CHENNAI: Amid expectations of netting record amounts from IPL media rights, the BCCI is keen to make sure there is no talk of foul play or lack of transparency. As part of the effort, it has been decided that on September 4, the process of awarding rights will be beamed live to mediapersons at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Hotel.
With some top names in fray to bag the rights divided in three categories for five years each starting 2018 — TV rights in India, TV rights outside India, digital rights — it had already been announced that officials of auditors Deloitte India and law firm Amarchand Mangaldas will oversee the process. Representatives of all 24 bidders have also been invited to attend.
As the event will not be telecast live, the BCCI has taken the initiative to provide live feed to a room marked for the media. “Only bidders and officials will be allowed inside the room where tenders will be opened and scrutinised before the awarding of rights. Live feed will be provided for the media to see what’s happening and how much the companies have bid,” an official looking after arrangements told Express.
Other than Star and Sony, a bunch of global names likes Twitter, Yahoo!, Facebook, Amazon have lined up to bag the rights. By unconfirmed estimates, the highest bid may be in the region of `20,000 crores. The stakes being so high has prompted the BCCI to go on a transparency overdrive. It has been learnt that the first part of the process is technical evaluation, where it will be assessed if the bidders fulfil the eligibility criteria. This will be done by representatives of Deloitte and Amarchand Mangaldas. Once they qualify as valid bidders, then only will the financial part of their bids be taken into account. The media can see from the live feed what’s going on in this part of the process as well.
“Bids being submitted doesn’t mean they are accepted. There is a list of conditions that all bidders have to fulfil. Our lawyers and auditors will take care of this part. Only bids that meet these conditions will be eligible for evaluation,” sources said, on condition of anonymity.
Other than BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, IPL governing council chairman Rajeev Shukla, IPL COO Hemang Amin, BCCI office-bearers CK Khanna (acting president), Amitabh Choudhary (acting secretary) and Anirudh Chaudhry (treasurer) are also expected to be present in Mumbai on September 4.
atreyo@newindianexpress.com