Sri Lanka Cricket's new deal with Sony hinging on home series with India?

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) entered into negotiations and finally cracked a deal with Sony Picture Network (SPN) for the long-pending tender for the media rights. Sony Picture Network has won the broadcasting rights for Sri Lanka Cricket spanning three years, from 2020 to 2023. According to InsideSport, SPN was the only bidder for the rights of Sri Lanka Cricket.

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Sony Picture Network bid for Sri Lanka cricket's media rights way below SLC expectations

Star India, Discovery and others who were in contention to bid for the rights stayed away from the tender which was postponed several times over the last four months. Sony submitted a bid for all media rights (Television – Digital combined) for $22.5 million and that stays their final bid amount. While speaking to InsideSport, souces said that that the offer by SPN is way below the expectations of SLC.

However, due to limited interest from other companies, Sri Lanka Cricket has been left with no option but to accept the lowball offer. Though SLC attempt to negotiate with the broadcaster one last time, according to InsideSport, an SLC board member said that the market has not responded to their rights favourably due to the coronavirus pandemic. He added that the Sri Lanka Cricket Board will try one last time to negotiate with Sony to increase the price and they are confident that they being a long term partner will understand their situation.

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The low offer is not the only thing that Sri Lanka Cricket has to worry about. Sources claim that SPN's offer is conditional and a lot of it depends on India's tour of Sri Lanka. Reports further add that in case the postponed tour of the Indian cricket team to Sri Lanka does not materialise in the contract period, the offered values will be eroded by almost 40-45%.

Speaking on the same, an SLC Cricket Board member said that they are confident BCCI will reschedule the series soon. He added that it is a committed series in the FTP and cannot be cancelled. However, he agreed that Sony’s offer to them will reduce considerably if India's tour of Sri Lanka gets cancelled for any reason.

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India-owned Dubai-based company wins Sri Lanka Premier League's rights

According to a recent development, SLC has awarded the marketing and organisation rights of the Sri Lanka Premier League to an Indian-owned Dubai-based company, Innovative Production Group (IPG). As many as 25 companies showed interest in securing the marketing and organisation rights for the Sri Lanka Premier League after SLC floated a tender for the sale of rights in July. However, it was Dubai-based IPG who emerged as the highest bidder for the rights. The rights bagged include Team Franchise and Team Ownership Rights, International Media Rights, Ground Sponsorship Rights and AV Production Rights.

The head of IPG is Anil Mohan, who is a veteran of sports broadcasting. Mohan has worked closely with Cricket South Africa (CSA), Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), Cricket Ireland (CI), Asian Cricket Council (ACC), Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) among others. Sangeet Shirodkar, a Director at IPG and the former business manager of CSK's Harbhajan Singh, said that IPG is enthralled with this opportunity and are confident of making Sri Lanka Premier League one of the most premier cricket leagues in the world.

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Image Courtesy: SLC & Sony Sports India Twitter