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DD grants cricket overseas telecast rights to Stracon-TWI

Prasar Bharati has signed a 43.75 million dollar deal with Stracon-TWI, granting it the exclusive overseas airtime marketing rights of international and domestic cricket played in India for the next four-and-a-half years.
The agreement, signed between Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Rajiv Ratan Shah, Jeremy Cole of TWI and Surojit Sen and Sidharth Ray of TWI, brings to an end the preparatory work for the BCCI-related cricket rights acquired by Prasar Bharati in September, 1999.

Prasar Bharati had signed an agreement with Channel Nine of Australia for producing at least 54 days of cricket events covering one day internationals and test matches for the next two years.

It also signed a Rs. 450 crore deal with Buddha Films, granting it exclusive
domestic air time marketing rights for the next four-and-a-half years.

Talking to mediapersons after signing the agreement with Stracon-TWI, Shah said while domestically, the cricket matches would be shown only on Doordarshan’s national and sports channels, the overseas marketing rights had been sub-leased to Stracon-TWI except the internet rights, which Doordarshan had retained with itself.

The agreement with Stracon-TWI would cover 27 days of international cricket and 21 days of domestic cricket played in India each year till september 30, 2004.

The deal with Stracon-TWI has been denominated in dollar terms and any exchange rate variation advantage or disadvantage would be borne by Prasar Bharati, Shah said.

While the multi-media rights had been given away to Stracon-TWI, Doordarshan had retained with itself the internet rights which the network intended to operationalise in a non-exclusive manner.

Any party which wished to bring cricket on their web sites would be able to do so after paying a fee amount, which is yet to be decided, to Doordarshan for internet rights.

Peter Hutton, head of TWI-Asia, said they hoped to show cricket being played in India in every major cricket playing country like England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They would also market the matches in non-cricket playing countries like the United States, Malaysia and Singapore in an effort to create interest in the game. “We are sure when they see the emotion of the game played in India, they would be interested,” he added.

Expressing satisfaction at being able to “maximise the opportunities” and get the best combination of bids, Shah said the agreements signed by Prasar Bharati for marketing of cricket telecast rights would net 147 million dollars (approx. Rs. 650 crore).

The telecast of at least nine international cricket series expected to be played in India over the next four-and-a-half years on Doordarshan’s national and sports channels, would not only make them financially self reliant but also add to their stature, Shah said.

The network would also be able to bring to its viewers technical innovations like “speedometer” to guage the velocity of the ball, “snickometer” to show whether the ball was off the bat or the pad and “red zone equipment” showing the trajectory of the ball.

Backing the Prasar Bharati’s judgement, Hutton said when it bagged the rights for cricket events in India from the board of control for cricket in India (BCCI) last september, the general feeling was that it had bid too high for the rights. But in only nine months since then, the value of cricket rights had gone up and Prasar Bharati’s gamble had paid off, he said. Prasar Bharati had, in a five-year contract signed with the BCCI on September 29, 1999, assured the board an annual revenue of 10.5 million dollars. The deal, however, was denominated in rupee terms.

Shah said as per the agreements signed with Buddha Films and Stracon-TWI, five per cent of the bid amount had already been deposited and this would be followed shortly by bank guarantees amounting to 15 per cent of the total bid.
As per the payment schedule drawn up, 95 per cent of the minimum guarantee of 43.75 million dollars assured by Stracon-TWI would be paid by September 2003 though the agreement is upto September 30, 2002, Shah said. Both sides asserted that there were no problems between them now and previous differences had been sorted out. Shah said revenue-sharing arrangements had also been agreed upon for any earnings above the minimum guarantee amount.

UNI