Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest cricket premier league has just got a lot richer as its media rights have been sold for a whopping amount of Rs. 48, 390.5 crore (USD 6.2. billion) for the next five years, making the league among the wealthiest among the world of sports.
The Governing Council of the TATA IPL had issued an invitation to Tender for media rights to the Indian Premier League Season 2023-2027. An e-auction was conducted from June 12 to June 14, 2022, as part of this process wherein all eligible bidders were permitted to participate to determine the successful bidders for the media rights.
The bidding was done on a per game basis, which means right holders will collectively pay the cricket board Rs. 118.02 crore per match for the next 5-years. Currently there are 74 matches in every IPL season and the number is going to be 410 over the 5- year period.
There were a total of four packages A-D that were bid for with various subsections. Disney Star, Viacom18 and Times Internet bagged the various rights to broadcast IPL matches from 2023 to 2024 on TV digital programs.
Disney-Star bagged TV Rights
The three day e-auctioning of the IPL media rights for the next five years has come to an end and this deal has fetched BCCI Rs. 48,390.5 crore with Disney-Star retained their Indian continent TV rights for the Indian subcontinent with a figure of Rs. 23, 575 crore or Rs. 57.5 cr. per game.
We are pleased to extend our association with the Indian Premier League (IPL) and look forward to offering the next five seasons across our portfolio of television channels.
Read more here – https://t.co/oLVKvEM366 pic.twitter.com/08Y7S4Fsb9
— Disney Star (@starindia) June 14, 2022
Digital Rights in High Demand
The most sought after digital rights was acquired for Rs. 20,500 crore by the Reliance backed Viacom18. It also won the non-executive Package C paying another Rs. 2991 cr. On the other side, Package D with a base price of Rs. 3 Crore per game with overseas TV and digital rights on offer was sold for more than Rs. 1300 crore to Viacom and Times Internet.
Viacom18 bags digital rights with its winning bid of Rs 23,758 cr. India has seen a digital revolution & the sector has endless potential. The digital landscape has changed the way cricket is watched. It has been a big factor in the growth of the game & the Digital India vision.
— Jay Shah (@JayShah) June 14, 2022
IPL Overtakes Match Value of English Premier League (Soccer)
This e-auctioning of media rights was the game changing deal for BCCI as well as Indian cricket, as with the combined value of USD 6.2 billion on which the media rights are sold, IPL has become the second valuable sports tournament in the world behind NFL (National Football League) in terms of value per match overtaking English Premier League Soccer.
