The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been criticised for their functioning, mainly due to their non-transparency. However, after the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, who are working to make BCCI function smoothly, things are gradually changing, which can be understood from their new approach to IPL media rights, which is set to take place on Monday.
The media rights will have a live feed for the media personnel at the Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel, and they will get to know as to the figures that various companies have quoted too.
"Only bidders and officials will be allowed inside the room where tenders will be opened and scrutinised before the awarding of rights. Live feed will be provided for the media to see what's happening and how much the companies have bid," The New Indian Express quoted an official as saying.
This is going to be extremely interesting when the various figures will be known to the media; thus it will be made available to the public too.
The IPL media rights, which will be awarded for the next five years from 2018, have become the talking point of late, with the board expected to make massive money from both the television and digital rights.
As many as 24 companies including Sony Pictures, Reliance Jio, Star India, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Yahoo and others have shown huge interest. Their fate will be learned on Monday , where IPL governing council chairman Rajeev Shukla, IPL COO Hemang Amin, and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, other BCCI office bearers are also expected to be present during the mega event.
There will be fight seven different rights on Monday, September 4 – Indian televisions and digital, while there will be separate bids for regions USA, Europe, Middle East, Africa regions and the rest of the world, reported ESPN Cricinfo.
The fight for the TV rights in India could be most interesting with both Sony Pictures and Star India keen on bagging the deal for next five years. However, with Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and other bigwigs involved in digital rights, it could be anyone's ball game. It comes as no surprise when Facebook and Twitter show huge interest in the digital rights, for the popularity on the social media is frantic when it comes to the IPL.
But, Sony and Star India will also go all out for the digital rights as well. Star India were the official digital broadcasters in the last IPL rights cycle.
