In a massive boost to the Indian Premier League (IPL), Star Network is leading the bid for the TV rights, with a whopping Rs 57.5 crores per match for the 2023-27 seasons. Unless challenged, Star will pay the BCCI an amount of Rs 23,575 crore for the television rights. The TV rights were a part of package A and reached the highest bid of Rs 57 Crores on day 1 of the closed auction. The total value per game comes up to Rs 107.5 Crore.
This concludes the bidding for the TV rights, with the IPL close to being broadcast by the Star sports channels.
SportsTak can also confirm that Viacom 18 are the frontrunner for digital rights and unless they are challenged as well, Viacom might be the new digital partner of the IPL. Viacom18 runs the online OTT Voot Select. Their bid for Rs 50 Crores per match is slated to be the highest for digital rights. They will pay a total of Rs 20,500 Crores for acquiring these rights.
The package for A and B are close to being sold for a massive Rs 44,075 crore, making the IPL among the most lucrative global sporting events in the world.
There is one more round of bidding that is set to go ahead depending on the challenge that these two frontrunners in packages A and B face.
Four-pack offerings
There are four packages in contention – A, B, C and D.
Package A is the TV rights for the Indian subcontinent only. Package B deals with digital rights for the Indian subcontinent. Package C has a special bouquet of matches, with non-exclusive digital rights for the Indian subcontinent. This includes tournament openers and playoffs. At the moment, the number is 18, with a total of 74 games to be played in the tournament.
In the future, if the total number of matches increases, the number of games in Package C will rise in a ratio of two for every 10 games. For example, if the total number of matches rises to 84, Package C will offer a bouquet of 10 games.
This has been introduced to attract companies who are willing to get a small share of the cricket pie, fetching the cricket board big money in the process. Package D contains the world rights for TV and digital.
