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The industry is keeping its fingers crossed waiting for BCCI's decision
Money can't buy you everything - and that includes cricket telecast rights from BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India).
To win the telecast rights of BCCI-organised cricket in India, channels must also have the necessary track record of covering and telecasting cricket events, and also be in a position to provide a bank guarantee to prove their financial soundness.
For a television conglomerate like ZEE, it must be really hard to digest these hard facts, after committing some $260 million for the rights, and another $19 million for development of domestic Indian cricket, in association with the cricket board..
ZEE's detractors say that the channel has little to show as a serious channel promoting cricket vis-a-vis ESPN STAR Sports, Ten Sports or even a Doordarshan.
A senior executive from a sports channel told agencyfaqs!: "BCCI has a lot at stake. It cannot and will not fritter away the telecast rights to just about any Mr Moneybags. The image of BCCI is, after all, at stake - which means that the contract will probably go to the channel which has a track record of telecasting a cricket event."
He explained, "Telecasting a cricket match live is a tedious job, and it needs a certain expertise to handle this project. It's not as simple as acquiring a movie title and showing it on the channel."
Seen in this context, ESPN STAR Sports seems to enjoy an edge over ZEE, as the former is an outright sports channel with years of experience in handling various sports events, whereas the latter is limited to general entertainment.
The matter, unfortunately for the likes of ESPN STAR Sports, is not so simple. The ZEE group has been also, and continuously involved in cricket telecast - albeit outside India. From July 1997 onwards (telecasting Asia Cup across homes in UK and Europe) to December-January 2003-2004 (India-Australia series across Europe, excluding UK), the home-grown television major has been involved in the telecast of at least seven major cricket tournaments.
ESPN STAR Sports, on the other hand, clearly enjoys the confidence of cricket's governing bodies. In fact, just after the channel bagged the telecast rights for the recently concluded Asia Cup, Syed Ashraful Huq, CEO, Asian Cricket Council, had gone on record to say, "ESPN STAR Sports is known for its quality cricket coverage across key territories in Asia. The channel's large distribution network has been an important factor to take a decision in its favour."
The other issue at hand pertains to bank guarantees. When huge amount of monies are at stake (ZEE's highest bid at $260 million was followed by ESPN at $230 million, Doordarshan at $150 million, Sony at $132 million and Ten Sports at $115 million), it is but only natural for BCCI and other cricket bodies to demand a bank guarantee.
A bank guarantee is issued to insure payment to a third party (BCCI, in this case) in the eventuality of any of the channels failing to live up to its financial commitments.
"Actually, it's a combination of all three issues - bid amount, bank guarantee and experience, which eventually tilt the scales. Notwithstanding what some foreign sports channel will like people to believe, it is not automatic that the channel with more experience will bag the contract," says an industry expert.
He continues: "If the difference in the bidding amount is huge, the highest bidding channel will certainly get the preference. So, if the inexperienced channel commits $300 million, while the experienced one is ready to put in only $100 million, it's the former which will obviously bag the contract."
In this case, the difference between ZEE's and ESPN STAR Sport's bidding amount is only $30 million, and as per media reports, ESPN STAR Sports is ready to equal the bidding amount.
It is believed that the rival channels are not sparing any punches to prove their relative superiority to the cricket bosses. The intense lobbying is expected to continue till the BCCI announces its decision by the first week of September 2004. © 2004 agencyfaqs!