IPL Media Rights (TV and Digital) For 2023-2027 Goes To Two Separate Broadcasters, Deal Pegged At Rs 44,075 Crore: Sources

The media rights for the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next five-year cycle from 2023 to 2027 was hotly contested by some of the country’s top sports broadcasters. After intense bidding, the TV and Digital rights have been won separately by two broadcasters, NDTV has learnt from sources.

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. This puts the valuation of each IPL match, at a cost of above Rs 100 crore, something that is unheard of in Indian sports. According to sources, the current price for each IPL match stands at Rs 107.5 crore.

Sources have confirmed that the deal is for a total of 410 matches over a 5-year period. The TV rights were sold for Rs 23,575 crore, while the digital rights have gone for a whopping Rs 20,500 crore.

The package C of the IPL media rights, which has non-exclusive digital rights for 18 games that include opening game, final, three play-offs and a few weekend double headers, has reaches the Rs 1700 crore mark, according to sources.

“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 news agency 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.” 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.

None of the BCCI officials could confirm as to who won the two packages.

Whoever wins Package B will go hard at Package C as the broadcasters would like to maintain their exclusivity and losing a small package of marquee matches to another entity won’t be a great business move.

Package D, which has a base value of Rs 3 crore 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.

“If Johri and Zee can win Package D and if Sony has won package A, then the Zee-Sony partnership will usher a new beginning. But let’s wait till tomorrow,” a source involved in the auction process said.

Earlier, 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.

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.

Promoted

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.

(With PTI inputs)