Viacom 18 bags India's home series cricket broadcast rights for nearly Rs 6000 crore
New Delhi, Aug 31: Viacom 18 on Thursday created a near monopoly in Indian cricket broadcasting sphere by bagging both TV and digital rights of the national team's home series for the next five years with a cumulative bid of approximately Rs 6000 crore, beating Star India and Sony in a three-way battle.
The BCCI had invited separate e-bids for both linear (TV) and digital for best price discovery.
"Viacom 18 paid Rs 3101 crore (approximately) for digital and Rs 2862 crore for linear (TV). As has been the trend, digital has fetched more in Rs 5963 crore (approx) deal.
"With IPL digital rights being bought by Viacom for Rs 26,000 crore plus, they now have almost all the high profile cricket properties save IPL linear (TV) and ICC events," a broadcasting industry source, tracking developments closely, told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
The rights will come into effect with India's three-match home series against Australia beginning September 22 and ending on March 31, 2028.
"Congratulations @viacom18 for winning the @BCCI Media Rights for both linear and digital for the next 5 years. India Cricket will continue to grow in both spaces as after @IPL and @wplt20, we extend the partnership @BCCI Media Rights as well," BCCI secretary Jay Shah said on 'X', formerly Twitter.
India will be playing 88 international games across three formats including 25 Tests, 27 ODIs and 36 T20Is with per match value of the deal standing around Rs 67.76 crore. This is nearly Rs 7.76 crore more than last cycle's Rs 60 crore per match value.
However, the BCCI is getting Rs 175 crore less than Rs 6138 crore it received during last cycle which had more games, specifically 102.
If one looks at the prevailing market sentiments , it is not a bad price to fetch as the per match valuation has increased. One needs to factor in that only marquee Test matches and series versus England and Australia will fetch a decent advertisement revenue. For matches against other nations, it is only the T20 which is the cash cow.
India will play 21 games against Australia and will be pitted against England in 18 matches across three formats during the next five years.
The BCCI fell way short of the billion dollar mark (at least by Rs 2300 crore) and one of the reasons for that could be the declining popularity of the ODI format and there are 27 of them in the next cycle.
"One-day bilateral series barring World Cup year should be done away with as it doesn't bring requisite revenues. With so many T20 leagues also happening around the world, the viewers' fatigue should also be taken into account," a broadcasting industry veteran said.
He also provided an interesting take on how the potential bidders do their mathematics and arrive at a particular figure.
"In case of 25 Tests, you have 15 Tests against England and Australia at home. The kind of pitches that are being prepared for Test matches in India, the broadcaster has literally no chance on most of the occasions to commercially exploit the fifth day unless there is a flat deck.
"At times, games finish during first session of the fourth day. Just calculate how many potential seconds of ad revenue you can lose," he explained.
Total number of games in five-year cycle: 88
Break Up: 25 Tests, 27 ODIs, and 36 T20Is
Australia 21
England 18
New Zealand 11
South Africa 10
West Indies 10
Afghanistan 7
Sri Lanka 6
Bangladesh 5.
Congratulations @viacom18 🤝 for winning the @BCCI Media Rights for both linear and digital for the next 5 years. India Cricket will continue to grow in both spaces as after @IPL, and @wplt20, we extend the partnership @BCCI Media Rights as well. Together we will continue to…
— Jay Shah (@JayShah) August 31, 2023
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
