Soaring IPL digital rights push BCCI earnings to more than double

Cricket fans throng outside the Narendra Modi stadium to watch IPL final between Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titan, in Ahmedabad. Credit: IANS Photo

The BCCI received a financial windfall as its e-auction of the media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next five-year cycle (2023-27) fetched a mind-boggling Rs 44,075 crore after selling its TV and digital rights for the Indian sub-continent.

While everyone is tight-lipped about the winners, insiders revealed that either Disney-Hotstar or Sony has bagged TV rights. Viacom is most likely to have won digital rights.

At close of bidding process on Monday, Package A (TV rights for the Indian sub-continent ) was sold for Rs 23,575 crore, which comes to around Rs 57.5 crore per game for 410 matches across five seasons.

It was, however, the India sub-continent’s digital rights that turned heads around, with each match being offered a whopping Rs 50 crore. The figure reached the half-century mark after the winning bidder of digital rights was challenged by the winner of Package A. The Package B eventually was sold for Rs 20,500 crore, pegging the cumulative amount at Rs 44,075 crore from the two packages.

Read | IPL Media Rights: Disney Star gets TV deal for Rs 23,575 crore, Viacom18 bags digital for Rs 20,500 crore

Just to put in perspective the jump in digital rights, the highest bid offered for the previous cycle was Rs 3,090 crore. In fact the Rs 20,500 crore for digital rights this season alone is way higher than the Rs 16,347 offered for both TV and digital platforms for 2018-22.

Towards the end of the day’s auction, another Rs 2,000 crore was added to the BCCI coffers from Package C, which has a select non-exclusive digital rights deal. The third day’s auction will resume with Package C on Tuesday.

The total earnings from packages A, B and C (incomplete) after day two stood at Rs 46,000 crore, which at the moment is two and a half times more than the amount offered for the cycle 2018-2022. The final valuation could be anywhere between Rs 47,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore.

“This was on the expected lines,” IPL chairman Brijesh Patel told DH notwithstanding the insane amount being splurged by bidders.

“There were talks that the low TRP rates for the just-concluded IPL would discourage bidders from betting big on the league, but we were always confident we would see an exponential growth in earnings.”

The break-up of 410 matches across five years is: 74 matches each for 2023 and 2024, 84 games in 2025 and 2026, and 94 in 2027.