The e-auction for the BCCI’s broadcast rights for international and domestic cricket to be played in India for the next five years will spill over into the third day with the three entities engaged in a fierce battle.
At the end of Wednesday’s proceedings, the bid escalated to a record ₹6,032.5 crore.
As of now, the average bid per match is ₹59.14 crore, almost 10% higher than ₹54.5 crore that Star India has shelled out for every IPL league match for the next five years.
After starting the day at ₹4,442 crore, the three bidders — Star India Pvt. Ltd., Sony Pictures Networks Pvt. Ltd. and Reliance Industries Ltd. — were engaged in a battle all through the day. The Hindu understands that Star India pulled out of the race in the latter half, while Reliance, the surprise entrant, continued to stretch Sony till the end of the day.
After losing the IPL broadcast rights to Star India earlier, SPN was expected to go all the way for the India rights for the five-year window starting April 2018. It will be interesting to see if the figure continues to soar on Thursday.
