On June 12, 2022, some of the biggest broadcasters from India will bid for the media rights of the Indian Premier League’s next cycle of 2023-2027. On March 29, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced the release of invitation to tender for the media rights cycle. The total base price of the media rights is a whopping Rs 32,890 crore, which is nearly the double of last season’s Rs 16,348 crore. As per reports, the windfall is expected to be around Rs 100 crore, more than the windfall of the likes of the English Premier League (EPL) and Major League Baseball (MLB).
IPL was valued at about $5.9 billion in 2020 by Duff & Phelps. The number, as per BCCI’s estimates, is now $7 billion.
The bidding will be held across two days, just the way the player auctions were held earlier this year. Bidding for TV and digital rights will be held on June 12, while the remaining rights, including global rights will be held on June 13. This will be an e-auction, the first of its kind, with the bidders bidding from their respective locations. Mjunction, a joint venture between Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) will conduct the e-auction. Bidders, whose names will not be displayed while the bidding is on, will have 30 minutes to make a counter against the highest bid.
The tender for the media rights is divided into four packages.
Package A: Sole TV rights for the Indian subcontinent only.
Package B: Only Digital rights and exclusively for the Indian subcontinent.
Package C: Digital rights for a special bouquet of matches, including the playoffs, for the Indian subcontinent only.
Package D: Rights for the Rest of the World for both TV and digital, is divided into two sub-categories: Combined ROW or five individual regions.
Each package has a separate per match base price. Rs 49 crore per match for Package A, Rs 33 crore per match for package B, Rs 11 crore per match for package C and Rs 3 crore per match for package D.
Only those Indian broadcasters that have a net worth of more than Rs 1,000 crore are eligible to bid for TV rights for Package 1. For the other three packages, companies with a minimum net worth of Rs 500 crore can take part.
Online retailer Amazon has pulled out of the bidding race for the IPL media rights. The other big names in the fray are Disney+ Hotstar, Sony, Zee, Reliance-Viacom, Google, Amazon, and Apple.
Number of matches per season likely to increase
The IPL will also see an increase in the number of matches in 2023-27 cycle. As per reports, 74 matches will be scheduled in the first two years of the cycle - 2023 and 2024 - followed by 84 matches in 2025 and 2026. In the fifth and final season of the cycle, the matches can go up to 94. It will be interesting to see how the BCCI schedules the games in a calendar which will have international series too. But with the brand value of the tournament growing by leaps and bounds each season, an increase in the number of games will only bring the board some more money.
Image credit: BCCI
