New Delhi: Ending all speculation over who will bid successfully to replace Deccan Chargers as the new Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, the BCCI announced on Thursday that the Sun TV Network has won the bid for the Hyderabad franchise for an amount of Rs 85.05 crore per year.
The IPL Governing Council met in Mumbai earlier on Thursday to open the bids, where Sun TV's bid was substantially higher than the second bid of PVP Ventures, which was 69.03 crore. Sun TV has reportedly acquired the franchise for the next five seasons, which makes the total winning bid Rs. 425 crore.
This franchise fee represents a premium of over a 100 percent above the amount paid by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd. (DCHL) for the Hyderabad Franchise in 2008. This means IPL will remain a nine-team event for the 2013 season, with Sun TV becoming its ninth franchise.
The Hyderabad franchise was earlier owned by DCHL but the BCCI ended ties with it after the owners failed to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs. 100 crore. PVP Ventures, who were outbid by Sun TV, last month offered DCHL Rs 900 crore to buy the struggling franchise, but Deccan turned it down for reasons best known to them. That followed termination of the franchise by the BCCI, which then initiated a fresh bidding process.
Sun TV, based in Chennai and headed by media baron Kalanidhi Maran, is one of India's biggest media networks with 32 television and 45 radio channels in different languages.
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