Ganesh Kendale
NEW DELHI: Sony Culver Max has won the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) media rights for the 2024-31 cycle at a base price of US$170m via an e-auction process.
It was a hike of 70% from the previous cycle where Disney-Star had the Asia Cup rights at US$100m between 2016-2023. In an interesting development, Sony was the only participant as Jio-Disney did not turn up for the e-auction.
It is reliably understood that Jio and Disney had an internal arrangement where Disney was supposed to be on the auction table, and they communicated the same to ACC last night.
However, Sony was the only party that participated when the process got underway at 11 am UAE time. M-Junction, the e-auction service provider platform, was appointed to conduct the process.
The base price of the media rights global package — both digital and TV — was kept at US$170m.
The ACC media rights for the 2024-31 cycle include the Asia Cup for both men and women, and also the U-19 and emerging teams’ tournaments. Four men’s Asia Cup are likely to take place during this window.
ACC media rights could have further beefed up Jio-Disney’s portfolio which already includes media rights to the Indian Premier League, International Cricket Council, Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket South Africa and Cricket Australia. The move has left the industry in a state of confusion as many expected them to bag these rights.
