Star terminates $1.5 billion ICC TV rights deal with ZEEL
Star India has terminated its sub-licensing agreement with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) for the $ 1.5 billion ICC TV rights, the Punit Goenka-led company informed the BSE on Wednesday. In March this year, Disney-owned Star India already initiated arbitration proceedings against ZEEL seeking damages for non-compliance with the terms of the alliance agreement dated August 26, 2022.
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In yesterday’s regulatory filing, ZEEL said that Star India, on June 20, communicated to ZEEL about ending the agreement and “opted to only seek damages during the arbitration proceedings which have not yet been quantified by Star.”
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Zee further said it has accrued Rs 7,214 lakh towards bank guarantee commission and interest expenses for its share of bank guarantee and pending final ICC approval for sub-licensing to the company. The Walt Disney Company-owned network had sub-licensed the TV rights for the ICC Men’s tournaments to ZEE for the 2024-27 cycle. Had the agreement worked out, it would have allowed ZEE to broadcast major ICC events, including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cups and the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. On March 14, 2024, Star India initiated arbitration proceedings against Zee under the alliance agreement dated August 26, 2022 with the former seeking damages for non-compliance with the terms of the alliance agreement dated August 26, 2022. Earlier, Zee had demanded Rs 69 crore in refund from Star after the TV rights deal for ICC failed. The refund is part of the agreement between the two, according to Zee in its Q3 financial statements. ZEEL had also said that it has communicated to Star India Pvt Ltd that it cannot proceed with the ICC TV rights agreement alleging that Star has breached the agreement and is in default of the terms. On 26 August 2022, ZEEL entered into an agreement with Star for setting out the basis on which Star would be willing to grant sub-licence rights in relation to television broadcasting rights of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Men's and Under 19 (U-19) global events for a period of four years (ICC 2024-2027) on an exclusive basis.
Tags : Zeel Star Icc Tv Rights Deal Bse