Star India edged out Sony Pictures to secure the Indian Premier League’s media rights with a bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore on Monday. The bidding for various media rights was held in Mumbai for a five-year period from 2018-2022.
With this deal, the cost of an IPL match has become more than an average Team India game, as the former would be tagged at around Rs. 55 crore, as opposed to an India game, which brings in about Rs. 43 crore, making an IPL match the hottest property in Indian cricket from 2018 onwards.
Earlier, each IPL game had the value of around Rs. 15 crore, which will now spike by three-and-a-half times to Rs 15 crore.
“India, cricket and IPL have changed dramatically since its inception (in 2008) and this bid is a reflection of that,” Star CEO Uday Shankar told reporters.
“Even if it was slightly less, we would not have got the rights. In every category, it was so competitive,” Shankar added.
It is expected that Star India’s digital vertical HotStar would be used for live streaming of IPL matches in India.
