Gazi Television acquired the worldwide media and broadcasting rights of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for the next six years after the open bidding at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel yesterday.
Bidding $25,000 more than the base price which was set at $20m, local channel Gazi TV topped the bidding process as no other companies were able to meet the requirements of the BCB TV rights from the period of 2014-May 2020.
A total of seven companies had purchased the tender of the TV rights but four of them had actually taken part in the technical bidding.
Channel Nine was later suspended bringing the number of companies eligible for the TV rights open bidding process to three.
Indian company Sporty Solutionz declined to participate just before the open bidding got underway leaving just Gazi TV and another local channel Maasranga TV to fight it out for the media rights. Maasranga TV then had to concede defeat as they were unable to meet the base price of the bidding.
“On Thursday, we fixed the floor price of the open bidding at $20m. But Media Com (Maasranga TV) offered less than the floor price. And ahead of the start of the bidding process, Sporty Solutionz informed that they would not participate,” said BCB marketing and commercial committee chief Kazi Inam Ahmed.
Inam went on to say that the whole process of the media and broadcasting rights could be considered a great success for the board as there was no long-term TV rights contract in place. “We did not have any long-term TV rights contract for quite a while and due to that we had to sell the rights for a particular series for a very low price. But after the new board took over, our main aim was to sell the rights for a long-term basis which we have been able to do,” he said.
The BCB had earlier sold the previous TV rights to Nimbus for six years at $55.86 million although the board is yet to receive the full payment.
Even though the amount of the current deal is much less than the earlier contract with Nimbus, BCB president Nazmul Hasan notified that he was quite happy with the deal. “I think we are satisfied with what we have got. I think this is a great achievement for us as we do not have to pay a single penny for the production,” said Nazmul.
Meanwhile, questions have been raised after the BCB boss earlier informed that no directors will be engaged with the dealing of the media rights although one of the directors of cricket’s governing body, Gazi Golam Mortuza Pappa, is also the owner of Gazi Group. However, Inam said the whole process has been carried out with transparency.
“Gazi Golam Mortuza was not involved with the process and he sent a letter to us saying he will not attend any meeting related to the issue of the TV rights and there was no influence from his part on the bidding process,” concluded Inam.