* They made the highest bid, says SLC

* National interest or profiteering

By Revatha S. Silva

The local telecasting rights of the much-anticipated India cricket tour of Sri Lanka have been won by a private channel, Siyatha TV.

In the history, of course, international cricket played in Sri Lanka has almost entirely been shown by the government-owned Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC). The India white-ball series, which is scheduled to comprise three ODIs and three T20Is respectively and to be held from 13 to 25 July at Khettarama, now to be shown by a private channel, will mark a rare occurrence in local live telecast of cricket in Sri Lanka.

Highest bidder

“The main issue why SLRC has been showing live cricket has been its wider coverage. Their reach covers almost entirely the whole island, including the north. It is interesting to see how any other channel tries to contest that coverage,” said an expert on the trade who is also privy to the selling of the India series TV rights.

“They bid around 18 million rupees whereas the Rupavahini’s bid was exactly an half of it. In this situation, we can’t compare the difference of potential coverage of the bidders. We just went to the highest one,” revealed a senior SLC ex-co member yesterday (22).

Most valuable series

The Morning Sports learns that there were only two bidders for the relatively lucrative series.

In July last year, Sony Pictures Network India, formerly Ten Sports, won the television broadcasting rights of the Sri Lanka national cricket team for three years, from 2020-23 and this particular India limited-over series is said to be the most ‘advertisable’ and therefore the most valuable one through the whole three-year cycle -- it is said that the series can encompass over 50% of the total anticipated value of the entire three-year period.

There’s a social aspect too

“It may not be wise to take these decisions entirely on commercial grounds. One needs to look at the overall development of the sport as well. If the fans who are living in the far off corners of the country are deprived of their viewing rights, that will also be an issue,” the said expert opined.

“Showing Sri Lanka’s cricket matches live cannot be entirely a profit-oriented business. There is a wider social aspect too that is involved in the process,” he added.

One of the leading private TV channels in the country, Siyatha TV, reportedly a “4K Ultra HD” channel launched in 2009, is owned by Voice of Asia Network (Pvt.) Ltd. We failed to get to know their comments on the issue yesterday.

Coverage for the north

How will the coverage reach the farthest places like the north?

“They say they could cover 70% of the entire country. About 80% of the northern peninsula is depending on pay TV and cable TV, such as Dialog, Dish, PEO and LBN. They do not depend entirely on the usual terrestrial-type TV. The matches will be available for them via such mediums,” the said SLC official explained.

“Anyway, we cannot go on harping on the issue of the coverage and at, the end of the day, the cricket board can't end up financially losing the deal,” he further stressed.

“What the SLRC usually does is to join with their Tamil channel Nethra TV in carrying the live coverage to Jaffna. In that way, it (Rupavahini) covers almost the entire island. What will be more interesting is to see how the public viewership is going to react to this when the series starts,” the above-said expert further said.

A young India side will be here in July under the captaincy of Shikhar Dhawan as their main team will remain in England preparing themselves for a five-match Test series during August-September.