ViaCom 18 has won the race to bag the TV and digital rights for the Indian cricket team's home matches for the next five years on August 31, Thursday.

It was reported by PTI, that BCCI had anticipated surpassing the one billion US dollar mark, equivalent to approximately INR 8200 crore, in total revenue from the sale of separate television and digital rights for India's 88 home games.

A key feature of this new cycle includes a series of matches against Australia and England. Specifically, India will host Australia for 21 games, comprising five Test matches, six One Day Internationals (ODIs), and ten Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).

Additionally, there will be 18 games against England, including ten Tests, three ODIs, and five T20Is. These matches form part of the total 25 Tests, 27 ODIs, and 36 T20Is scheduled during this period.

It has now been confirmed by PTI that Viacom 18 has won the race for the TV and digital rights for the home matches of the Indian cricket team for the next five years.

ViaCom18, Disney Star and Sony Sports were in the race for the BCCI media rights for home matches. The BCCI sold the media rights for the next cycle through an e-auction process, which they adopted during the sale of Indian Premier League media rights as well.

According to reports, the likes of Amazon, FanCode were expected to be in the race but they did not enter the auction process.

Disney Star won the media rights for for Rs. 6,138 crore in the previous cycle.

The BCCI sold the media rights in two different packages - India subcontinent TV and India subcontinent and world digital rights. The base price for TV was set at Rs 20 crore per match while the base price for the second package was set at Rs 25 crore.

There are a total of 88 matches in the upcoming cycle, but they might increase in the later stage.

The news has now been confirmed by BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, who congratulated Viacom18 for winning the bid and thanked Disney Star for their contributions to India cricket.