IPL media rights: Each ball bowled in cash-rich league to be worth Rs 49 lakh approximately from 2023 to 2027

After selling the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the 2023-2027 cycle for whopping Rs 48,390 crore for 410 matches, the BCCI will earn an unbelievable Rs 49 lakh (approx) from every ball bowled and Rs 2.95 crore for each over in the cash rich league from the next season.

The richest cricket board in the world is going to get richer as each IPL match from 2023 will help them earn Rs 118 crore, which is nearly double (1.96 times) that of an India home game.

The average value of each India home game -- as per a five-year deal bagged by Star India, in 2018, worth Rs 6,138 crore -- is Rs 60 crore.

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Notably, the BCCI was earning around Rs 55 crore from every IPL match in the previous cycle from 2018-22.

In a first of its kind e-auction conducted by the BCCI for three days, Disney-Star retained the TV media rights while Viacom18 won the digital property of the Indian Premier League's 2023-27 cycle for the Indian subcontinent.

Star's winning bid for TV rights (Package A) was worth Rs 23,575 crore (Rs 57.5 crore per match) whereas Viacom18 shelled out Rs 23,758 crore to claim Packages B and C for digital rights exclusively. Viacom18 also got the rights for Australia, South Africa, UK regions in Package D while Times Internet got the MENA and US.

Overall, the figure of Rs 48,390 crore, an unprecedented number in Indian sports broadcast industry, is nearly three times the price (Rs 16,347.50 crore) at which BCCI sold the media rights for the previous cycle (2018-22) in 2017, highlighting the value of the brand IPL that has exceeded expectations in terms of its growth.

Notably, for the first time, the BCCI had split the IPL's TV and digital rights, offering the bidders four packages: (A) India sub-continent television, (B) India sub-continent digital, (C) India digital non-exclusive special package and (D) Rest of the world.

The auction started at 1100 hours on June 12 with Package A and B rolled out up front. The bidding commenced from the base price of Rs 49 crore for the TV rights and Rs 33 crore for the digital rights and the parties had up to 30 minutes between the bids. The bidders quoted a figure on a per-match basis, with the minimum bid increment (MBI) value being fixed at Rs 50 lakh.