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The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Saturday (August 27) said that Disney Star has retained the Indian TV and digital rights for both women’s and men’s global events for a four-year period from 2024 to 2027. 

“Disney Star will be the home of all ICC cricket in India for the next four years having won the TV and digital rights to both men’s and women’s global events through to the end of 2027,” the ICC said in a statement.

Without disclosing the bid value, the international cricketing body said that Disney Star won the rights following a single round bidding process that yielded a significant uplift to the rights fee from the previous cycle.

However, sources told news agency PTI that Disney Star would pay around $3 Bn for the rights. 

According to Cricbuzz, Disney Star ‘staved off a strong challenge‘ from competitors, including Viacom18, Sony Sports, and Zee Network, who were also vying for the rights. 

The report further added that a second bid within 10% of the figure quoted by Disney Star would have pushed the bidding to a second round. However, since the process wrapped up in one round, it is likely that Disney Star quoted a much larger figure than the runner up.

The process which began in June this year saw bids being opened on Friday and ratification from ICC’s board on Saturday. According to ESPN Cricinfo, the winning bid for the deal is expected to be higher than the $1.44 Bn benchmark set for four years by the ICC.

It is pertinent to note that Star had also won the rights last time and had paid around $2.1Bn, albeit for an eight-year period.

“We are delighted to continue to partner with Disney Star as the home of ICC cricket for the next four years which has delivered an outstanding result for our members and will support our ambitious growth plans…This was an incredibly competitive process, which isn’t surprising given the huge audiences that cricket consistently attracts with more than a billion fans that passionately follow the game globally,” ICC Chair Greg Barclay said.

Relief For Disney+Hotstar

The retention of the rights for ICC events, especially digital rights, would come as a huge relief for Disney Star, which operates OTT platform Disney+Hotstar, after losing the digital rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL). The media rights for ICC events are seen as the second-most lucrative deal for the Indian market, behind IPL. 

In June this year, Disney Star picked up the rights to broadcast IPL in the Indian subcontinent for 2023-2027 period for INR 23,575 Cr. However, it lost the digital rights for the marquee tournament to Reliance-owned Viacom18, which won the rights for a cumulative bid of INR 20,500 Cr.

Earlier, analysts told Inc42 that losing the digital rights for IPL may result in a loss of 15 Mn-25 Mn subscribers for Disney+Hotstar. Earlier this month, The Walt Disney Co. cut its subscriber target for Disney+Hotstar to 80 Mn by the end of FY24 from 100 Mn earlier, most likely due to its failure to retain the digital rights of IPL.

Recently, a report by brokerage firm JM Financial said that the digital rights of IPL would help Voot, the OTT arm of Viacom18, get incremental subscribers and become the leading player in the Indian OTT market in a few years.