ICC media rights: Viacom, Disney, Sony, Zee stay away from mock auctions on Day One, 'unconvinced' with bid process

Sony and Zee - all four major broadcasters and potential bidders to pick the International Cricket Council (ICC) media rights for the India market later this month - stayed away from the mock-auction process on Wednesday. TOI can confirm that all the four broadcasters made it a point to not attend the mock auction in order to take a stand on the processes that the ICC has put in place to carry out this bidding process.

Thursday will be the second of the two days that the ICC had set aside for mock auctions to be conducted, and while it must be waited and seen if any of the broadcasters agree to attend Day Two, the likelihood of such a thing happening is very little. "All the four broadcasters have serious issues with the bidding process and it's not the first time they're taking a stand on this.

They've written enough times to the ICC but the clarifications that came haven't really mentioned any notable changes," sources tracking these developments said. Given the likelihood that the ICC will not make any changes to the process over the next 24 hours - considering, the governing body has maintained all along that they are "satisfied" with the process in place - it is equally unlikely that any of these broadcasters will attend Day Two of the mock auctions either.

Amazon and Fancode, who have also picked the tender document, are learnt to have given a go-ahead to attending the workshop but there was no official confirmation of the same. The 'mock auctions' are a workshop to help the ICC and the bidders understand the e-auction process that will come up in Round Two if Round One (closed bidding) does not work.