Star quotes approx $1Bn to win BCCI media rights for all bilateral home series  

Cricket is a religion in India and its controlling body BCCI knows well how to monetise the overwhelming obsession and engagement with the faith (it).

After selling $2.5 billion (Rs 16,347 crore) worth Indian Premier League (IPL) global media rights to Star India, it has sold out India's bilateral home series for the next five years period (April 2018 to March 2023) for about $940 million (Rs 6138 cr).

The three days long bidding saw interest from global as well as local conglomerates such as Star, Facebook, Google, Amazon Prime, Reliance Jio and Airtel. South Asia focused content provider Yupp TV also had placed its bet for the upcoming auction.

However, only three players including Reliance, Sony and Star were eligible to place financial bets online.

The fierce betting started on Tuesday closed at $684 (Rs 4,442) crore while it escalated over $920 million (over Rs 6,000 crore) on Wednesday. Ultimately, Star has outrun the Mukesh Ambani-led group and Sony to own telecast as well as digital rights.

The base price for the television rights for the first year is Rs 35 crore per match and Rs 33 crore per match for the remaining tenure. Meanwhile, the basic price for the digital rights at Rs 8 crore for the first year followed by a Rs 7 crore fee per match for the next four years.

Last year, social giant Facebook had made a massive bid amount of Rs 3,900 crore for the Indian Premier League (IPL) digital rights, but it lost to Star India.

In one of the expensive marketing deals by any digital company ever, Paytm had claimed the title rights from BCCI for all international and domestic bilateral series (a total of 84 matches) hosted by the cricket board (during 2015-19 period).

The news was first reported by TOI.