Good morning!
Buried in the weekend’s news (and I mean literally buried – not a single “cricket” outlet covered it) was JioStar’s request to the ICC to let them out of the last two years of their media rights deal. As a refresher, they are halfway through a $3 billion, 5-year contract that they inherited when Jio bought out Disney Star in India in 2024.
This comes after Jio didn’t even bid for the Asia Cup media rights last year. Head honcho Uday Shankar signalled Jio’s ambivalent stance to cricket rights in the moment, saying “If we don’t bid for the next cycle of ICC rights…it won’t make a dent in our business.”
Why do I bring this up? For two reasons; because you should know who Shankar is, and you should know what he can do.
Shankar is a legendary TV exec in India, akin to our version of Rupert Murdoch. He jumped around multiple TV channels in the 1990s when the format was booming in India, before running Star TV from 2004 until 2021 – turning them into the number one media house in the country, keeping the ship afloat after the sale to Disney in 2019, and placing them at the forefront of sports broadcasting in India.
Lalit Modi gets a lot of credit for revamping Indian (and global) cricket’s finances, but Uday Shankar was the guy actually paying for (and making a profit off) the major media rights deals. And, he’s the guy who has repeatedly said the cricket media rights are expensive and unrealistic – calling them “bad news.”
Which brings us to point number two; Shankar has a mandate to make JioStar hugely profitable, and cricket is no longer the money maker it used to be. The $6 billion IPL deal a couple of years broke the back of the TV industry in India. Disney sold out to Jio, and two other major corporations (Sony and Zee) had to merge just to stay alive. Remember the Asia Cup rights? Sony-Zee picked it up for the base price of $170 million for eight (8!) years. They can’t do billion dollar deals, even together.
Cricket is not profitable without these media deals. A single Test match can cost millions of dollars to host with all the tech, ops and logistics involved. As far as I can tell, only England and Australia have figured out how to cover those costs via matchday revenue – and only if the games go 4-5 days. Moreover, the entire international cricketing ecosystem is highly dependant on Indian revenue to survive – about 80% of the ICC’s revenue comes from one market.
So, we’ve got four points to consider; (1) Indian cricket is reliant on media rights sales to exist, (2) There’s only one company that can afford to pay the massive costs of a BCCI/IPL media rights deal, (3) That monopoly is run by a ruthless executive who’s publicly stated that they don’t need cricket, & (4) international cricket is subsidised by Indian revenue.
What happens if Jio Star just ignore the next round of BCCI, ICC & IPL media rights deals? People have been fretting about the real money gaming ban in India, but gambling revenue is minuscule compared to broadcast revenue.
What happens if Uday Shankar calls cricket’s bluff, and pulls the rug out from the whole sport?
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🏏 Cricket Roundup: Bazball’s collapsing, Ro-Ko cement their spots, & WI’s improbable draw.
🗞️ Quick News: KSCA’s new prez, the ICC’s new media rights headache, & a potential RR sale.
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Venkatesh Prasad has been elected the KSCA president. Sahil Malhotra talked to him about why Prasad ran, and what he wants to achieve.
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JioStar has informed the ICC that they want to pull out of their media rights deal because it is unprofitable.
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Venkat Ananth reports on a potential Rajasthan Royals sale to the Adani Group.
📺 A/V: Shakib on his career and returning to BAN, & evaluating IND’s all-rounders.
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“Bangladesh’s GOAT”
📽️ Beard before Wicket hosts Shakib Al Hasan to discuss his (cricketing) career, & his frustrations playing for (and now, not playing for) BAN. [YouTube] -
“The BEST Choice For Every Indian Squad”
📽️ Cricket by JB analyse IND’s all-rounders to see who fits which format best, and whether they all need to be shoe-horned into every team. [YouTube]
That’s it for today!
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