After rigorous bidding, two distinct broadcasters have secured the joint media rights for the next five years of the Indian Premier League famously known as IPL.
These two media behemoths now have the rights to broadcast 410 matches during a five-year period beginning in 2023 and ending in 2027. This also implies that the BCCI would be paid 107.5 crore every match, a record in Indian sports.
The pricing for Package A (TV rights) and Package B (Digital rights), according to sources, have been set at Rs 44,075 crore. The internet rights were acquired for Rs 20,500 crore, while the TV rights were sold for Rs 23,575 crore. Each IPL match is worth more than Rs 100 crore, according to this calculation.
Viacom18, Disney-Star, Sony, and Zee were embroiled in a near seven-hour slugfest on Sunday that ended in a tie, with Package A (India TV Rights) and Package B (India Digital Rights) garnering upwards of 42,000 crores (5.37 billion USD) and counting.
Amazon had already backed out of the Indian Premier League media rights auction, but that didn’t stop the BCCI from getting richer as Viacom-18, lead by Uday Shankar, stayed aggressive in their offer, going neck-and-neck with incumbent broadcasters Star. According to sources, Sony sought to gain TV rights, whilst Star wanted digital rights because it wanted to keep its over-the-roof web traffic on Hotstar, which peaks during the IPL season.
With a bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore, Star India beat Sony Pictures to secure the Indian Premier League’s media rights for the 2017-2022 season. As a result, the average cost of each IPL match has risen to roughly Rs 55 crore. Some BCCI insiders expected the offer to reach 50,000 crores by Sunday.
“We were anticipating strong digital offers, and with the war for Group A and B still going on, the magic figure of Rs 50,000 crore might be reached.” A rough estimate for Package C and D is that another Rs 5500 crore would be added if the first two packages end at 45,000 crores,” a BCCI official in Mumbai told PTI.
With a bid of Rs 8200 crore in 2008, Sony Pictures Network secured the IPL media rights for a ten-year period. In 2015, Novi Digital was given the worldwide digital rights to the IPL for a three-year term for 302.2 crore.
This year, the competition was enlarged from eight to 10 teams, with the Gujarat Titans and Lucknow SuperGiants joining in 2022. Last month, the Gujarat Titans won the event for the first time.
