Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has released a tender to procure Media and related rights partner for scheduled England’s tour of Sri Lanka. The series is scheduled to be held in January 2021, after being previously suspended in March due to the pandemic.
The England-Sri Lanka series is not part of the FTP signed with Sony. Since SLC is not happy with Sony’s offer for the tour, it has decided to tender the series.
According to the tender released by SLC, the board has called for Expression of Interests for the International Television, Radio, Digital, Gaming, Betting rights of the England tour of Sri Lanka. The potential parties are asked to submit their EOI before 2nd November.
Interestingly, the series has not been finalized yet due to the Covid-19 quarantine norms, said an ECB personal in his recent interview. Recently Bangladesh Cricket Board also canceled the tour to Sri Lanka for the same reason.
Sony Network was reportedly ready to pay $700K for the two-match test series, but SLC demanded around $2 million. The difference in expectations has led to SLC to release tenders for this series.
SLC has already signed up with SPN for the SLC media rights for the next three years cycle. SLC will get a whopping $22.3 million from SPN for broadcasting games in the next three years.