Rupert Murdoch owned Star group won the Indian cricket broadcast and digital rights for an amount of 3851 crores for 6 years starting from July 2012 till March 2018, covering 96 matches. The announcement was made by BCCI president N Srinivasan in Chennai on Monday. The BCCI chief announced at a press conference that the contract is for six years amounting to Rs 3851 crore, covering 96 matches and an average of Rs 40 crore per match.

What was being received from Nimbus was 32.25 crores and hailing this as an improvement, Srinivasan said that BCCI is very very glad that media rights have been fully evaluated and now fully priced.Five parties picked up the tender documents - Star India, ESPN Software, Multi Screen Media, Zee Entertainment, Times Internet.Bids were submitted by star and MSM and after following the transparent process and verifying the eligibility for each bidder, the bid was opened in the presence of both the party and the winner was chosen.

The six-year contract was awarded to Star group. Sony's bidding amount was Rs 3700 crore, the second highest. BCCI had received bids for broadcast, internet and mobile rights in India from ESPN Star Sports (ESS), Multi Screen Media ( Sony), Bennett & Coleman (BCCL) and a consortium involving TV-18 and Reliance. It was an interesting three-way battle between MSM, ESS and TV 18-Reliance consortium for the broadcast rights of India's international matches at home, after the BCCI decided to cancel its previous contract with Nimbus Communications over payment problems.

Star also got the rights to broadcast domestic events like Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Irani Trophy. ESS is a 50:50 joint venture between Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.), the parent company of ESPNcricinfo, and News Corporation Limited (STAR) and they have the rights of all ICC events and also rights of domestic cricket in England and Australia. The BCCI's marketing committee set the price for category A games at Rs 31.25 crore per match (approx $6.1 million) plus Rs 1 crore (approx $0.2 million) while category B games were set at Rs 34 crore (approx $6.67 million) plus Rs 1 crore.

The board failed in its attempt to sell the internet rights separately last year, as the initial base price of Rs 3 crore and the subsequently reduced price of Rs 2 crore found no takers. The BCCI terminated Nimbus' contract last year claiming the latter had defaulted on payments.The matter has subsequently been referred for arbitration, with the Bombay high court ruling that Nimbus must deposit Rs 305 crore (approx $60 million) with the court as security for the amount the BCCI claims it is owed by the company. Nimbus has also made a counter-claim of Rs 600 crore (approx $118 million) from the board.