Published: Jan 22, 2016, 12:09 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 22, 2016, 12:14 PM (IST)
Uday Shankar, CEO Star India revealed that they will have to renegotiate the contract with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) if the cricket body decides to implement the recommendation from Lodha Committee regarding commercial advertisements in cricket needing to be restricted to just lunch and tea breaks, and not allowed between overs. If that goes underway, the BCCI surely will have to be prepared for a low revenue, although Shnakar suggests that would not affect any broadcaster. He said that move “will have a consequent impact on pricing because 60 to 70% of monetising in cricket is through advertising revenue.“ READ: Lodha Panel’s recommendation of uninterrupted cricket to affect retired cricketers pension schemes
According to Times of India, he went on to add, “It’s very simple, by impact on pricing I mean the money that BCCI makes. If the recommendation is implemented, that revenue share will have to be dramatically revised downwards and in that case BCCI will have to be prepared to live with the lower value.”
“If the rates go down, we will renegotiate the contract (with BCCI). You have to see the implications here. I presume the Lodha committee recommendations are applicable only to BCCI and its tournaments. So, if BCCI agrees to air advertisements only during lunch and tea and the other boards across the world—Australia, South Africa, England and the others or even ICC—continue to air advertisements all the other time, they obviously become far more attractive propositions to a broadcaster than BCCI because of these restrictions.,” he said.
Shankar was firm on the fact that if the new rules of advertisements are applied, the other boards will stand to make far more money than BCCI because the BCCI’s income will be drastically impacted. “This will have a huge impact on the entire ecosystem of cricket. Much as we love our cricket, we have to bear in mind that somebody is paying for it. Whether anybody likes it or not, today the economics of cricket -be it through viewership or the game’s financial muscle -is being supported by India. And if that changes then the entire economics of the game changes.,” he said.
