Jawahar Goel decries Star’s bid to monopolise cricket broadcast rights

Jawahar Goel, Chairman & Managing Director, Dish TV India, has written to the I&B Minister, TRAI, BCCI and Competition Commission of India, wherein he has brought to their notice certain issues arising out of the forthcoming auction of telecast rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) that could create a ‘sole supplier’ monopoly in the market. 

According to Goel, “A perusal of the recent developments in the broadcasting sector would reveal that Star is systematically moving towards elimination of competition and creation of monopoly in the cricket telecast segment. They intend to exploit their monopoly status for maximising their subscription and advertisement revenue at the cost of consumers.” 

He pointed out, “It is a matter of record that BCCI media rights covering Television, Internet and Mobile for the period from July 2012-March 2018 were sold to Star India at a price of Rs 3,851 crore.” 

Continuing further, he said that Star also has the global media rights for Asia Cup (Asia Cup, Women’s Asia Cup, Emerging Asia Cup and U19 Asia Cup), including TV, audio, internet and mobile rights for all territories globally for the period from 2016 to 2023; the global broadcast rights for all ICC events, which includes exclusive live and highlights rights across all platforms for major ICC events such as the ICC Cricket World Cup and its qualifiers, the ICC Women’s World Cup, the ICC World Twenty20 and its qualifiers, the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup for the period 2015-2023. In addition, Star also has the rights for all the bilateral series of the Cricket Broads of Australia, England and Bangladesh and today, barring the IPL, Star has the rights for all the cricketing events to be shown in India for the next 6-7 years. 

Citing media reports, Goel noted that Star is also one of the potential bidders for the IPL cricket telecast rights. He alleged, “Star is aiming to acquire the IPL cricket telecast rights also and thereby attain the status of ‘sole holder’ of the telecast rights of all the major cricketing events.” 

Goel further said, “As per the data available in the market, out of the total 270 matches played/ to be played by India during the period from 2012-2019, telecast rights of as many as 191 matches are with Star only, which is around 71 per cent of the total matches.” 

He expressed the apprehension that once Star acquired the telecast rights for IPL as well, not only would the market share in terms of viewership of Star skyrocket, but also distribution platforms such as DTH and Multi System Operators (MSOs) would have no choice but to subscribe to the Star Sports channels for cricket content because of Star’s monopolistic position as a sole holder of cricket telecast rights. 

Goel also mentioned that Star had challenged the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007 which provides for mandatory sharing of sporting events of national importance with the Prasar Bharati to enable them to re-transmit the same on its terrestrial networks and Direct-to-Home networks. 

Adding further, he said that Star has challenged the authority/ jurisdiction of TRAI to fix the price of TV channels and the matter is pending before the Madras High Court. As is known, TRAI in its recent regulations has capped the maximum retail prices of TV channels, including sports channels, at Rs 19 per subscriber per month. 

Goel also said that rival DTH service provider Tata Sky, an associate company of Star, had also challenged the price regulations issued by TRAI before the Delhi High Court. 

According to Goel, all these clearly indicate that with the blessing of BCCI, the growth of Star has been exponential capturing all the rights for all the cricketing events to be shown in India except for lone event of IPL. 

He concluded his letter by stating, “We look forward towards BCCI to adopt pro-competitive and pro-consumer approach as one of the major criteria while awarding the IPL rights so that the rights of entire broadcasting and distribution sector as well as that of the viewers of cricketing events are safeguarded. Accordingly, we would request you to kindly initiate inquiries and issue necessary direction in the matter.”