Cricket South Africa (CSA) Receives No Compliant Bids For Rights By Indian Firms

The leading Indian broadcasters chose not to participate in the bid process, which had a deadline that expired on Wednesday, October 12. It would be an understatement to suggest that Indian media houses have responded lukewarmly to Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) media rights tender (ITT).

According to sources, all major broadcasters opted out of the tender process, which called for bids for both the recently launched SA20 and domestic international rights. As per Cricbuzz, three of the four broadcasters said that they had not submitted any bids after the South African board rejected their request to split the tender, lowering the base prices by separating the SA20 and international matches.

Additionally, there is a good probability that the fourth broadcaster has also abstained, but confirmation could not be obtained. Apart from OTT platforms FanCode and Amazon, the four major broadcasters in India are Sony, Star, Viacom, and Zee. The CSA refused to respond when asked if the Invitation To Tender (ITT) had produced no results, stating that “CSA doesn’t comment on confidential processes.”

There is no clear indication that the no-show was planned by the media houses, but it turned out to be an unusual display of cooperation among Indian media houses, which normally compete with each other in the market. According to a recent Cricbuzz article, Indian companies have written to the CSA regarding several ITT-related issues.

The CSA has fixed the reserve value for each game in the SA20 league at USD 240,000 (approx. INR 2 crores), increasing by 5% per season and requiring bids to be submitted for ten seasons. The fees asked by Indian broadcasters seemed high. Even if the league is controlled by all the IPL owners, this would amount to a total of $8 million per SA20 season. The league season will begin in January.

Similarly, the CSA demanded $7 million per game against India and $3 million for the non-India season. A broadcaster said to Cricbuzz, “With IPL, ICC, Australia and England rights sold without too many hassles, CSA may have thought they will too have a smooth sailing. They were wrong.”

However, the new media rights will not apply to South Africa’s next tour of India in 2023–2024. As per the current deal, Star India, which currently controls CSA media rights, will pay $1.5 million.

Also read: Later On, I Realised I Can’t Play Like Him: Former Indian Captain MS Dhoni On His Cricket Idol Sachin Tendulkar