The Hindu Business Line : BCCI receives 4 bids for telecast right

FOUR sports broadcasters have submitted bids for cricket telecast rights for international and first-class domestic matches to be played in India until September 2009.

These are Prasar Bharati, ESPN Star Sports, Zee Sports, and SET (Sony Entertainment Television) Max.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has fixed the floor price at $2.14 million per day.

With 139 days of cricket on offer, BCCI is expecting to garner at least $297 million (around Rs 1,300 crore) from selling broadcast rights.

This time around, BCCI has stipulated that only entities that own and control 24-hour television programming services and having own channels as well as experience of telecasting live international cricket matches are eligible.

It has also said that BCCI reserves the right to cancel the entire bidding process at any stage.

The awarding of cricket telecast rights last year had entered into a legal battle with Zee Telefilms seeking legal recourse against the BCCI's decisions.

In that round of bids, Zee Telefilms was the highest bidder at $260 million, latter upped to $308 million. ESPN Star Sports came second with a bid of $230 million.

The other broadcasters who submitted bids included Prasar Bharati, SET Max, and Ten Sports.

This time Ten Sports has opted out of the bidding race.

The four broadcasters have submitted bank guarantees of $3 million, sources said.

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