IPL media rights auction moves to Day 3; tournament to have 2 broadcasters

Two different broadcasters won the TV (package A) and digital rights (package B) for the Indian subcontinent in the e-auction of the media rights for the IPL cycle 2023 to 2027

Two different broadcasters won the TV (package A) and digital rights (package B) for the Indian subcontinent in the e-auction of the media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) cycle 2023 to 2027 in the second day of the auction on Monday.

As the e-auction, which began on Sunday moves to its third day on Tuesday, one of the biggest highlights was with 410 matches to be broadcasted in the five-year cycle, the total value per match for every IPL game is at RS 107.5 crore.

Tuesday might see the bidding of packages C and D being completed and could mean that the names of the winning companies be revealed officially by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

According to a report by Cricbuzz, the yet-to-be identified company which has bagged TV rights for RS 57.5 crore per game had challenged the company bidding RS 48 crore per game for digital rights. "But looks like the bids for digital have ended at RS 50 Crore per game and it is understood to have been bagged by Jio (Viacom18)," said the report.

The report further said that while Jio (Viacom 18) or HotStar (Disney-Star) could have picked the Indian subcontinent digital rights, it has been indicated that Sony have bagged the Indian subcontinent TV rights. The combined value for Package A (TV Rights) and Package B (Digital) is RS 44,075 crore.

"The final count for TV is Rs 23,575 crore while the digital rights has ended at Rs 20,500 crore. The digital rights, which closed at Rs 48 crore per game in the first round, ended at the half century mark with the rights seemingly going to the original winner of the digital rights. The challenger, it seems, backed out after a couple bids of Rs 50 lakh each," added the report.

The auction will now on Tuesday move towards the bidding of Package C, which is an 18-game non-exclusive India digital rights with a base price of RS 16 crore. It will end with Package D bidding rights, which is the rest of the world consisting of five territories with base price for each game and each territory is RS 3 crore, with no composite bid for the Rest of the World package.

Star India-Disney were the current holders of the IPL rights for 2017-22 cycle, with a winning bid of RS 16,347.50 crore for both TV and digital in September 2017.

Previously, Sony Pictures Network won the IPL TV media rights for a period of 10 years during the inception of the tournament with a bid of RS 8200 crore.--IANS

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