The Pakistan Cricket Board has agreed a new three-year domestic broadcast rights and cable distribution deal with state broadcaster PTV Sports and I-Media Communication Services, respectively, with international and digital media agreements set to be decided.
PTV Sports has signed a satellite broadcast deal, with I-Media to ensure cable distribution, and the contracts will run across the 2020 to 2023 cycle.
The PCB said the agreement has been structured to provide for increasing revenues over the term of the cycle, adding that it expects to earn in excess of $200m (€169.4m) over the three-year period.
The broadcast agreement is for Pakistan only, with the PCB stating it will soon finalise the award of its broadcast rights for international territories as well as launching a new structure for its digital media rights.
The domestic cricket board stated: “The matches will be produced by PCB directly to the highest international standards and will not be bulked as part of the broadcasting deal as was done in the past. PCB will ensure broadcast and distribution of Pakistan cricket across the globe.”
Under the new contract, all Pakistan men’s international home series and the women’s and youth teams will be broadcast live on PTV Sports. Also, for the first time all the major domestic tournaments, including the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the National T-20 Cup, the One Day Pakistan Cup and the National U19 One-Day and National U19 Three Day tournaments, will be broadcast live on PTV Sports and distributed across Pakistan on cable networks.
The PCB said: “The supporting cable distribution agreement, unlike in the past, seeks to ensure that the broadcast content of PCB cricket is not redistributed without proper authorisation which was one of the reasons for greatly diminishing the value of PCB content.”
The PCB will bear responsibility for the production of the matches.
The PTV deal means that for the first time in almost three decades, the PCB’s domestic broadcast rights have been granted exclusively to a Pakistani broadcaster.
In April 2015, rights to Pakistan’s home international matches for five seasons, covering the period 2015-16 to 2019-20, were won by a joint bid from multi-territory pay-television broadcaster Ten Sports and PTV. The deal was reported to be worth about $150m over the five seasons.
PTV broadcast within the country, while Ten acquired global rights outside the country, including rights in the rest of the Indian subcontinent. However, Ten was paying the lion’s share of the fee.
The PCB plans to invest Rs15bn (€76.6m/$90.3m) over the next three years in domestic cricket including upgrading of stadiums and infrastructure, and building provincial academies and centres of excellence.
The broadcast deal also marks the launch of rebuilding PTV’s production and broadcast capabilities, with a conversion of PTV Sports to the HD format already in the pipeline to be followed by acquisition of international quality production equipment.
The agreement is designed to create the impetus to expedite the conversion of analogue cable to digital cable in Pakistan.