"Today is a red-letter day for India Cricket, with Brand IPL touching a new high with e-auction resulting in INR 48,390 cr value," BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted after three-day-long e-auction proceedings for IPL media rights concluded on Tuesday. Shah’s description aptly captures the exponential rise of the broadcasting rights cost for the showpiece event as the value at which media barons bought the rights has gone up six times in the last nearly 15 years — since the cricketing extravaganza made its debut in 2008.
The broadcasting rights for the five-year cycle — 2023-2027 — of IPL have been divided into four packages of A, B, C and D. The combined value of the four packages won by the media barons for the next five years is Rs 48,390 crore, which makes IPL the second-highest valued sport in the world in terms of per-match value after the National Football League (NFL). As many as 410 matches will be played in the next five seasons of IPL, with each valued at over Rs 107 crore, as reported by Times of India.
IPL Broadcast Rights Package Break-Up
Package A refers to the TV rights for the Indian subcontinent, which was won by Disney Star with the highest bidding of Rs 23,575 crore.
Package B is for the digital rights for the Indian subcontinent, which Viacom18 has clinched with a winning bid of Rs 20,500 crore.
The total valuation of Package C, which has 18-game non-exclusive special matches, stood at a staggering Rs 3,257.52 crore for 98 matches in five seasons. Package C includes rights for openers, finals, three play-offs per season and weekend double headers comprising a total of 18-20 matches per season for five seasons. Till Tuesday morning, the media or broadcasting rights for Package A+B+C stood at a combined value of Rs 47,332.52 crore.
Package D is for overseas TV and digital rights, which was sold to Viacom and Times Internet at Rs 1,324 crore. Viacom18 won the rights in Australia, South Africa, and UK territories, while Times Internet bagged US territories and MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region.
Congratulating all the stakeholders, BCCI treasurer Thakur Arun Singh tweeted: "A big congrats to all the stakeholders of BCCI, IPL & all our franchisees, entire staff & management for extremely successful #IPLMediaRights. The credit goes to all our fans for their love and trust."
How it started
IPL broadcasting rights were auctioned twice in the past, once in 2008 and the last time in 2017.
2008 auction: In the debut season of 2008, Sony Pictures Network won the IPL broadcasting rights for a duration of 10 years (2008-2017) with a winning bid of Rs 8,200 crore.
“I never thought that after the first year that the IPL started that these would be the numbers that they would be reaching after 15 years,” legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, who formerly served as BCCI President (IPL Affairs), was quoted as saying in an India Today report.
2017 auction: When the media rights went under the hammer again In 2017, Star India bagged it for a duration of five years from 2018-2022. The value had almost doubled to Rs 16,347.5 crore by then.