Disney Star won the coveted IPL TV rights in the Indian subcontinent for a staggering Rs 23,575 crore, while Viacom18 grabbed the digital rights with a bid of Rs 20,500 crore in the media rights auction on Monday. The BCCI is poised to make its way into the bank after selling its IPL TV and digital rights to the Indian subcontinent for a combined sum of Rs 44,075 crore, making it one of the richest entities in the sports world. “Star will retain the Indian TV rights of IPL for the next five years, while Viacom18 will have the digital rights. The combined value per match of Indian TV only and digital rights per game is 107.5 crore. With these bids, the monopoly of one broadcaster in IPL,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on condition of anonymity.
According to the information received, Package A (TV rights in the Indian subcontinent) for 410 IPL matches in five seasons from 2023 to 2027 has been sold for Rs 23,575 crore, which is basically Rs 57.5 crore per game.
However, it is the digital rights of the Indian subcontinent that made it irresistible with Rs 50 crore per game being offered by Viacom18 (with Lupa Systems of Uday Shankar and James Murdoch) after Star challenged them as the winner of Package A.
Packet B fetched Rs 20,500 crore and thus cumulatively, the BCCI is now richer at Rs 44,075 crore after the sale of the two packs.
When the auctions closed on the second day, an additional 2000 crore was bid on package C, which has a select non-exclusive digital rights deal. The auction, which has entered the third day, will resume on Tuesday with Package C.
As of now, the board has earned a whopping Rs 46,000 crore, which is already two and a half times more than the 2018 auction value of Rs 16,347 crore.
As PTI had forecast, the final valuation would be around Rs 47,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore.
The base price for TV was Rs 49 crore while digital rights were pegged at Rs 33 crore.
“We’re already hitting the $5.5 billion mark after selling two packs. But digital rights per match value of 50 crore are huge. An incremental growth of 51 percent above base price is phenomenal,” a BCCI official told PTI .
Bidding ended at 6pm today and we are currently auctioning Pack C, which has 98 games in the non-exclusive digital category for five years. There are 18 in the first two seasons, followed by 20 in the next two and 24 in The final season It is followed by Package D, which are overseas rights for TV and digital.” The distribution of 410 matches over five years is as follows: 74 matches each for 2023 and 2024. The number increases to 84 matches in 2025 and 2026 and 94 matches in 2027.
According to the standards of e-auction, the owners are given a secret code that they can use to bid. No BCCI office holders and employees have the faintest idea of the code of the bidding companies.
The bidding started with raises of Rs 50 lakh during the initial period and once the winner of pack A challenged the highest bidder of pack ‘B’ the value of the incremental bid was worth Rs 1 crore.
None of the BCCI officials were able to confirm who won the two packages.
Sony and Walt Disney (Star) are believed to have had a bidding war over TV rights. Market sources say Viacom18, owned by Reliance, which has formed a consortium with Lupa Systems of Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, would compete for Package B.
Viacom won package B and will go hard for package C, as the broadcasters want to maintain their exclusivity and losing a small package of marquees to another entity won’t be a great business move.
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Package D, which has a base value of Rs 3 crore for overseas TV and digital rights, will have a strong contender in Zee, which will lead the auction by former BCCI CEO Rahul Johri.
“If Johri and Zee can win Package D and if Sony has won Package A, then the cooperation between Zee and Sony will herald a new beginning. But let’s wait until tomorrow,” said a source involved in the auction process.
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