The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is set for a windfall from the auction of media rights for the Indian Premier League.
At the end of the second day of the e-auction, the BCCI was assured of a minimum revenue of ₹45,950 crore for the five-year cycle from 2023 to 2027.
With two of the four categories the media rights have been divided into yet to be finalised, industry experts expect the figure to cross ₹60,000 crore. The e-auction, which began on Sunday, is likely to conclude on Tuesday.
On Monday, bidding concluded for the first two packages — television rights for the Indian subcontinent and digital rights for India. With a base price of ₹49 crore and ₹33 crore per game respectively, multiple sources in the BCCI and bidders told The Hindu that the winning bids were ₹57.5 crore and ₹50 crore.
Bidding had closed at ₹57 crore and ₹48 crore in the two categories on the first day.
While the Reliance-backed Viacom 18-Paramount combine is understood to have bagged the digital bouquet for ₹20,500 crore, it could not be confirmed whether Disney or Star had the highest TV rights bid of ₹23,575 crore.
However, it was confirmed that for the first time the IPL broadcast would be divided between two platforms on television and digital media. For the last five years, Star India held the global rights across platforms.
It means that the IPL is assured of fetching at least ₹13.5 million per game, which is second only to the American National Football League’s ₹17 million per game.
Towards the end of the proceedings on Monday, bidding began for the non-exclusive digital package and overseas rights package.
The non-exclusive package (including 20 games per edition) bidding closed at ₹18.75 crore for the day. Viacom 18-Paramount combine has the option of challenging the highest bidder on the non-exclusive package with an incremental bid.
