CHENNAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) and one of its broadcast partners, JioStar, continue to battle headwinds as the partners try to renegotiate the inflated $3bn deal for the right to show the sport's biggest international events over a four-year cycle. The deal still has two years to run but JioStar, who were left with the rights following the merger with Star Sports last year, reportedly want out of the deal.
The ICC, whose funding remains the lifeblood for over 97% of its members, sounded out other broadcast houses about the possibility of stepping in and picking up the remainder of the deal but they have shown no interest so far. "At those prices, it will make no business sense for the likes of Sony (Netflix and Amazon were among the others who were approached) to even show any interest," one industry insider told this daily.
Sony has always run a tight ship around sports properties. It's kind of why they walked away after the initial Indian Premier League (IPL) years. To further illustrate that point, when the ICC decided to split the then existing arrangement of selling media rights in eight year cycles into two blocks of four, Sony only bid $1.6bn, almost 50% less than the winning bid. Jio had also shown interest but their bid was $900mn. This is why there was a feeling that Star had grossly overpaid as soon as they had won the right.
There were some discussions around recalibrating the deal a year or so ago but those discussions didn't go anywhere. What has complicated the situation is the policy change on real money gaming (RMG). With a blanket ban on RMG, the broadcaster has not been able to get as much in terms of advertising revenue. With ed tech — another big area when it comes to live sport — also suffering in the current climate, there maybe a shortfall. As it stands, industry insiders do not expect any of Sony, Netflix (who have just made a huge commitment to acquire Warner Bros.) and Amazon to pick the rights and definitely not at the eye-watering prices discussed above.
One former ICC official who has an intimate working knowledge of these issues suggested to this daily that JioStar and ICC may need each other. Which is why the person fully expects JioStar to retain the ICC properties at least till the end of the deal in 2027.
Intricacies of the TV deal
The broadcaster and the International Cricket Council (ICC) can reach certain creative solutions in order to ensure both players keep their losses to a minimum. One of them could involve a similar agreement to the one in play during five-Test India v. England series earlier this year. While Sony showed the series on TV, Jio was OTT partner. "We can see solutions like this," one industry veteran noted.
There's always the kamikaze approach as, for all intents and purposes, JioStar is legally bound by the existing contract. But the former ICC official doesn't see the two longstanding partners (almost two decades) 'going down that route'. "They are all adults in the room and they will come up with something to ensure there is no bad blood on either side."
The other thing to note in all of this is the identity of the ICC CEO, Sanjog Gupta. Gupta, before joining the world body in July, was a prominent figure with JioStar. In essence, the Indian TV czar who had an over 15-year association with the media house before joining ICC, was part of Star when they signed off on the deal with ICC in 2022.
Another thing to consider is that certain sections of the Indian cricket-loving public no longer have the same appetite to watch an India vs Pakistan match. That match is a significant revenue generator to the final balance sheet and if the Indian government adopts a hardline approach with respect to playing Pakistan in ICC events as well, at least in the group stages, the ICC may well have to acquiesce (other sporting bodies, most notably FIFA, ensure that countries and clubs between specific federations cannot face each other at least in the group stages).
On Tuesday, JioStar published a teaser apropos the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. They may yet be the broadcaster for the cash-rich Indian TV market but lobbying will continue.