By the time the first day of e-auction for IPL’s media rights for the next five-year cycle (2023-27) concluded on Sunday, it was clear BCCI was in for one of the biggest media rights bonanzas in the world of sports.
The day saw the cricket board pocket Rs 43,050 crore (around $5. 5 billion)-a Rs 26,050-crore ($3. 3 billion) hike from the previous rights cycle-taking IPL’s per match value at over Rs 104 crore ($13. 4 million) past English Premier League’s corresponding figure of $11 million.
Thus, IPL is now only the second after the US’s NFL ($17 million) in terms of per match value; it is already ahead of other top leagues in the world like NBA and MLB. Day Two of the e-auction is set to throw up bigger numbers.
The much-anticipated bidding for the rights began at 11 am on Sunday with four of the seven bidders in the fray – the Viacom-led JV, Disney+Hotstar, Culver Max Entertainment (earlier, Sony Pictures) and the Zee Group – jumping into the process right away for Packages A & B.
Package A is for India’s television rights alone, with the base price set at Rs 49 crore. Package B is for India’s digital rights with the base price set at Rs 33 crore.
By the time the first day was over and the process was called off for Sunday at 6 pm, Package A rose from Rs 49 crore to Rs 57 crore and Package B went up from Rs 33 crore to Rs 48 crore.
What this now means is the per-match cost so far at which these rights are being sold – Package A + B – stands at Rs 104 crore. That’s a Rs 49.5 crore per match jump from the 2018-22 rights cycle when Star India had made a successful bid for each IPL game at Rs 54.5 crore.
