Who will broadcast Indian Cricket?

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The bidding war for media rights of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)'s matches to be played in India is heating up, with more contenders joining the race. The rights include television, internet and mobile coverage for six years, starting July 2012.
According to BCCI officials, Multi-Screen Media (MSM), which telecasts the Indian Premier League on MAX, has bought the invitation to tender. The network also plans to a launch a new sports channel, Six, this year.
Apart from MSM, ESPN-STAR Sports (ESS), Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL)-led consortium and Reliance-Network18 have picked up tender forms.
An ESS spokesperson said they would not comment on these matters, while BCCL chief executive Ravi Dhariwal said it was an internal matter.
Subhash Chandra's Zee group, which owns sports channels under the TEN umbrella, is believed to be interested in the rights, but is waiting for BCCI to withdraw its case against it.
The bids will have to be given on April 2 in Chennai. "The marketing committee will meet in Chennai to receive and open the bids next Monday," said a BCCI official.

After BCCI has terminated Broadcast deal with Nimbus, BCCI has invited fresh tenders. ESPN-STAR looking to gain the rights which it has been missing for long period. Sony-MSM which already hold BCCI backed IPL rights also looking to grab the rights to boost its newly planned Sports channel SIX. Zee group has case pending against BCCI, so it has restrained itself from bidding currently, but it would also be happy to get rights. Apart from this three, surprising to see BCCL (owners on Times group channels - Times Now, ET Now, Movies Now, Zoom) and Reliance-Network18 (who recently acquired ETV channels). April 2 is the date to watch out for all the happening in biggest broadcast deal in Cricket.

Neo Sports for Sale?

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For founder-promoter Harish Thawani, fresh trouble is brewing. TheOneAlliance, the brand of the joint venture company between Multi Screen Media (MSM) and Discovery, has terminated the distribution contract of Neo Sports Broadcast's two sports channels.

"We terminated the contract with Neo Broadcast on 3 January. We had specifically mentioned in the contract that the deal would be valid if Neo had the BCCI rights. We have communicated to them about the scrapping of the contract," MSM Discovery president Rajesh Kaul told Indiantelevision.com, without disclosing the size of the contract.

"After deciding to end the distribution contract, it is highly unlikely that Sony will look at buying Neo. The Times of India Group may be a contender. Or even Mukesh Ambani via Network18. These are entities who could be looking at entering the sports broadcasting market. But the big debate could be valuation," said a media analyst.

It seems Indian Sports broadcasting would see rise of new sports broadcaster in 2012 after Nimbus/Neo was out of BCCI boat. It would really be interesting if group like Times Network (who runs channel like Times Now, ET Now, Zoom and Movies Now) or Network 18 (who runs channels like CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18 along with Hindi news channels and soon to start newly acquired channels from ETV) would own Neo channels. Or would Neo bounce back?

Also interesting to see who gets BCCI rights for Cricket broadcast right for all Internation and Domestic matches played in India (hosted by BCCI).