MUMBAI: In a development that comes as no surprise considering the challenging market conditions in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Star India has given a pass on renewing its three-year media rights agreement with New Zealand Cricket (NZC).
“Given the current market scenario and COVID-19 related business implications, Star India has refused to renew the existing deal,” a source close to the developments told exchange4media.
When Star India had last acquired the three-year media rights in 2017, it had committed $32 million, SportzPower understands, largely on the back of two India series that in total included six Tests (three per series) and 16 T20Is and ODIs (eight per series).
Aside from the negative market sentiment that is tagged on to the current rights cycle on offer, an even stronger “deal breaker” is the fact that ZNC’s Future Tours Program (FTP), running through to January 2023, has only one short tour by India (in March 2022) on it, comprising of just three ODIs.
In this predicament, NZC joins a growing list of cricket boards that are struggling to close media deals for the lucrative Indian market.
Among the international cricket boards, only the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Cricket Australia (CA) and Cricket South Africa (CSA), currently have media rights deals for the Indian subcontinent locked in. While ECB’s five-year and CA’s six-year media rights are with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), CSA recently closed with Star India after incumbent SPN declined to renew.
As for the other boards, that it’s an extremely difficult situation for all of them is putting it mildly.
