Index Page                                Archives

Prasar Bharti bags telecast rights for domestic cricket series

     Kolkata: The world's richest cricket board, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on Thursday awarded the telecast rights to Prasar Bharti, the public broadcaster in India, for the forthcoming domestic series against Sri Lanka and South Africa "We have received the telecast rights for 12 matches which India will be playing," said a Prasar Bharti official. Prasar Bharti will have to doll out rupees 7.5 crore per match to the cricket board, while marketing the series itself as per the arrangement with BCCI, he said. Indian Cricket team is scheduled to play seven matches against Sri Lankan team in October and five against South Africa in November. ''An offer was received from Prasar Bharati for Rs seven crore per match for Indian terrestial and cable rights. The committee felt that in order to reach out to the largest possible viewers, the national broadcaster would be the best option and the same arrangement was in place in 2004,'' BCCI President Ranbir Singh Mahendra said, adding that keeping this in view the committee negotiated with Prasar Bharati and ensured that Rs 7.5 crore was paid by them to the board per match, amounting to Rs 90 crore for the series. The production rights, on the other hand, for the two series was awarded to the production house Trans World International (TWI). ''While the Board had received an offer from TWI for the television production of the two series, the attention of the marketing committee was also drawn to an offer for production by Nimbus Sports that was filed along with the intervening application by Rajasthan Cricket AssociatIon and Punjab Cricket Association in the case filed by Zee Telefilms against the Board,'' Mahendra said. TWI was preferred to Nimbus Sports on the basis of a difference of nearly Rs 1.70 crore in the production cost of the two houses as the cost offered by TWI was 1.54 million dollar, while the quote of Nimbus Sports was 1.95 million dollar, he added. During the two series, India is scheduled to play seven one-day international, beginning on October 25, and three Test matches against Sri Lanka, while against South Africa, India will play five one-dayers.