MUMBAI: Disney Star, Viacom18, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) and Zee Entertainment have reportedly raised concerns about the ‘lack of transparency’ in the bidding process for media rights to the International Cricket Council’s next eight-year cycle of global cricket events.
The potential bidders in India for media rights have raised red flags on four issues as SPN has reportedly written a letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) over the auction process, Economic Times reports.
This comes as the ICC has issued a separate rights tender for the Indian subcontinent, the world’s largest cricket market.
As per ET, all the four Indian broadcasters have criticised the use of sealed envelope bidding over e-auction.
Executives of all four media houses told ET that they have also flagged: a) the three-week gap between submission of bids and winner announcement, b) lack of clarity on the multiplier formula for four-year rights versus eight-year rights, and c) the demand for an upfront deposit of 5 per cent.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has already taken the step to do transparent e-auctions and the ICC should follow suit, the broadcasters argue.
A top executive of a broadcasting network told ET, “In today’s age, it is unheard of to do a sealed bid auction and then wait for three weeks. Why should my financial bid be with them for three weeks.”
The ICC could get all the directors in the room and open the bids, the executive told the newspaper, adding, “Instead, they are waiting for three weeks. Is it for re-negotiating?”
For the record, the ICC has not kept any reserve price for bidding.
As per the current timeline, the ICC will close bid submissions by the third week of August, and by September first week it will formulated recommendations to the board for final approval.
Meanwhile, a top source from the global body’s board confirmed to ET that one broadcaster had written to ICC on the auction process, but said that by and large, all the bidders were fine with the process.
“We’ve addressed this earlier too, and we feel that a sealed bid is always going to give us the best number. Unlike e-auction, bidders are not looking over their shoulder and just increasing it by a little bit,” he told the business daily.
Talking about the three weeks gap, the executive said that the bid oversight committee will try to get everything sorted within the given timeframe.
On confusion over the multiplier formula, the ICC source told ET, “We have done a complete complex model and have a multiplier ready. We will take the best four-year number, apply that multiplier, and check the best eight-year number.”
