICC directors who will arrive at a shortlist from the bids received. ESPNcricinfo has learned that ICC has received 16 proposals from seven countries for the four events.
Based on the recommendations of the working group – comprising former New Zealand fast bowler Martin Snedden who is also chairman of New Zealand Cricket, former India captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, Cricket West Indies’ president Ricky Skerritt and former England women’s captain Clare Connor who is also the acting ECB CEO – the ICC will take the final call at the meeting on July 26. The annual conference will begin with the Chief Executives Committee (CEC) meeting on July 24 followed by the Finance & Commercial Affairs committee meeting on July 25, and will end with the annual general meeting which follows the board meeting.
Unlike in the previous cycles when women’s rights were sold as part of the consolidated rights package, the ICC has decided to unbundle the rights for men’s and women’s events and sell them in different territories separately. There are a total of 103 matches across the six women’s events with the rights being sold for three packages – TV, digital, TV and digital combined – for four years. The aim was to maximise the financial returns, and, as part of the new plan the ICC has also decided to sell the TV and digital rights separately. Accordingly, a rights tender for men’s events for the Indian market, the most lucrative territory, went on sale recently with successful bids to be announced in early September.
T20 Leagues vs international cricket
One of the key discussions the CEC could potentially discuss involves the primacy of international cricket and whether it is under threat from the growing number of domestic T20 leagues. In the near-completed version of the ICC’s next cycle of FTP (2023-27), the IPL has got an extended two-and-a-half-month window and Hundred and BBL also have home-season windows.
While ICC has no direct role to play considering it is the member countries that decide on both the bilateral series as well as T20 league windows, at least one Full Member has expressed concern in public over the international calendar being encroached on by the franchise-based tournaments. Recently the PCB wrote a letter to ICC saying it was a “little concerned that the proliferation of domestic leagues around the world is sucking time out of the international calendar” and requested a working group to be formed to address the issue.
ICC also likely to discuss Afghanistan’s future
Another important discussion the ICC is likely to take up is the future of Afghanistan cricket. Last year, after the Taliban took charge of Afghanistan, the board formed a working group to observe and review cricket in the war-torn country. A key part of the working group’s brief was to understand whether the women’s cricket was indeed in “peril” as former Afghanistan Cricket Board Hamid Shinwari told ESPNcricinfo last year.
Doubts over Afghanistan’s future in international cricket emerged last September, when the deputy head of Taliban’s cultural commission Ahmadullah Wasiq, told SBS News that it wasn’t “necessary” for women to play cricket because “they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered.” Cricket Australia even postponed the Test match against Afghanistan, which was scheduled for Hobart last November, following the stance.
Afghanistan became a Full Member of the ICC in 2017 despite not having a national women’s team. team. At the time ICC had made the exemption subject to ACB investing in the development of women’s sport. In November 2020 the ACB had pledged to offer 25 women’s players contracts with aim of developing their game, but Tailban’s arrival halted all the progress.
The ICC working group on Afghanistan is chaired by Imran Khwaja, Ross McCollum, Lawson Naidoo and Ramiz Raja, and the panel is set to update the board.
The conference agenda also includes finalising the process for the ICC chairman election, which is likely to take place in November when the current chair Greg Barclay’s first term ends. Apart from this, the members are also set to iron out FTP further, and a final version is expected only post the annual conference.
The ICChas gone to market with its media rights for the next eight-year cycle, and it has done so in a completely different fashion than before. The ICC will go to market in India alone beginning next week, selling rights for men’s and women’s events individually, as well as digital rights. This reflects the shifting media landscape.
The ICC’s choice to go to India first reflects a determination to get the best business contract possible. The ICC has previously sold worldwide rights to both men’s and women’s tournaments on a consolidated basis. No longer: the ICC intends to sell rights for various areas in the future, in the hopes of attracting more bids and therefore increasing the deal’s overall worth.
Invitation To Tender For All Events In The India Market Due On 22 August
ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2022. Image Credits: Twitter
On June 20, the ICC will issue an Invitation To Tender (ITT) for all of the events in the Indian market, and sealed bids will be due on August 22. By early September 2022, the ICC will notify the selected bidders before issuing the ITTs for further markets.
Before announcing its proposal for the world tournaments, the ICC waited for the BCCI to finish its media rights e-auction for the IPL, which brought in deals worth more than $US 6 billion. Before finalising its own strategy, the ICC engaged the BCCI to evaluate the approach utilised for the IPL rights auction.
