The Pakistan Cricket Board has agreed to sell the broadcasting rights for its international home games from August 2024 to December 2026 for almost half of what they initially wanted.
The rights for the Pakistan area were sold for 1.72 billion Pakistani Rupees, which is 1.48 billion Pakistani Rupees less than the original asking price of 3.2 billion Pakistani Rupees.
Even though they didn’t provide specific numbers, the PCB officials say that the rights were sold for more than double the amount they got in the previous cycle (from 2021 to 2024).
According to the information provided, the PCB has recently sold the broadcasting rights for the Pakistan region for a 28-month period to a group of Pakistani companies, ARY and Tower Sports. They stated that they sold these rights for more money than they did in the previous contract.
The PCB mentioned that these rights were given out after a fair and open bidding process where multiple offers were received.
These rights cover 11 Test matches, including seven in the 2024-25 season, 26 One Day Internationals (ODIs), and 24 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).
The ODIs include two three-nation ODI series, one in the current season and one in the next.
The lack of interest from well-known international broadcasters in the rights for the Pakistan international home season suggests that the PCB is having difficulties in making as much money from broadcasting rights as they had hoped.
Even Pakistan Television, the government-owned channel, offered PKR 1.6 billion and didn’t raise their offer even though the final winning bid was for PKR 1.72 billion.
“This amount is much lower than what the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) originally expected when they set their reserve price at PKR 3.2 billion,” said a person who knows about what happened.
Also, PTV got the rights to broadcast by getting permission to sub-license for PKR 500 million from the group of companies.
So, both the group of companies and PTV made good deals, but the PCB didn’t make as much money as they could have during this very busy season.
It’s surprising that the PCB is having trouble finding a UK channel to broadcast the Pakistan and England Test series in October-November. Sky Sports doesn’t seem interested in getting the rights for the UK.
However, the PCB believes that since they have some time, they will eventually be able to find a broadcaster for the series in the UK.
