Star India has won broadcast, internet and mobile rights for all Indian cricket matches for the period 2012-2018, for an amount of Rs 3851 crore, covering 96 matches, reports ESPNCricinfo. The rights include all international one-day and test matches, and domestic tournaments held in India. This makes the per-match coverage fee, Rs 40 crore, compared to the minimum bid price of Rs 31.25 crore. With this, Star replaces Nimbus, whose contract was prematurely terminated in December 2011 by the BCCI. The report also says that the production rights for the matches, which were with Nimbus, have been scrapped, and that Star is likely to have a greater say in editorial matters, quoting a BCCI official, anonymously. Update: The ESPNCricinfo report has been modified and the latest version does not include the quote. Digital Rights Not Sold Separately The BCCI had tried to sell the internet and mobile rights, separately, and had even reduced the base price from Rs 3 crore to Rs 2 crore, per match, in September 2011, since it was not finding any takers. It had then clubbed the digital rights with the TV rights. With Star getting the digital rights for Indian cricket till 2018, its online properties ESPNstar.com and ESPNCricinfo.com are set to benefit from the move. Meanwhile, it's not very clear who the other participants were, with some reports (NDTV) indicating that ESPN and Star had bid separately, with the other companies believed to have submitted bids being Multi-Screen Media (Sony), BCCL (Indiatimes), and a consortium consisting TV-18 and Reliance. There…
