After hours of intense bidding over two days, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly identified a winner for the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the 2023-27 cycle. If reports are to be believed, the television rights have been sold for a whopping sum of Rs 57.5 crore (per match) and the digital rights for an amount of Rs 48 crore (per match). However, there is no official word either from the governing council or the Indian cricket board and the winner’s name hasn’t been disclosed as well.
It has also been learned that the winner for the TV rights has been confirmed but there is still uncertainty over the winner for the digital. As per the auction rules, the TV winner has a right to challenge the highest bid digital. Hence, if both bidders happen to be different then there might be a rebid.
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Earlier on Sunday, news agency PTI had reported that the auction witnessed a robust bidding for TV and digital rights of the Indian sub-continent with the valuation per match of the cash-rich league being earmarked at more than a whopping Rs 100 crore.
With the bidding going into the second day, the cumulative valuation of the media rights could well touch a staggering Rs 50,000 crore mark, which will be one of the biggest in terms of global rights across any sport.
Four out of the seven players in the fray, Viacom18, Disney-Star, Sony and Zee were involved in a near seven-hour slugfest that remained inconclusive with Package A (India TV Rights) and Package B (India Digital Rights) cumulatively fetching upwards of 42,000 crores (5.37 billion USD approximately) and still counting.
Let’s have a look at the packages which the participants are bidding for:
Package A is exclusive for TV for the Indian subcontinent,
Package B is for digital-only grouping for the same region.
Package C is for selected games in each season,
Package D is for all games combined — TV and digital rights — for overseas markets.
Who are the current bidders?
According to reports, Amazon had pulled out of the auction race, leaving the field to its rivals which include Walt Disney Co., owners of the Disney-Star and Indian business tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. through Viacom18/Reliance.
(With Agency Inputs)
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