The auction for TV and digital rights of one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, the Indian Premier League (IPL), concluded on Monday. It is still unknown which global media behemoths such as Disney Star India, Sony Sports Network, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) and the Reliance-backed Viacom18 acquired the lucrative cricket tournament’s rights.
After the conclusion of the media rights e-auction on Sunday, the price for TV and digital rights ended at INR 57 crore and INR 48 crore per match respectively. Overall TV and digital rights for the 2023-2027 media rights cycle closed at INR 43,050 crore, up from a base price of INR 30,340 crore.
It is already INR 10,000 crore higher than the Board of Control for Cricket in India‘s (BCCI) predicted price of nearly INR 33,000 crore set for the current media rights cycle.
Moreover, according to media reports, the winner of Package A is now planning to challenge the winner of Package B at an incremental bid of INR 1 crore.
IPL’s per-match value is only second to National Football League (NFL), which costs the broadcasting company $17 million (INR 132.26 crore) per match.
To keep things in context, Disney-Star purchased the IPL’s combined digital and television rights in 2017 for INR 16,347.50 crore. The average match had a price of INR 54.5 crore, with the broadcaster spending INR 3,269 crore per year.