ICC strained to protect $3 billion media rights deal

Global cricket finances could come under pressure sooner than anticipated with a strong possibility of the International Cricket Council (ICC) being forced to hammer out a scaled down media rights deal with current holders JioStar.

- Rasesh Mandani

With less than two months to go for the upcoming edition of the T20 World Cup, the ICC is known to have initiated backroom negotiations for a new media rights deal (2026-29) for the Indian market. These talks are for a 20% price reduction from the existing deal (2024-27) of over $3 billion, according to an industry source privy to developments. This has been necessitated with JioStar conveying to the governing body their inability to honour the current deal in the prevailing market conditions. ICC and JioStar refused to comment.

While ICC's search for new partners hasn't been very encouraging, they are protected by a watertight contract. With JioStar being their long standing commercial partners, a settlement could still be in the offing, another official in the know said.