Indian Premier League: BCCI gears up for windfall from television, digital rights
For Indian Premier League, as many as 24 companies have entered the bid for television and digital rights of the world’s most popular T20 cricket league.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights, which will be unveiled on Monday, are expected to break all limits. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is gearing up for a windfall of over Rs 20,000 crore especially after the Supreme Court refused to direct the Board to conduct e-auction on the plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
The IPL media rights were first slated for September last year through an open-tender process. Around 18 companies were in contention then but the Supreme Court intervened to postpone the bidding.
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This time around, 24 companies have entered the bid for television and digital rights of the world’s most popular T20 league.
As many as seven media rights are up for grabs after the BCCI decided to break the bids into specific regions. While the Indian market bids are divided into television and digital, there will be separate bids (broadcast and digital together) placed for USA, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the rest of the world.
Multiple bidders
Current rights holder Sony Pictures Network will go all out to break the bank to retain the television rights as they struggle to stay relevant in the Indian market.
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Sony Pictures Network, who paid Rs 8,200 crore for a 10-year deal when the IPL was conceived, may face stiff challenge from Star India.
But sports market analysts believe Star India might not go aggressively for TV rights. “Star India already have India cricket rights and the ICC rights. So they do not need IPL as much as Sony. Also, with Star India going aggressive in developing other sports properties like kabaddi and hockey, it is quite clear that their focus is not just cricket anymore,” said an analyst.
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Digital media rights are expected to throw surprises. With the internet penetrating at high speed and cheap data packages, there are more players interested to buy the IPL digital rights. This is where Star India may go aggressively to retain their rights. The competition will be fierce with a host of digital giants like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Airtel entering the fray this time.
According to BCCI, the digital rights fetched them Rs303 crore for the three-year global deal. Industry analysts expect the numbers to be mind-boggling in the digital space this time.
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The SC appointed-Committee of Administrators (COA) has promised a transparent and fair bidding process. All the bids will be live across the BCCI website and news channels. BCCI’s legal company Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas will evaluate the bids and monitor the whole process.