MUMBAI: New Zealand Cricket on Tuesday confirmed a four-month international winter schedule, incorporating tours to Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, as well as the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE.
The BlackCaps will fly in to India immediately after the T20 World Cup, which concludes 14 November, for a series that comprises three T20 Internationals and two Tests.
It bears noting that for host broadcaster Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar, the media rights payout to the BCCI will be at a significantly higher price point than what has been the case for the the Disney-owned network the past three years when international cricket was played in India.
For context, rewind to April 2018 whan Star India retained BCCI media rights till 2023 for record Rs 61.38 billion for the period 2018-23 at an average (emphasis ours) payout of Rs 601 million per game over the five-year period.
That was NOT how the deal was structured, SportzPower can reveal. For the first three years of BCCI’s current media rights cycle, which ended earlier this year in March-April, the payout for then-Star now-Disney has been / was Rs 460 million per game.
The payout to BCCI for New Zealand’s tour to India is at Rs 770 million per game or Rs 3.85 billion for the full series. For further context, Disney’s payout per game for the Indian Premier League media rights it holds is Rs 545 million.
Coming as the series does immediately after the IPL and the World T20, which the advertising fraternity is in agreement will suck out the largest television marketing spends available for the current fiscal, it goes without saying that it will be a challenge for Disney to “balance the books” on revenues it pulls in from the Kiwi tour.
