Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has entered in a separate and exclusive negotiation with Sony Picture Network (SPN) for the long pending tender for the media rights. According to information available with InsideSport, SPN was the only interested party to submit its bid for the SLC rights. None of the other company including a leading Sports media rights marketing company from India submitted their bid. As reported earlier by InsideSport, Star India, Discovery and others stayed away from the tender which has got postponed multiple times over the last 4 months.
According to SLC sources, Sony had earlier submitted bid for all media rights (Television – Digital combine) for $22.5 Mn and that stays their final bid amount.
The sources further inform InsideSport that the offer by SPN is way below the expectations of SLC. But owing to the limited interest by the other parties, SLC are not left with any option but to accept the offer. Though SLC according to the source will attempt one last time to negotiate with the broadcaster.
“Market has not responded to our rights favorably. Coronavirus has taken its toll. The board will try one last time to negotiate with Sony to increase the price and we are confident that they being our long term partner will understand our situation”, said one of the SLC board member following the bid process closely.
Low offer is not the only thing which is worrying SLC. The sources tells InsideSport that SPN’S offer is conditional. In case the postponed tour of Indian cricket team to Sri Lanka does not materialize in the contract period, the offered values will be eroded by almost 40-45%.
“We are confident, BCCI will reschedule the series soon. It is a committed series in the FTP and cannot be cancelled. It is just a matter of rescheduling the series but this is true that Sony’s offer to us will reduce considerably if God forbid tour gets cancelled for some reasons”, added the SLC Board member.
Be the first to comment