BCB to call for tenders soon to sell TV rights

DHAKA —The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will invite tenders for the sale of TV rights for a long term basis once the Future Tour Plan (FTP) of the International Cricket Council (ICC) will be finalized.

All bilateral and multinational series last year have been suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which also left ICC’s plan in disarray.

However the world cricket apex body is yet to come up with a FTP for member countries to host the postponed series, which is why, the BCB is currently selling the TV rights for series by series.

Once the ICC FTP is finalized, the BCB will take initiative to strike a long term deal for TV rights, said BCB media and communication committee chairman Jalal Yunus.

“We have said a few times why we could not go for a long term deal for the TV rights,” he said while speaking at the TV rights announcement ceremony in Gulshan today.

“Because the FTP was not final. Since the FTP is not final, we have just sold the TV rights for the West Indies series. We’ll know within a couple of days whether the FTP is finalized. If it is finalized, we will invite tenders for long-term broadcast in a day or two,” he informed.

T-Sports bought the TV broadcasting rights for the first domestic tournament, the Bangabandhu T20 Cup, after the cricket here restarted following a Covid-19-induced break.

After that, the rights of the upcoming Bangladesh and West Indies series were sold through open bidding and a Bangladeshi marketing agency called Ban-tech Limited bought the right for BDT 17.97 crore.

The three-match ODI and two-match Test series will be telecast live on T-Sports and Nagorik TV as Ban-tech sold the rights to them.BSS