IPL media rights: Four different categories up for grabs, interested parties must put multiple bids

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in its Invitation to Tender (ITT) document for the media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) period 2023-2027 has placed four different categories that will be up for grabs.

Unlike the last time, where a consolidated bid was in place, through which Star bagged the rights for a whopping Rs 16,347.5 crore for a five-year period that ends with this season, interested parties have to bid separately for each category.

According to an IPL governing council member, the first category is for television rights in the Indian sub-continent, for which the base price is set at Rs 49 crore per game. As per the current deal, BCCI pocketed Rs 54.23 crore per IPL match. 

Category II is for digital rights, which has a base price of Rs 33 crore per game. Although with 10 teams in place, there are talks of expanding the tournament which will see each team play each other twice, the BCCI has rolled out the ITT as per the existing format of 74 matches.

The base price of Rs 49 crore for television rights means each season will bring the BCCI at least Rs 3,626 crore. For a five-year period, it comes to Rs 18,130 crore. This sum is far higher than what Sony (Rs 11,050 Cr) had bid in 2017. In the digital rights category, the base price for the next five years is Rs 12,210. 

In 2017, Facebook had placed a bid of Rs 3,900 crore, the highest in the category. While each of these bids were higher than what Star had bid, they eventually outbid the rest in the overall category to bag the overall rights.

It is understood that the BCCI scrapped the overall combined category as it expects to earn more if television and digital rights are sold separately. “These are just the base prices, which in itself is significantly higher than what was the highest bid in 2017. With e-auction in place for the first time in IPL history, it is hard to even think a number for which each category will be sold for. There is interest from across the globe,” an IPL insider said.

This time, the BCCI has also introduced a new category, where 18-20 matches per season will be up for grabs at a base price of Rs 16 crore, and it is only open for OTT platforms. This however isn’t an exclusive and will include the opening match, the night matches on weekends and the three play-offs and final. 

While the BCCI had initially explored the option making this category also exclusive, it decided against it as there could be a decrease in the overall value of television and digital rights.

The fourth category is for the rest of the world for which the BCCI has set a base price of Rs 3 crore per game. Market analysts believe the upcoming media deal would position the IPL in par with English Premier League. 

After the last broadcast deal, in terms of global presence, the IPL was only behind National Football League (US) and EPL in terms of cost per game. 

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