The Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the most sought after sporting leagues in the world. In terms of valuation, the tourmament is the second biggest league. It is no brainer that the streaming rights of the T20 cricket tournament is worth thousands of crores. However, on Thursday (April 25), a bizarre news came to the fore when actor Tamannaah Bhatia was summoned by Maharashtra Cyber Cell in an Illegal IPL streaming case.
As per a report carried by news agency Asia News International (ANI), actor Tamannah and Sanjay Dutt reportedly endorsed FairPlay’s subsidiary app of the Mahadev betting app which is the reason why they had to be summoned in relation to the case with Dutt unable to make it on an earlier date due to his work schedule. The 64-year-old requested for a later date.
READ HERE | Tamannaah Bhatia Gets Summons From Maharashtra Cyber Cell In Illegal IPL Streaming App Case
"Maharashtra Cyber summons actor Tamannaah Bhatia for questioning in connection with the illegal streaming of IPL 2023 on Fairplay App that caused loss of Crores of Rupees to Viacom. She has been asked to appear before Maharashtra Cyber on 29th April," ANI wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
"Actor Sanjay Dutt was also summoned in this connection on 23rd April but he had not appeared before them. He had, instead, sought a date and time for recording his statement and said that he was not in India on the date," the post added.
Who Owns The Rights To Stream IPL Matches?
It is pertinent to note that Viacom 18 had registered an official complaint saying that they have the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for the streming of the IPL matches. However, despite this betting app Fari play platform was streaming the matches illegally on their platform. This resulted in over Rs 100 crore-less for Viacom18, as per their claim quoted in a report carried by TOI.
ALSO Read | How To Watch IPL 2024 Matches For Free?
For context, Viacom 18 had bought the Live Streaming rights of the IPL matches for Rs 20,500 Crore. This was for a five-year period from 2023 to 2027. While these included 74 matches a season in 2023 and 2024, there are 84 matches proposed in 2025 and 2026, with the number going to 94 in 2027. Effectively the cost for streaming, comes down to Rs 33. crore per match- the sum which Viacom 18 has paid to acquire the streaming rights which gives them exclusive right to stream it in the Indian subcontinent.
In terms of television broadcast, Disney Star had acquired the television broadcast rights of IPL in the Indian subcontinent for the five-year period, paying a sum of Rs 23,575 Crore to acquire the rights.