The IPL has experienced significant growth since it began in 2008. Now, with the announcement of the recent media deal auction, the league has reached a new level of commercial success. The e-auction ended with a value of Rs 48,390 crore.
This makes the IPL the world’s second most valued sporting league in terms of value per match. We spoke to a journalist who is an expert on the Indian gambling industry and who stated he was not surprised by the high value of the IPL. He said:
“In the gambling industry, we have seen an increasing fan base for the IPL over the last few years. This is only likely to continue with the addition of two new teams to the mix. It’s easy to understand how the value of the league has increased as a result.”
The changes in the media agreement which encompasses the new teams, and is for 410 matches over a five-year period, meant that the BCCI set a base price of Rs 32,890 crore to own the media rights of the IPL from 2023-2027. This base price may have seemed high at first but has been well exceeded by the Rs 48,390 crore raised at auction. Unlike previously, this amount was paid by separate companies.
Star Retains Domestic TV Rights
Star, owned by Disney, is happy to be continuing its association with the IPL. The company paid Rs 23,575 crore to retain its control of domestic TV rights for the IPL. This is considerably more than Star paid for the previous five-year cycle of TV rights.
Back in 2017, the company paid Rs 16,347.5 crore for a deal that included TV and digital rights for a cycle that covered the period 2018-2022. It becomes clear how much the value of IPL has increased when you see how much more Star had paid this time around.
Digital Rights Secured By Viacom18
It’s also important to recognize that the amount paid by Star is only part of the story. The digital rights went elsewhere at this auction. They were bought by Viacom18 for Rs 23,758 crore. This gives Viacom 18 rights to exclusive IPL digital content. It’s interesting that the value of digital exceeds the value of broadcast TV. This is a clear indication of the digital revolution that is taking place in India right now.
It’s worth mentioning that Viacom 18 also secured Package C at the recent media rights auction. This package includes the right to non-exclusive content that covers 98 games in total. Making sure it was successful in securing this content as well means that Viacom 18 does not have to fight competition from another company at any point.
Now that the auction is complete, and the ownership of rights is decided, the BCCI is dedicated to putting funds to use in optimizing the potential of the IPL with a view to further increasing its fanbase and its value.
