Aggressive bidding by telecom company Reliance Jio, and media players Star India and Sony Pictures has ensured that Indian cricket board BCCI will rake in at least ₹6,000 crore from the sale of its 5-year media rights.

The auction, which began on Tuesday, will continue on Thursday with Wednesday’s final bid ending at ₹6,032 crore.

On a per-match basis, the bid amount has already crossed the BCCI’s sale figure for the Indian Premier League (IPL), whose 5-year telecast rights were won by Star India last year for a whopping ₹16,347.5 crore.

The e-auction, which is a first for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and for any sports property, had seen as many as six players express interest. But the BCCI zeroed in on three contenders after considering the technical and financial feasibility of all companies, just before bidding began on Tuesday. During the five rounds of bidding that took place on the first day, the bid ended at ₹4,442 crore.

The BCCI is looking at the sale of media rights from April 2018 to March 2023. The cricket board, the world’s richest, has set a base price, or per-match value of ₹33 crore for ‘Global Television Rights’ plus ‘Rest of the World Digital Rights Package’; ₹7 crore for the Indian Subcontinent Digital Rights Package, and ₹40 crore for the Global Consolidated Rights Package.

The BCCI has listed a total of 102 matches that will form part of the ICC’s Future Tours Programme from June 2018 to March 2023. During this period, India will host 22 Tests, 45 ODIs and 35 T20s against nine opponents.

Based on Wednesday’s bidding, the per match fee has already touched ₹59.14 crore compared to ₹ 43.3 crore per game in the previous contract. For the IPL matches, BCCI had received a bid of ₹55 crore per game.

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