HBL PSL broadcasting rights sell for over Rs 7bn to ARY 

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has sold the broadcasting rights to the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) reportedly for close to Rs 8 billion. 

The bid for the broadcasting rights were sold to ARY Sports, which had also grabbed the rights two years ago in 2021 during the previous auction cycle. The increased price of the broadcasting rights will be good news for the franchise owners of the HBL PSL, since the money from broadcasting is put into the central revenue pool of the tournament that is then divided equally between the teams. 

How the bidding works 

The parties that want to make the bids submit a technical and a financial proposition each. On the day of the actual bid both sides sit at the same table. Both sides hand over their proposals in closed packets. After the packets have been handed over, the side receiving the bids, in this case the PCB, announces a reserve price – which is the price that the side receiving the bids is willing to get. Once this reserve price has been announced, the proposals are opened in front of everyone. If both bids are above the reserve price, then the higher bid automatically gets the contract. However, if both bids are below the reserve price, the bidders are asked to revise their bids and the higher bid in a second round of bidding gets the contract.

Say if the reserve price is Rs 50, and Side A’s bid turns out to be Rs 55 while Side B’s bid turns out to be Rs 58, then Side B will get the contract. In the same way, if only one side bids higher than the reserve price and the other does not even meet that, the side with the higher bid gets it. However, if both bids are below the reserve price then the bidders are asked to revise their offers. They then have the option of either going above the bid price or staying below. For example, if the reserve price is Rs 50, but the bid from Side A is Rs 45 and the bid from Side B is Rs 48, they will revise their offers. If Side A has a higher bid in this revised offer, they will get the contract.

Hotly contested

Last year, this process underwent a few rounds that were hotly contested between different parties. As one of the most watched annual events in the country, the rights to broadcast the HBL PSL are always hotly contested. The auction in 2021 saw some high drama between ARY, PTV, and Geo Sports. The way bidding works for these auctions is that the PCB makes a public tender announcement inviting bids for the broadcasting rights. 

Read more: What in the world happened with the PSL media rights bid?

After a Mexican Stand-off between Geo Sports and a consortium of ARY and PTV Sports, the latter won the bid at a price of Rs 4.4 billion. This year, however, ARY has made the highest bid on its own without any consortium. 

How big is the bid? 

During the press conference where the bid was announced, Zaka Ashraf and HBL PSL Commissioner Naila Bhatti remained tight-lipped about the exact amount of the bid. Naila Bhatti said that the sale of domestic broadcast rights for HBL PSL within the Pakistani territory took place on Tuesday. “It was a positive day for the PCB yesterday as we successfully concluded the domestic broadcast rights deal for PSL season nine in Pakistan,” she added.“ARY elevated its bid by 47-48 per cent compared to the last bidding cycle.”

Zaka Ashraf also said that the new bid was Rs 3 billion more than the previous one in 2021, which would indicate that it is at least Rs 7.4 billion.