Almost after an hour of resumption of the bidding for the auction of the TV and digital rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023-27 cycle, the process concluded on Monday.
As per reports, the auction for the digital and TV rights (packages A and B), which witnessed a fierce fight on Sunday (June 13), took the combined value (of TV and digital) over the Rs 43,000-crore mark, which is over two-and-a-half times the previous rights value of Rs 16,347.5 crore, paid by Disney-Star in 2017.
Notably, the current combined value of the rights is Rs 10,000 crore more than the reserve price of nearly Rs 33,000 crore set by the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) for the current media rights cycle for the year 2023-27.
Also, the per-match value of the IPL has touched $13.5 million (Rs 105 crore) after bidding came to an end on Sunday.
As per reports, 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.
The reports further suggested that the TV rights are estimated to have touched Rs 57 crore per match at the end of the first day of the e-auction, which is Rs 49 crore more than what the Indian cricket board has set as the base price.
Meanwhile, the digital rights value was estimated at Rs 48 crore per match at the end of bidding on day one, which is 45 percent higher than the Rs 33 crore per match vale set by the BCCI before the e-auction.
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.
While RPSG Ventures Ltd. had acquired the Lucknow franchise for Rs 7090 crores, the Irelia Company Pvt Ltd. (CVC Capital Partners) bagged the Ahmedabad franchise for Rs 5625 crores.
Notably, one of the main reason for the increase in the IPL media rights value would be the increase in the number of matches from the upcoming season.