Viacom 18 has bagged the digital rights while Disney bagged the rights for legacy media of Indian Premier League as far as the next five years are concerned, sources have confirmed. While rights to Package A (Legacy Media Rights) were secured for a whopping Rs 23,575 crores, which is effectively Rs 57.5 crores per game, Package B (Digital rights) was sealed by Reliance Industries-owned Viacom 18 at a price tag of Rs 20,500 crores, which effectively means 50 crores per match. Thus cumulatively the BCCI is now richer by Rs 44,075 crores after selling the two packages.
IPL Media Rights: Two Separate Broadcasters From 2023-2027; BCCI Gets Paid 107 Crore Per Match
Interestingly, the reserve price for both these categories was 49 crore and 33 crores, respectively. This sum is more than twice of what Star paid in 2017 which was INR 16,347.5 crores ( 54.5 crores per match) which was paid for 60 matches per year.
When the auctions stopped on the second day, another Rs 2000 crore was bid for Package C, which has a select non-exclusive digital rights deal. The auction, which has moved into the third day, will resume with Package C on Tuesday.
As of now, the board has earned a staggering Rs 46,000 crore, which is already two and half times more than the 2018 auction value of Rs 16,347 crore.
“We are already reaching towards USD 5.5 billion mark after selling two packages. But digital rights per match value touching Rs 50 crore is massive. An incremental growth of 51 percent over and above base price is phenomenal,” a BCCI functionary told PTI.
“The bidding stopped at 6 pm today and we are currently auctioning off package C, which has 98 games for five years in non-exclusive digital category. There are 18 in first two seasons followed by 20 in next two and 24 in the final season. It will be followed by package D, which is overseas rights for TV and digital.”
The break-up of 410 matches across five years are as follows: 74 matches each for 2023 and 2024. It increases to 84 games in 2025 and 2026, and 94 matches in 2027.
As per the norms of e-auction, the owners are given a secret code through which they bid. No BCCI office-bearers and employees have an inkling of the bidding companies’ code.
The bidding started with increments of Rs 50 lakh during the initial period and once Package A winner challenged the highest bidder of Package ‘B’, the incremental bid value was worth Rs 1 crore.
As reported earlier, the second day didn’t see any aggressive bidding with just one more bid coming in for TV rights while the digital package didn’t see a single bid which was already secured for 49 crores per match by Viacom-18 on Sunday itself. Nonetheless, Star challenged Reliance-backed media conglomerate’s bid after which they came back with fresh bid worth 50 crores, enough to seal the deal.
The auction for Package C (Non-exclusive India digital rights) started Monday evening and will resume on Tuesday at 11 AM IST and will be followed by the auction of Package D (Rest of the World). The last bid for Package C was 18.5 crores per match against the base prize of 16 crores.
Sources have also confirmed that Viacom 18 wants to acquire Package C to ensure there is no advertising revenue leakage.
“We are already reaching towards USD 5.5 billion mark after selling two packages. But digital rights per match value touching Rs 50 crores is massive. An incremental growth of 51 percent over and above base price is phenomenal,” a BCCI functionary told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
“The bidding stopped at 6 pm today and we are currently auctioning off package C, which has 98 games for five years in non-exclusive digital category. There are 18 in first two seasons followed by 20 in next two and 24 in the final season. It will be followed by package D, which is overseas rights for TV and digital.”
As per the norms of e-auction, the owners are given a secret code through which they bid. No BCCI office-bearers and employees have an inkling of the bidding companies’ code.
Package D, which has a base value of Rs 3 crores for overseas TV and digital rights, will have a strong contender in Zee, which is being headlined at the auction by former BCCI CEO Rahul Johri.
(With Agency inputs)
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