March 2, 2003	Sunday	Zul Hijjah 28, 1423

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LAHORE, March 1: PCB has signed a multi-million dollar agreement, for the sale of its television broadcast rights for all international matches, with a consortium comprising Taj Television Limited and ARY Digital on Friday.

A PCB spokesman pointed out that the 5-year agreement, which becomes effective from April 2003 , for a record sum of US $ 42.6 million, stipulates that Taj/ARY will be responsible for all production and distribution expenses and the PCB will not pay any commission.

The offer of Taj/ARY consortium will be supported by a bank guarantee as well as unlimited corporate guarantees of their respective parental companies.

This compares with approximately US $11 million that PCB will receive under its present arrangement with Transworld International INC. (TWI), he added.

In all, six companies expressed interest in the bidding.

Meanwhile, the PCB also acknowledged the contribution made by TWI over the past eight years. TWI was also given every opportunity to re-bid for the television rights. But it offered a minimum guarantee of US Dollars 30 million. After adjusting for its commission and production expenses TWI would have needed to generate gross revenues of US Dollars 62.5 million to match the Taj/ARY offer, the spokesman said.