The auction for the televison and digital rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023-27 cycle have been reportedly sold for a cumulative price of Rs 44,075 crore.
As per reports, the Package A (TV rights) and Package B (digital rights) have gone to two different media companies. However, the identity of these two compaines is yet to be revealed.
The Package A, which consists of the TV broadcast rights for the Indian subcontinent having a base price of Rs 49 crore per game, has reportedly gone up to Rs 57.5 per game.
On the other hand, the Package B for the digital rights which was set at a base price of Rs 33 crore per game, has already marked a rise of 47.9 percent and now stands at Rs 49.81 crore per game. The reports suggested that at the end of the first day of the e-auction, TV broadcast rights were at Rs 23,575 crore while digital rights stood at Rs 20,500 crore for the 2023-27 cycle.
On the other hand, the bid for Package C (non exclusive 18 matches) and Package D (International rights) is currently underway.
The reports further suggested that Disney-Star, Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) India and Viacom18 had set their sights on the TV rights for the Indian subcontinent for all games (package A) while for the digital rights for the Indian sub-continent (package B), Zee competed with Disney+ Hotstar and Jio.
Significantly, Jio is part of the Reliance-backed Viacom18 combine.
Before the e-auction, industry pundits had predicted that the rights for the next cycle is likley to fetch the BCCI over Rs 50,000 crore.
However, unlike the previous times, there are four categories for the rights this time, which are namely: TV Rights for Indian Sub-continent, Digital Rights, 18 games (inaugural game, weekend double headers, 4 play-off games) and Rest of the World.
Earlier, Star India, the current official broadcaster of the cash-rich league, had paid a whopping Rs 16,347.5 crore for the 2018-2022 cycle.
In February 2022, BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly had said that he was expecting a rise of more than double in value of IPL rights for the next 2023-27 cycle.
Earlier in October 2021, the Indian cricket board had already fetched Rs 12,725 Crore from the sale of two new IPL franchises – Lucknow and Ahmedabad.