Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has reached an agreement with a homegrown marketing agency named Ban Tech for broadcast rights until October 23. The reports have suggested that this deal is worth $19.07 million (BDT 161.5 crore). Despite a 5% dip as compared to the previous broadcast deal with Gazi TV for $20.02 million that ran for six years, the board is said to be satisfied with the deal.
BCB’s media committee chairman Jalal Yunus admitted that the board is pleased with this deal. Meanwhile, the finance chairman insisted that the bid from Ban Tech was closest to their evaluation before the auction.
“Ban Tech got our media rights for next two years. We are happy (with Ban Tech) as they managed to bid close to our expectation.”
The agency will be covering nine home series that will include 18 ODIs and 19 T20Is along with seven Tests, during its tenure. Earlier this year, Ban Tech had successfully managed to broadcast home series against West Indies for about $2.12 million, $620,000 more than the floor price. This is the first instance that BCB will be producers for the broadcast of international matches in Bangladesh. Considering the financial impact of the pandemic on various cricket boards, this is a reasonable deal for BCB even though they would have commanded a bigger fee in normal circumstances.
The reports have suggested that Ban Tech will be holding talks with T Sports and Gazi TV for the broadcast rights for the upcoming home series with Sri Lanka starting from May 23. Both the firms have previously been responsible for telecasting some of the previous important cricket events in Bangladesh. England, India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand, and Afghanistan are scheduled to tour Bangladesh till January 30. Cricket Australia is also reportedly in talks with BCB regarding a white ball series before the T-20 World Cup in October. As of now, Bangladesh will be looking to perform better against Sri Lanka after losing the test series away from home last month.