IPL MEDIA RIGTHS: Apple, Facebook, Netflix and other big names set to battle it out
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is currently the best Twenty20 league in the world. It's also become one of the most popular sporting events in the world, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) expecting to make a fortune from the media rights for the forthcoming 2022-27 cycle. The next five-year cycle of IPL media rights will be auctioned in the second week of June this year.
The BCCI has already issued an Invitation-To-Tender (ITT) for the sale of IPL media rights for the years 2023-2027, and several major players have showed interest in competing for the broadcast rights. Star presently owns the media rights to the IPL for the 2018-22 season, which were purchased for Rs 16,347.5 crore (about 2.1 billion USD) in 2018.
According to the Times of India, firms like as Disney, Amazon, Sony, Zee, and TV18-Viacom have already purchased the ITT document in preparation for the IPl 2023-27 media rights war. According to the source, Apple, the American IT giant, is scheduled to choose the ITT next week and compete with others for the IPL's media rights.
The deadline for corporations to purchase the ITT is May 10, after which the BCCI will evaluate the tender documents for a month. In the second week of June, the IPL media rights will be auctioned via an e-auction, with the Indian cricket board expecting to earn a staggering 7.2 billion USD from the purchase.
The BCCI is expected to earn nearly three times as much as it did when the IPL media rights for the 2018-22 season were sold. The income from the media rights contract, according to BCCI secretary Jay Shah, would be used to develop India's domestic cricket infrastructure.
"Transparency will be the key and the revenues coming from sale or rights will be directed to India's domestic structure, better infrastructure and welfare of the cricketing fraternity," BCCI secretary Jay Shah reported.
This time around, the BCCI has divided the IPL media rights contract into four categories. The package is broken down into the following sections: A) Television rights for the Indian subcontinent; B) Digital rights; C) A group of 18 games (season opener, four playoff games, and nighttime matches of weekend double-headers); D) The rest of the world.
The BCCI has set the base price of the whole package at Rs 32,890 crore (about 4.2 billion USD) for all eligible organizations to bid separately for each category. However, the Indian cricket board is sure to receive substantially more than the base price due to the bidding war amongst the major names.