The ICC, unlike the BCCI, will continue to employ the sealed-bids procedure “to inspire potential bidders to make their highest bid for the events and package they want,” according to a media statement.
Six Different Bundles To Be Available In India
In India, up to six different bundles will be available, including TV-only, digital-only, and a mix of the two.
Bidders can compete in 16 men’s events (spanning eight years) and six women’s events (spanning four years), totaling 362 and 103 matches, respectively. Only senior-level matches are included in these data; the men’s and women’s Under-19 World Cups (one-day and T20) will also be included, although they will be in addition to these match figures.
India women’s cricket team. Image: Twitter
Four Under-19 World Cups, four T20 World Cups, two Champions Trophies, four World Test Championship finals, and two 50-over World Cups are among the 16 men’s competitions. Two T20 World Cups, two Under-19 T20 World Cups, one 50-over World Cup, and one T20 Champions Trophy will be among the six women’s competitions.
The ICC media release said, that “interested parties will be required to submit a bid for the first four years of men’s events. However, they also have the option of bidding for an eight-year partnership.”
If any of the packages is only sold for four years, the ICC will open a new opportunity to sell the rights for the next four years.
For the men’s events (including the Under-19 events), three packages will be available:
TV (four/eight years)
Digital (four/eight years)
TV and digital combined (four/eight years)
Similar packages will be available for women’s events (including Under-19 events), with the exception that each will last four years:
TV (four years)
Digital (four years)
TV and digital combined (four years)
“There has been significant growth in interest in women’s cricket over the last five years and we have made a long-term strategic commitment to accelerate that growth, and unbundling the rights for our women’s events will play a huge role in that,” ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice said as per the release.
“We are looking for a broadcast partner who is excited by the role they will play in growing the women’s game and ensuring more fans than ever before can enjoy it.”
Highest Bid May Not Fetch Women’s Rights
The next ICC rights cycle will include six women’s tournaments (Image Credits: Twitter)
Bidders will have the option of exhibiting “their vision for cricket to the ICC, particularly for the Women’s Package” when they include their final bids in a sealed envelope in August, as part of the ICC’s continued drive to broaden the reach of women’s cricket internationally.
Instead of using money as the sole criterion for the next cycle, the ICC is inviting bidders to discuss how they will use their platform to promote the women’s game, which might add more value and purpose to the contract overall. For the women’s events, the ICC has left the option of not granting the rights to the highest bidder open.
Previously, women’s global tournament rights were sold as an add-on to men’s events, which the ICC believed devalued the women’s game.
The latest consolidated ICC rights contract had gone to Star India (2015-2023). The ICC has not announced the deal’s worth, but ESPNcricinfo understands it to be around US$ 1.9 billion.
The International Cricket Council is reportedly said to allow a single bid for media rights for the ICC events. Usually, the global body gives the deal for eight years but this time they will initiate a four-year deal.
The ICC is preparing to introduce the broadcast right for the next cycle of ICCevents, every year one event – World Cup, T20 World Cup or Champions Trophy – is likely to take place.
ICC officials visited Mumbai to collect viewership data from top Indian broadcasters – Reports
According to a Cricbuzz report, Sunil Manoharan, vice-president, of broadcast rights of the ICC, and Anurag Dahia, the chief commercial officer at the Dubai office of the world body, visited Mumbai and gave a presentation to the potential bidders of their plan.
Both the ICC officials have obtained the viewership data of a few broadcast giants like Disney + Hotstar (current broadcaster for ICC events), Sony Sports Network, Network 18 (they recently launched their channel Sports 18) and Fan Code.
ICC chairman Greg Barclay. Credits: RCB
The current value of ICC rights is approximately USD 1.9 billion for the duration of eight years but given that there will be a global competition every year, the overall value of the package is expected to double.
“They seem to be more interested in four-year deals but the bidders will be given the choice to opt for eight years too. They have their processes on how to calculate the appreciation for eight years,” an industry executive said, as reported by Cricbuzz.
ICC to allow Indian broadcasters to claim the media rights under one bid
The ICC will allow Indian broadcasters to grab the media rights for Television (TV) and Digital under one bid unlike the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) planned to sell the IPL rights for the next cycle under separate bids for TV and online streaming.
ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2022. Image Credits: Twitter
The process of the issue of media rights including the announcement of the tender is expected to be completed by the end of July.
