The International Cricket Council (ICC) is facing a major india cricket broadcast rights crisis that precedes the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, as the Indian-based JioStar officially withdrew its deal with the ICC before the final two years because of severe financial challenges.
In an attempt to obtain $2.4 billion, the ICC has instituted a new sale of the 2026-29 India rights.
This is replacing the last cycle of 2024-27 that was estimated higher at $3 billion (or more than 216 crore) and one large men’s integrity event each year.
JioStar further raised its provisions to anticipated losses on onerous sports agreements to 25760 crore in 202425, a significant turnover compared to the previous year, 12319 crore.
The ICC has sought the involvement of large broadcasters and streamers, such as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, to replace the rights upon the announcement that JioStar would no longer want to continue with the contract until 2027. The executives who have been privy to the discussions argue that the high asking price is a deterrent and none of the prospective buyers have given a tangible interest.
The Economic Cost is Increasing
Increased the pressure on financial of JioStar by raising the set-off of anticipated losses on onerous sports contracts to 25,760 crore in 2024-25, which was much higher than the previous year figure of 12,319 crore.
JioStar India had already recorded an independent net loss of 12,548 crore in FY24 before its merging with Viacom18, primarily as a result of ICC-related provisions. This is a trend, but the recent revelation of increase in provisions (according to the audited standalone financials) indicates the burden of the long-term sports and content contracts that are likely to yield less revenue than their expense.
ICC financial health was also shown by ending the year 2024 with a surplus of 474 million, which added to the good economics of cricket affecting the world.
India Cricket Broadcast Rights is The Biggest Revenue Generator to the ICC
The market control of India (India cricket broadcast rights), which collects almost 80 percent of the ICC revenues, shows that the governing body is dependent on one market. Regardless of this significance, the present bid price would be deemed high even among the established agencies such as SPNI, possessing other rights in the international scene (Asian Cricket Council at $170m, New Zealand Cricket at $100m, and ECB at more than 200m).
This pressure on JioStar has increased significantly after the real-money gaming was banned, as it was the biggest advertiser in cricket and without them there was a 7,000-crore income vacuum. This is after SPNI had already sub-licensed the digital rights to the India- England bilateral series with JioStar earlier this year to cap its own financial liabilities.
The Online Broadcasters Remain Tentative
Netflix has avoided Indian cricket and instead has prioritized premium entertainment and formats such as WWE. On the same note, Prime Video has a small presence in India, with its New Zealand Cricket contract running out next year and its ICC rights limited to Australia only until 2027.
Despite the growth of live-sports investments in the global streaming services, they are being compelled towards a trend of discriminating bids due to the skyrocketing prices of broadcast rights particularly in the US market.
The fact that JioStar is contractually obligated to respect its agreement until 2027 notwithstanding, the ICC seeking a new rights sale is indicative of the market correction that is currently going on within the Indian sports-media industry.
Price and Value Correction
India is not the only study that is struggling to achieve expected valuations in cricket because the IOC and FIFA are also facing the same. In line with industry executives, it is hard to monetize bilateral and multilateral cricket activity, owing to a mix of elements, which include tamed advertising demand, diminishing pay-TV subscriber bases, and poor profitability of linear television.
TV margins are under pressure and streaming is not profitable, which makes broadcasters unwilling to commit to large-scale and long-term projects. To make this unwillingness even more relevant, the joint venture between Star and Viacom18 into JioStar has resulted in the formation of a virtual duopoly in the sphere of sport media and has reduced potential competitors to only JioStar and SPNI.
Although expensive and increasing, cricket continues to play a strategic role in India since it is among the few sure ways of attaining mass reach.
Pricing Inconsistency
Prior to the merger of Viacom18 and Star India, JioStar bought the India Cricket broadcast rights in ICC from Disney that were worth 3 billion dollars. The total amount invested by the combined companies in the cricket game is more than 10 billion dollars, thus making India the most expensive media market place in the sports industry in the world.
The ICC valuation was inflated according to the perception of many executives. Whereas Star had paid for india cricket broadcast rights almost 2 billion dollars in the last eight-year cycle that would have ended in 2023, the current bids had seen SPNI bid approximately 1.4 billion and Viacom18 bid approximately 1 billion.
The financial burden of JioStar was aggravated as Zee Entertainment pulled out of its decision to acquire the ICC TV rights at an estimated cost of 1.5 billion dollars which it made following the failure of its agreed merger with SPNI. This has prompted JioStar to launch arbitration proceedings in London, which is claiming close to one billion damages.
The actual financial strain of JioStar has soared to 3.3 billion dollars since the dollar has passed the 90 mark, according to the executives of JioStar. This dramatic growth is attributed to the growing dollar rates and depreciation of the rupee that puts a strain due to the fact that all the ICC payments are dollar-based.
