The combined media rights (TV and digital) has been won by two separate broadcasters after intense bidding. They now have the right to broadcast a total of 410 matches for a five-year cycle starting 2023 to 2027. This also means that BCCI will be paid 107.5 crore for each match, quite unprecedented in Indian sports.
According to sources, the prices for Package A (TV rights) and B (Digital rights) have been pegged at a humungous amount of Rs 44,075 crore; The TV rights were sold for Rs 23,575 crore, while the digital rights have gone for a whopping Rs 20,500 crore. This puts the valuation of each IPL match, at a cost of above Rs 100 crore.
Earlier on Sunday, 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.
Global retail giants Amazon had earlier pulled out of the Indian Premier League media rights auction race but that didn’t stop BCCI from getting richer as Uday Shankar led Viacom-18 remained aggressive in their bidding with current broadcasters Star.
Back in 2017, Star India had edged out Sony Pictures to secure the Indian Premier League’s media rights for the 2017-2022 cycle with a bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore. Which meant the cost of an IPL match had become around Rs 55 crore. As of Sunday, some of BCCI officials were expecting the bid to touch 50,000 crore.
“We were expecting fantastic digital bids and with the fight for group A and B still on, the magic figure of Rs 50,000 crore could well be touched. For Package C and D, one can have a rough estimate that another Rs 5500 crore would be added if these first two packages stop at 45,000 crores,” a BCCI official, present in Mumbai, told PTI.
In 2008, Sony Pictures Network won the IPL media rights for a period of 10 years with a bid of Rs 8200 crore. The global digital rights of IPL for a period of three years were awarded to Novi Digital in 2015 for 302.2 crore.
The tournament was expanded from eight teams to ten teams this year with Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants being included from the 2022 season. Gujarat Titans went on to win the tournament in its maiden season last month.
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