The International Cricket Council (ICC) will begin the process of selling media rights tenders for 711 matches for its global tournament for the next eight-year cycle (starting in 2024) on June 20. The package also includes the Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup. Unlike the BCCI (Cricket Board of India), the ICC will follow the traditional sealed process, with separate bids for men’s and women’s matches.
The Indian board sold Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for a record Rs 48,390 crore through a three-day e-auction. The ICC has come out with three special packages for men and women, with TV rights in package A for both, digital rights in B and both TV and digital in C. In the men’s category, rights can be acquired for four and eight years. Only four years’ time rights can be achieved for women.
Package A is TV Rights, ‘B’ is Digital Rights and ‘C’ is combination of both the categories i.e. TV and Digital Rights. There are two categories in the men’s cricket category – 4 years and 8 years. The bids should be for a period of four years, but alternatively one can also bid for a period of 8 years. In women’s cricket, it is for a term of four years.
The ICC said in its statement, “For the first time, the rights to men’s and women’s cricket will be sold separately. Bidding can be made for 16 events (above 8 years) of men’s cricket and 8 events (above 4 years) of women’s cricket. In total there will be 362 and 103 matches respectively. Apart from these 465 matches, there are also matches for Under-19 men’s and women’s cricket. ITT is only for the Indian market, with six packages for TV only, digital only or both.