Mumbai: The three-match India-Afghanistan T20I series to be played in Delhi next month will be aired by Sony and Fancode. In a deal struck by ITW Universe, Afghanistan Cricket Board’s (ACB) global consulting partners, TV rights were sold to Sony on Thursday. Fancode has the digital rights.
The collective media rights value across verticals will fetch the ACB in the range of $2 million per match, HT understands. That’s significantly higher revenue than what they garner from any other bilateral series. It reiterates the bankable nature of an India series for every other ICC member board that does not enjoy a long-term media partner.
For Afghanistan, a helping hand from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) serves them perfectly – this being a golden opportunity to make India their adopted home in a series against World Cup winners.
With three matches being staged in the capital at prime time, nearly 90% of the on-ground sponsorship and activation inventory has been sold a month away from the series, even though the announcement was all last minute.
Although the dates allotted for the series are September 13–17, organisers are reworking the schedule to accommodate a match on Ganesh Chaturthi as well as a weekend. “If the calendar does come together, cricket lovers in India and around the world would be treated to a truly special weekend of high-octane T20 action — Friday night, Sunday night, and a blessed Monday under the auspicious gaze of Lord Ganesha. It would feel like a rare and beautiful alignment of sport, culture and goodwill,” said Bhairav Shanth, Co-Founder, ITW Universe.
Fair value or bargain price?
Shift the frame of reference to the media rights numbers, for what is equivalent of an India home bilateral series, these come across as a bargain buy for the broadcasters.
JioStar shelled out ₹68 crore per match for Afghanistan’s recent series in India as part of their 2023-28 BCCI rights property. In the previous cycle (2018-22), the per match value for BCCI bilateral rights was ₹60 crore. In the upcoming series, the TV and digital rights collectively account for a similar sum ($6 million, ₹57 crore) for the entire series.
It takes one back to a weighty comment made by JioStar Vice Chairman Uday Shankar, recently. “Why should you really expect JioStar to pay the same value for India versus Afghanistan that I pay for India versus England?” he told Variety. The market may have done the scaling down of value already. Take into account that JioStar stayed away from bidding for the short series.
And although economics of long-term contracts work differently where media rights are acquired with marquee matches in mind, BCCI would take their lessons in structuring their bilateral bouquet right in the next cycle.
