Via this agreement, Zee now holds the exclusive TV rights holder of ICC Men’s events including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup (2024, 2026), ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027.
“This is a first-of-its-kind partnership in the Indian media & entertainment landscape, and this association with Disney Star reflects our sharp, strategic vision for the sports business in India,” said Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment in a stock exchange filing.
“Long-term profitability and value-generation continue to be our areas of focus across the business, and we will always evaluate all the necessary steps that will enable us to make sports a compelling value proposition for the company,” he added.
Disney Star had bid $3 billion for the combined, TV and digital rights, and will only air matches on the digital platform, Disney+Hotstar.
The ICC on Saturday evening confirmed Disney Star will be the home of all ICC cricket action in India for the next four years after it won the TV and digital media rights of both men’s and women’s global events till the end of 2027.
“By securing the IPL television broadcast rights for 2023-27 and now opting to retain only the digital rights for ICC tournaments for 2024-27, we have in place a balanced and robust cricket offering for our audiences across linear and digital,” K Madhavan, Country Manager & President, Disney Star said.
Disney Star had been owning the ICC media rights for the 2015-23 cycle, which is majorly seen in the market as the second-most lucrative rights in cricket after IPL.
Earlier, in June, Disney Star had retained the Indian Premier League (IPL) TV rights for INR 23,575 crore (which comes to INR 57.5 crore per match). Though it lost out to Viacom18 for IPL digital rights, getting both TV and digital rights for ICC events in India is a huge plus for Disney Star.
Disney Star’s current portfolio includes the TV rights for IPL (2023-27), TV and digital rights for Cricket Australia (2023-30), TV and digital BCCI rights (2023) and TV and digital rights for Cricket South Africa (up until end of 2023-24).
