Rupert Murdoch's Star TV has won the bid to broadcast Indian cricket for six years for a fee of around $757.6 million, officials said on Monday.
The rights, which include tv, web and mobile broadcasting, will be for July 2012 to March 2018 and cover all home international matches and domestic tournaments but not the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Star TV will pay about 400 million rupees (about $7.9 million) on average for each match, compared with the 322.5 million rupees (about $6.3 million) paid by earlier rights holders Nimbus.
"This is a substantial improvement the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) is happy the media rights have been fully evaluated & now I think fully priced," BCCI president N. Srinivasan told reporters in Chennai.
"Bids were submitted by Star and Multi Screen Media (MSM) & after following a transparent method of verifying the eligibility of each bidder, bids were opened in front of both the parties and the winner chosen."
The BCCI terminated its deal with Nimbus in December, years before it was due to die, over payment defaults.
MSM has the broadcast rights for the annual Twenty20 IPL.
" Right now they have sports channels - Star Sports, ESPN and Star Cricket - to broadcast the cricket on. However if necessary they could explore the launch of new channels.
