The tension between India and Pakistan has reached to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, where both teams are expected to play against each other on June 16 in Manchester. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has written a letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) demanding to “sever ties with countries from which terror emanates” without mentioning the name.
The indication is clearly towards Pakistan, who is facing a backlash from India since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, where the Indian army lost their 44 CRPF soldiers.
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India wants ICC to either ban Pakistan from this tournament of they will boycott the tournament. But, India skipping this event would lead them to a huge financial penalty.
The biggest loser on the face of it would be a broadcaster, Star India, which has the broadcast rights for the ICC tournaments till 2023 and has shelled out close to $1.8 billion. Though Star is busy selling IPL inventory, a senior media planner says that the broadcaster has already signed a few sizeable deals with advertisers for the ICC World Cup.
However, this senior sports expert claims that the loser will be the ICC and not Star. Almost three-fourths of the viewership for ICC World Cup comes from India and if India walks out the broadcaster has the right to say that if India doesn’t play it will not pay the kind of fee it has promised to pay the ICC at least for this World Cup, he explains.
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“Star has paid close to $1.8 billion for the rights and there is typically a 40:60 split of the rights money for two cycles (each cycle includes a T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy and World Cup). If Star pays 40 percent for the first cycle, it adds up to $720 million and if 80 percent of that is ascribed to the World Cup, it means ICC will lose revenue of around half a billion. It can’t afford it,” the expert said.
The ICC shares the broadcast revenue with all the participating teams and if Star back out, the team will also lose close to $50 million.
“In fact, I see ICC pushing Pakistan to the wall as it will be too much revenue loss for it if India and Star walk out,” he further explains.
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Meanwhile, Star will be in no loss of viewership if India pulls out of World Cup. The most lucrative thing for Star is the Indian Premier League, which always brings viewers in big numbers. “Everyone who wants IPL will, in any case, subscribe to Star Sports. Its subscription revenue will not get hit,” says a senior media planner.
