The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday reportedly sold the television rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next five-year, starting 2023 for a whopping Rs 57.5 crore per game. (More Cricket News)
Early reports claimed that 'Category A' has been sold for Rs 23,575 crore (Rs 57.5 crore per game) while 'Category B' has gone for Rs 19,680 crore (Rs 48 crore per game). The cumulative amount thus is Rs 43,255 crore.
IPL media rights will be completed on Day 3 on Tuesday and by close of Day 2 on Monday, the BCCI is richer by INR 46,000 crores and expected to touch INR 50,000 crores. These numbers are based on 74 games per season in the next five-year cycle.
Advertisement
But the digital pack did not see any bid on the second day and was closed at Rs 48 crore per game, thus making Rs 19,680 crore.
Star India won the previous cycle for Rs 16,347.50 crore for both TV and digital rights.
It may be recalled that Sony had bid Rs 11000 crore for TV in the last cycle but lost out narrowly to Star, who had given a better global deal, including digital which never has been Sony's strength. Sony were the first broadcaster of IPL, winning the bid for Rs 8200 crore for the 2008-16 cycle.
Here are the categories/packages:
Advertisement
Category A - This package has Indian sub-continent exclusive TV (broadcast) rights. The BCCI has set the base price for the TV rights for the Indian sub-continent at Rs 49 crore per game.
Category B - It covers digital rights for the Indian sub-continent. The base price for the digital rights for the Indian sub-continent is set is Rs 33 crore per game.
Category C - It is for 18 selected games in each season for digital. The base price for this 18-match, the non-exclusive digital package is Rs 11 crore per game.
Category D - It covers all games and will be for combined TV and digital rights for overseas the base price is INR 3 crore per game.
And the companies:
Viacom18 JV (Joint Venture) with Lupa Systems, Disney-Star, Sony, Zee -- both India media and digital rights. Times Internet, Fan Code, FunAsia, Dream11 -- only digital rights.
On Day 1, four out of the seven players in the fray -- Viacom18, Disney-Star, Sony and Zee -- were involved in a nearly seven-hour slugfest for the rights to get Category A and Category B.
Experts had predicted that the cumulative valuation of the media rights could well touch a staggering Rs 50,000 crore mark, which will be one of the biggest in terms of global rights across any sport.
Advertisement
In fact, as things stood after Sunday bidding, the BCCI-owned T20 cricket tournament was already the second-most lucrative sporting brand in the world, behind only the National Football League (USD 35.07 million).
