The International Cricket Council (ICC) is all set and planning to sell the media rights for the next cycle (2024-2031) almost 24 months in advance.
The ICC will begin the process towards the end of this year. The decision came after the ICC was worried about the IPL media rights entering the market in 2022 and is now considering selling the rights for the next cycle right from December 2021.
ICC is looking to sell media rights 24 months early because of the fear that IPL media rights can bag the bigger budgets available for potential bidders.
One of the ICC sources said “It’s right, ICC is initiating the selling process before the end of this year. They do not want to get caught in the crossfire as BCCI is likely to launch IPL media rights tender before March – April 2022. Another big change would be that ICC this time is likely to shun the process of selling all rights to one broadcaster as is the case with the current cycle of ICC rights where Star holds the entire global pie. ICC is likely to distribute their rights on a territory-to-territory basis.”
The next cycle of rights (2024-2031) will include the two ICC Men’s Cricket World Cups (2027, 2031), four Men’s T20 World Cups (2024, 2026, 2028, and 2030), two Champions Trophies (2025, 2029) and four World Test Championship finals (2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031). Apart from senior men’s events, there will be women’s events as well as the under-19 events.
ICC is also considering the first port as the Indian sub-continent to sell the rights, the remaining territories will be released for selling at a larger stage.
One of the BCCI officials said, “We will come out with our IPL Rights tender before the next IPL Season i.e IPL 2022. We should complete the process before the next IPL ends”