IPL Media Rights (TV and Digital) For 2023-2027
According to sources, Package A and B of the right, which include TV and Digital, have been sold for a humungous amount of Rs 43,050 crore.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday reportedly sold the television rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the next five-year rights cycle, starting 2023 for a whopping Rs 57.5 crore per game.
Early reports claimed that Category A has been sold for Rs 23,575 crore (Rs 57.5 crore per game) while Category B has gone for Rs 19,680 crore (Rs 48 crore per game). And the e-auction is still underway with two more categories left.
‘Category A‘ is for the television broadcast rights in the Indian subcontinent, while ‘Category B‘ is for the digital media rights for the same region. These numbers are based on 74 games per season in the next five-year cycle.
But the digital pack did not see any bid on the second day and was closed at Rs 48 crore per game, thus making Rs 19,680 crore. On Day 1, four out of the seven players in the fray — Viacom18, Disney-Star, Sony, and Zee — were involved in a nearly seven-hour slugfest for the rights to get Package A (India TV Rights) and Package B (India Digital Rights).
And experts predicted that 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.
In fact, as things stood after Sunday bidding, the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI-owned T20 cricket tournament was already the second-most lucrative sporting brand in the world, behind only the National Football League (USD 35.07 million).
There could be more twists to the tale as the Package A and Package B of the media rights have been won by two companies. And according to the latest information from sources, it has been learned that the winner of package A is about to challenge the winner of Package B, with an eye on getting the entire TV and Digital rights combo.
Global retail giants Amazon had earlier pulled out of the Indian Premier League media rights auction race, NDTV sources had said on Friday.
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 in September 2017. With this deal, the cost of an IPL match had become around Rs 55 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.
For the unversed, IPL media rights comprise four separate buckets —TV rights for India, digital rights for India, non-exclusive set of 18 matches for digital (India), and the rest of the world. The BCCI will make the final announcement of the winner of the TV and digital rights as the bidding for Packages B (incremental), Packages C and D is yet to go on.
Earlier, the TV and digital rights of IPL were held by Disney-owned Star India.
IPL MEDIA RIGHTS 2022-27: BIG TAKEAWAYS
- Reports claimed that package A and B of the right which includes TV and Digital has been sold for a whopping Rs 43,050 crore, something happening for the first time in Indian sports.
- Earlier on Friday, global retail giant, Amazon had withdrawn itself from the Indian Premier League media rights auction race.
- IPL is set to earn Rs 105.5 crores per game, a record for the 15-year-old league.
- The IPL media rights are sold: 57.5 crores for TV and 48 crores for Digital rights.
- Reports claimed Sony has won TV rights. The shootout will happen between A and B before it moves to C.
- A total of 7 companies—Zee Group, Sony Pictures, Viacom-led JV, Disney+Hotstar, Culver Max Entertainment, Times Internet, and Fun Asia participated in the media auction.
