MUMBAI: Kalanithi Maran-owned media conglomerate Sun TV Network on Thursday won the Hyderabad Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise putting in the highest bid that was 23 per cent more than the second bid for the same team.

Sun bid Rs 850.5 million a year while the next bid was for Rs 690.3 million from PVP Ventures, which had earlier bid a whopping Rs 9.0 billion for buying the sacked, financially-distressed Hyderabad team Deccan Chargers.

The earlier Hyderabad franchise owned by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) still had five years to go under the contract with Indian Premier League (IPL), when it failed to get a respite from both the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court to get its termination stayed earlier this month.

Sun will get to own the franchise for a period of five years till 2017 paying Rs 4.25 billion as franchise fee to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

When DCHL?s Deccan Chargers won the bid for its Hyderabad team in January 2008, it had committed to pay $107 million (Rs 4.21 billion) over a period of 10 years which worked out to $10.7 million (Rs 421 million) per year at the rupee-dollar exchange rate prevalent in January 2008.

From 2018, Sun will own the yet-to-be named franchise in perpetuity and will pay 20 per cent of the franchise revenue every year as fee to the BCCI.

According to an IPL Governing Council member, Sun TV has paid Rs 200 million as performance guarantee and Rs 850.5 million as bank guarantee for the 2013 when the company will make its IPL debut.

"Sun TV Network has won the Hyderabad Franchise for an amount of Rs 85.05 crores (Rs 855.5 million) per year. This Franchise fee represents a premium of over a 100 per cent above the amount paid by DCHL for the Hyderabad Franchise in 2008," BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a statement.

"The Sun TV Network bid was substantially higher than the second bid of PVP Ventures, which was Rs 69.03 crores (Rs 690.3 million)," he added.

The IPL Governing Council met earlier today in Mumbai to open the bids for a new IPL Franchise. The BCCI had on 14 October invited bids for adding the ninth IPL team after the exit of Deccan Chargers and had opened up the bidding for any of the 10 cities including Ahmedabad, Vizag, Hyderabad and Noida. The response to the bidding was lukewarm as Sun TV and PVP Ventures were the only two bidders and both bid for Hyderabad.

Sun will also have the right to sign existing Deccan Chargers players. The players who are not signed by their existing franchises will go into the auction pool.

The franchises have to sign contracts with existing players before the 31 October deadline.

Also Read: New IPL valuation set by Sun TV to deter deals

MUMBAI: Kid‘s broadcaster Nick has picked up exclusive broadcast rights for animated comedy series, The Daltons, produced by European animation company Xilam.

Nick, which has acquired the rights for a period of five years, will air the show in Hindi Speaking Market (HSM) since Sun TV already airs the show in the Southern markets in all the four languages.

The show will premiere on 3 September and will be aired from Monday-Friday at 6:30 pm. Based on the popular Morris and Goscinny comic books, the show revolves around four crazy central characters - Joe, Jack, William and Averell.

With this acquisition, the kid‘s broadcaster has further augmented its evening slot which includes shows like Tony & Alberto and Dennis the Menace.

MUMBAI: Sun TV network, the Maran-owned Southern broadcasting major, saw a steep fall and a rebound in its share price on Monday as the scrip closed 10 per cent up on the BSE.

Triggered by the CBI raids on the Maran family premises in Delhi and Chennai, the shares slumped as much as 16 per cent in the early trade hours. However, the scrip bounced back and ended at Rs 288.15, 10.21 per cent higher to its previous close.

The rebound added Rs 10.52 billion to Sun TV‘s market capitalization. The company‘s market cap stood at Rs 113.55 billion at the end of the day.

On the National Stock Exchange also, Sun TV stock closed at Rs 288, up 9.55 per cent, after seeing an intraday low of Rs 221.20.