LAHORE: The Pakistan Super League (PSL) television rights were successfully auctioned off for a whopping 6.3 billion rupees, a significant increase of 2 billion rupees over the previous deal. A private TV station triumphed over three other bidders in the competitive bid for these rights. Yesterday, financial bids were opened with a reserve price of Rs. 7.358 billion.
The former rights holder channel presented an offer of Rs. 5.30 billion during the initial bidding round, while the state-owned TV channel and the remaining two contenders submitted bids of Rs. 5.17 billion, Rs. 4.40 billion, and Rs. 4 billion, respectively. However, none of the bidders were able to reach the reserve price, necessitating a second round of bidding.
The channel that made the highest bid in the first round boosted its offer in the second round by one billion rupees, securing the broadcasting rights for the next two years for a total of Rs. 6.30 billion. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has approved this transaction, with 95% of the earnings going to PSL franchisees. As a result, the franchises stand to gain more than Rs. 3 billion every year. Separately, digital rights were purchased for Rs. 1.85 billion.
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It should be emphasized that the PCB only allowed corporations with their own sports channels or rights obtained from another channel to participate in the bidding process, resulting in four channels competing for the rights. If the reserve price was not met, the PCB will be destroyed.
In comparison, the previous contract’s reserve price was Rs. 3.7 billion, with the rights eventually selling for Rs. 4.3 billion over a two-year period. Surprisingly, the same corporation has once again obtained broadcasting rights. PCB hired the foreign firm ‘Colganbauer’ to do a valuation of PSL’s media rights prior to the bidding, establishing a value of 6 billion rupees.
