Dubai channel wins Sri Lanka cricket TV rights until 2020

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has awarded a package of broadcast and production rights to Dubai-based Taj TV which owns and operates Ten Sports channel until 2020.

The total deal worth over $60 million was split into three: production rights, which Taj and Ten Sports budgeted $14 million to $15 million; India's tour to Sri Lanka in 2017, which Ten Sports bought for a reported $25.5 million in May; and the broadcast rights for the remaining Sri Lanka home games over the next seven years, reportedly worth $34.8 million to Ten Sports.

SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said that Ten Sports emerged as the clear winner following months of negotiations with tenders being called in January, according to reports.

"This year, we called for separate tenders for production and TV rights for the first time. What we wanted was to see if we could demand better quality in production and also probe the possibility of a better deal for SLC financially," Ranatunga told the Daily Mirror.

"However, after carefully considering the production bids through several negotiations, the SLC Technical Evaluation Committee, as well as the Tender Committee, felt that Ten Sports offered the best terms.

"The figures quoted by the other bidders were higher than we expected. Ten Sports had anyway offered the best bid for the TV broadcast rights, so SLC obviously decided to award it to Ten Sports for another term."

Taj TV director Zahid Noorani had been involved in the thick of these negotiations and had personally flown down several times to Sri Lanka for negotiations during the past few months, the Daily Mirror added.

The same media report reported Taj TV is also committed to paying an annual donation of US$40,000 to SLC for the development of the sport in the country.

Taj TV and SLC are already long-term partners.

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