The year 2022 was an overwhelming year for the media rights acquisition of sports properties across the globe. Previous records were broken, and a newcomer managed to outbid a veteran in the industry to acquire the rights to the most profitable sports competition across the globe. Let’s have a look at the top three media rights deals of the year 2022:
1. Viacom18 acquires digital rights to IPL 2023-27
The Indian Premier League (IPL) Media Rights Auction took place earlier this year in June. After a three-day bidding war, the Indian media conglomerate, Viacom18 managed to acquire the digital rights to IPL for the 2023-27 cycle for a whopping INR 23,758 crore. This media rights acquisition will be for the ages as digital rights turned out to be more expensive than TV rights.
2. Disney Star retains TV rights to IPL 2023-27
Disney Star held the media rights to the Indian marquee T20 competition from 2018-2022 and was the front runner to retain the TV as well the OTT rights. In 2017, Disney Star acquired rights to IPL for INR 16,347.50 crore. Things were quite different in the media rights auction earlier this year as the Indian media conglomerate had to spend INR 23,575 crore just to retain the TV rights.
3. Disney Star bags rights to ICC cricket in India
Even though Disney Star couldn’t secure the OTT rights to the IPL but nothing could stop the media baron from acquiring the media rights to all ICC cricket in India. The association covers TV and digital rights of men’s and women’s fixtures till the end of 2027.