The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is set to earn a whopping amount of ₹48,380 crore from the sale of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023-27 media rights after the three-day auction in Mumbai.
While Disney Star has retained the IPL television rights for ₹23,575 crore ( ₹57.5 crore/game), the most sought-after India digital rights deal was acquired for ₹20,500 crore by the Reliance backed Viacom18, which also won the non-exclusive Package C, paying another ₹2,991 crore.
The deal for package A and B is for 410 matches across five years with 74 matches each in 2023 and 2024 and 84 each in 2025 and 2026. The 2027 edition will have 94 games.
Viacom18 entered the fray through a consortium, which has former Star India head Uday Shankar (Bodhi Tree) and James Murdoch (Lupa Systems), in it.
“I am thrilled to announce that STAR INDIA wins India TV rights with their bid of ₹23,575 crores. The bid is a direct testimony to the BCCI’s organisational capabilities despite two pandemic years,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
“Since its inception, the IPL has been synonymous with growth & today is a red-letter day for India Cricket, with Brand IPL touching a new high with e-auction resulting in INR 48,390 cr value. IPL is now the 2nd most valued sporting league in the world in terms of per match value,” Shah added.
The IPL, in terms of sheer valuation, will now be bracketed in the top-most sporting properties alongside National Football League (USA), National Basketball Association (USA) and English Premier League (England), the most watched sporting event in the world.
The new deal also ends the monopoly of a single broadcaster. Sony had acquired the rights by paying ₹8200 crore for the first 10 years (2008-17) while Star with a bid price of 16347.50 won it for the next five years.
There was a also a Package C, where digital rights of 18 non-exclusive marquee games per season were up for grabs and Viacom18 won it with a winning bid of ₹2991.6 crore at the rate of ₹33.24 crore per match. There are 90 matches in this package.
Package D with a base price of ₹3 crore per game with overseas TV and Digital Rights on offer was sold for more than 1300 crore to Viacom18 and Times Internet.
The value of per IPL match made more than a 100 per cent jump from previous ₹54.5 crore to above ₹114 crore (approx). Globally, the per match value (USD 14.61 million) in IPL is second only to NFL where every match is worth USD 17 million.
