MUMBAI: Star India parent 21st Century Fox’s (21CF) total firm commitments and future debt payments as of September 30 is approximately $83 billion, up $1 billion from what it was on June 30.
“The increase from June 30, 2017 was primarily due to a new agreement for the Indian Premier League’s (“IPL”) global media and digital cricket broadcast rights for the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, partially offset by payments related to sports programming rights,” 21CF stated in a regulatory filing.
In a related development, 21CF’s “contingent guarantees as of September 30, 2017 and June 30, 2017 were approximately $1.1 billion and $500 million, respectively. The increase from June 30, 2017 was primarily due to a bank guarantee covering the company’s new IPL programming rights obligations.”
It was in September that Star India won IPL’s composite global media rights for the next five years, besting bids from rival Sony Pictures Networks India as well as social media behemoth Facebook with a commitment of Rs 163.4751 billion.
