City AM: Cricket coffers on sticky wicket

Story from City AM:

There are few signs of any competition to incumbent JioStar for the crucial Indian TV rights ahead of the next tender for global tournaments, which will take place next year, according to insiders involved in the process.

Star Sports agreed to pay £2.2bn for rights to the World Cup and T20 World Cup between 2023 and 2027, but last year’s merger between Disney and Reliance Industries to create broadcasting monolith JioStar has taken out much of the competition, and rivals such as Sony and Warner Bros appear reluctant to challenge them.

The current Indian deal accounts for around 90 per cent of the International Cricket Council’s revenues, so a significant drop would have disastrous consequences for cricket’s finances – particularly outside the Big Three of India, England and Australia, whose domestic TV deals remain relatively strong.

The uncertainty surrounding future India-Pakistan meetings at ICC events due to the conflict in Kashmir has exacerbated the problem, as their guaranteed matches at World Cups contribute a large part of the value of the TV deal.

Intriguingly, The Guardian reported earlier this week that JioStar’s head of sport, Sanjog Gupta, is the frontrunner to replace the outgoing Geoff Allardice as chief executive of the ICC, which the world governing body will hope would increase their chances of renewing the existing contract for 2028 to 2031 on reasonable terms.