Subramaniam Swamy Pleas In SC Seeking E-auctioning In IPL Media Rights

Recently BJP Leader Subramaniam Swamy had come up with a unique drive as he urged the Supreme Court to e-auction the media rights for the Indian Premier League. In order to reciprocate his sudden moves, the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud said that they would consider the request”.

Swamy has cropped this matter up through filing a PIL to the Supreme Court where he has sought urgent listing of it expressing that the entire incident has been held by the supreme court as the best method for awarding the contract. He also exhibiting its important crux to the apex court disclosed the exact amount which is involved in the e-auctioning award of Indian Premier League Media Rights. The total amount has reached a giant figure of 30,000 crores hence it shows the value of such drive going viral these days. Saying the same he has also thrown a request to the apex court by explaining the real essence of it hence in his words this issue should not be decided in an opaque manner.

Currently, IPL’s TV broadcast rights are held by Sony Pictures Networks Pvt. Ltd, which will expire in 2017 with IPL’s 10th edition. The Internet and mobile rights, however, were awarded to Novi Digital Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, a unit of Star India, for a period of three years to 2017. This current broadcasting right have witnessed its expiry through the ending of ninth and 10th editions of the IPL in 2016 and 2017,

Singapore-based World Sports Group bagged the IPL broadcasting rights for 10 years in 2008 by spending $918 million. A year later, the contract was replaced when Sony Group (through Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd) paid $1.63 billion for the nine-year broadcasting rights.

This auction process had been delayed last year on the apex court’s directive to comply with the Lodha panel reforms first. In 2013, the apex court had set up a three-member committee headed by Lodha to wash out the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after the allegations of spot-fixing which has surfaced the IPL.

The committee recommended several sweeping changes in the BCCI, including a “one state, one vote” formula, that seeks to prevent states with multiple cricket associations from casting more than one vote, an age cap for office-bearers, and a ban on civil servants being part of the board, which has seen stiff resistance from the cricketing body.