MUMBAI: Star India, the official broadcasters of the Indian Premier League (IPL) competition, have approached the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for permission to display advertisements related to the general elections during the tournament, Times of India reports.
The Lok Sabha elections will be overlapping with the majority of the tournament, as they are set to take place from 11 April-May 23.
As per the Media Rights Agreement (MRA) signed by Star and the BCCI when the former won the ten-year IPL rights in 2017, it has a clause 8.6(B) under which the broadcaster is prohibited from running any kind of political or religious advertisements during either live or recorded transmission of games.
While Star is seeking an amendment to the clause specifically this year as a potential source of advertising revenue, the BCCI hasn’t yet responded to the proposal.
“Star and BCCI have had two rounds of talks over this. As of now, nothing has come out of it,” an industry sources were quoted as saying to TOI.
If the CoA-led BCCI agrees to do so, it could set a wrong precedent for future broadcast agreements due to not respecting the MRA as well as politicising the game to newer levels.
Star India had won the global media rights deal for the IPL which is worth a record Rs 163.48 billion till 2022. It means that it will be paying the BCCI Rs 550 million for every IPL game played during this period, which is Rs 120 million more than it pays for India’s each international match at home.
“That’s serious money. So its pretty understandable that Star would want to make the most out of advertising revenue. But the call is for the BCCI to make here,” the source added.
