Murdoch's Star bags India cricket media rights for record $944m

India's cricket board on Thursday (5) struck a record $944 million deal with broadcast giant Star India for the media rights of the national team, adding to their substantial television wealth.

The amount was 60 percent higher than the last sale for the rights to India's national teams and domestic tournaments.

Rupert Murdoch's Star beat rival bidders including Sony and Reliance Jio to win the television and digital rights for 2018-2023, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said.

The BCCI said in a Twitter statement that international and domestic rights had been sold for 61.38 billion rupees ($944 million).

BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary said on Twitter that the sum was the equivalent of more than 60 million rupees ($935,000) per match included in the deal.

Star paid 38.5 billion rupees ($592 million) for the broadcast rights to India's home matches for 2012-2018.

Star also paid a massive $2.55 billion last year for the media rights to the BCCI's lucrative Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament. That five year deal also starts from 2018.

"It was a hat-trick (by Star), beginning with the IPL broadcast and then the production and finally the home broadcast for five years also," Chaudhary told reporters in Mumbai.

"If we compare the figures for IPL broadcast rights and the current one, then the IPL figure per match -- for 300 matches -- was 54.49 million rupees ($845,000) and this figure is far ahead than that, for the 102 matches."

The first internet rights auction in cricket -- with each rival having a unique log on for bidding -- lasted for three days before Star placed its winning bid.

Initially six companies, including Facebook and Google, entered the fray to bid for international and domestic matches in India from April 15, 2018 to March 31, 2023.