Since Viacom 18 just got the exclusive rights to show India’s foreign games, it will have to show between 70 and 140 days of domestic cricket. Even though the standard for domestic broadcasting seems to be the same as before, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which is in charge of the rules, has made some changes. Now, the broadcaster has to show between 70 and 160 days of home games on the digital site.
According to the requirements listed in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the media rights, the broadcast feed must meet the standards for television delivery, making it compatible for television programming. In the same way, the ITT says that for online streaming, the video should be good enough for Internet and Mobile Delivery, which means that it is good enough for streaming.
So that there is no misunderstanding, the ITT makes it clear that the BCCI will be in charge of deciding which matches will be on TV and which will be streamed. As stated in the ITT, the BCCI will “decide, in its sole and absolute discretion, whether a particular domestic match will be classified as a Domestic Televised Match, a Domestic Digitized Match, or neither,”
This difference between TV and digital broadcasting makes sense, since different broadcasters may have owned the rights to each channel. But this isn’t the case because Viacom has bought both programming rights.
“The feed may be made by or for BCCI for each cricket match that is part of each Other Series,” the ITT says. For some of these “Other Series” cricket games, the feed made by or for the BCCI will be of a good enough quality that it can be used for TV delivery (Domestic Televised Matches).
For domestic televised matches, the minimum number of match-playing days will be 70 and the highest will be 140 in each contract year. Subject to this minimum and maximum, BCCI has the final say on the number of match playing days for Domestic Televised Matches and the matches that will be included in them. A similar point has been made about internet games, which will also show between 70 and 160 games.
The ITT puts domestic games in the “Other Series” category, which includes “(i) cricket matches organized by BCCI and played in India between men’s A teams, Women’s International matches, women’s teams, and all age group teams (men and women) of India and any other country/territory, along with warm-up/practice matches organized by BCCI for such teams from any other country/territory; (ii) practice/warm-up cricket matches organized by BCCI and played
In the meantime, Viacom talked about its purchase and what it had to do to win the BCCI rights. In a statement on Saturday, Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj said, “We are thrilled to have won the exclusive media rights to BCCI International and Domestic Matches, and we are excited to be able to give fans the best of India cricket on both digital and TV.” “We’d also like to thank the BCCI for making the E-Auction process clear and easy to use.”
The Viacom statement also said that home games would be shown. “The addition of BCCI International and Domestic Cricket includes international men’s and women’s matches as well as domestic first-class competitions like the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy,” a statement said. “This makes Viacom18 the leading sports network in the country.”
