The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has sold its broadcast rights for matches to be played in Pakistan from August 2024 to December 2026 for just one billion and sixty crores, against an allocation of three billion and twenty crores, one billion and 48 crores less than the allocated price.
According to Dawn News, PCB announced last week that it would give the broadcasting rights of all its home international cricket matches to the consortium of ARY and Tower Sports for 28 months.
During this time, Pakistan will host a total of 11 Test matches, including seven Test matches to be played in the 2024-25 season.
In addition, the Pakistani team will play 26 ODIs, 24 T20 International matches, and a tri-lateral ODI series during the same period.
Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) has also profited as it later acquired the broadcasting rights by sub-licensing from the consortium for 50 crores.
The Consortium and PTV remained profitable, while the cricket board failed to capitalize on the prosperous cricket season.
The board could cancel the bidding process and issue another tender if it receives an offer lower than its desired amount to get the minimum allocated price, but the board settled on the consortium’s offer.
Reportedly federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar used his influence to obtain PTV broadcast rights. Despite this, PCB’s bid committee awarded the broadcast rights to the highest bidder.
Dawn said, “When contacted, the cricket board declined to provide details of the amount, saying that due to confidentiality. We cannot confirm the amount allocated or the individual bids; however, we can confirm that the broadcasting rights have been sold at double price compared to previous years (FTP 2021 to 2024).”
However, according to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) rules and regulations, such information can be shared with the public.
