A new phase for the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to get underway as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is preparing to roll out tenders for the T20 league’s media rights.
On October 25, after the announcement of the two new franchsies for IPL from the 2022 season onwards, the BCCI will start the process of inviting fresh bids for the media rights for a period of five years (2023 to 2027).
In a statement on Tuesday, the Indian Board said: “IPL media rights tender for the cycle 2023-27 will be released immediately after the appointment of two new IPL teams”.
Presently, Star Sports holds the television and digital media rights for the T20 league, paying a whopping fee of INR 54.5 crore per match to the BCCI for the T20 league. However, the board now wants the existing price being paid by Star as the base price on which biddings will be invited.
The media rights will be e-auctioned, as per the mandate given by the honourable Supreme Court.
Though the prospect of giving the new deal for a period of three years was contemplated, the BCCI top brass later agreed on keeping the existing period of 5 years in place.
The rights will be offered for the Indian sub-continent / global/ television/ digital and bids will be invited from the interested parties separately for each category.
In 2017, Star Sports had acquired the media rights for the lucrative T20 league in a blockbuster deal of Rs 16,347.5 crore (USD 2.55 billion) for a period of 5 years (2018 to 2022).
The cost of the media rights is expected to skyrocket considering the BCCI will also make IPL a 10-team event instead of 8-team. Though the tender was expected to be released next year, the decision to roll it out was taken early in order to give the bidders enough time to plan their bids.
