The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s five-year broadcasting deal, worth $149 million, with Ten Sports and PTV came to an end, earlier this year, with the Bangladesh series.
PCB had managed to secure the million-dollar deal largely because its international calendar for the last five years was marked with two home series against India. However, since these series did not take place due to the strained political relations between both the countries, $90 million were deducted from the deal.
According to sources, the board is not expecting the media rights deal for the next cycle (2020-2023) to be sold at a higher price. As a result, it is looking to hire the services of a media rights consultancy that will determine the value of the deal and also work directly with the broadcasters. The PCB used to earn approximately 40 per cent of its revenue from the media rights deal.
Earlier, the board also released an advertisement to acquire the services of a media rights consultant. According to requirements stated in the advertisement, the consultancy company should:
Very few Pakistani companies are able to meet all the above requirements.
The last date to submit a tender is May 14. The company with the successful bid is likely to be paid a fee of US $50,000.
Sources further revealed that the board is likely to hire an Australian company, ColganBauer, for the aforementioned service. Last year, a PCB official also met with its representative in Australia.
It should be noted that current PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani was the head of the bid committee during the negotiation of board’s previous media contract, and the board didn’t acquire the services of any media rights consultant back then.
John Stephenson
john@cricketinvestor.co.uk
