CHENNAI: It is not yet over, but the Indian Premier League (IPL) has already overtaken the English Premier League for per match broadcasting fee.
As the e-auction of the IPL media rights for the IPL cycle 2023-27 spilled over to Monday, according to a BCCI official privy to developments, the combined worth of broadcast and digital rights (Package A and B) now stands at Rs 43, 050 crore.
In 2017, the BCCI had sold the IPL media rights for Rs 16, 000 crore.
While it is not known who has placed the highest bid in each category so far, sources in the know revealed that there is a three-way battle for both the packages and in the second-half of Sunday, the competition was intense for the digital package. In Package A, which is television rights for the Indian sub-continent, the highest bid now stands at Rs 23, 370 crore (Rs 57 crore per match from a base price of Rs 49 crore).
While television rights were always expected to fetch more, it is the digital rights (Indian sub-continent only) which is witnessing a huge surge in price. Set at a base price of `33 crore per game, it has now gone upto Rs 48 crore per game and now stands at Rs 19, 680 crore.
With the combined per game fee now standing at Rs 105 ($13.4 million), the IPL is now only behind America’s National Football League as it is all set overtake the English Premier League comfortably, positioning the T20 league as a truly global enterprise. In the previous cycle, per game value was Rs 54.5 crore.
With the e-auction Package C (non-exclusive OTT content for 18-22 matches) and Package D (overseas television and digital) yet to begin, the BCCI officials are expecting the overall figure to touch at least Rs 50, 000 crore. But given how the bidders are going big for Package B, market analysts believe, even Package C, which has a base price of Rs 13 crore, could go up as whoever win the digital rights will not be willing to share the weekend and play-off matches to a different party as it would eat into their ad revenue. In this context, analysts believe the media rights would fetch the BCCI anywhere between Rs 55, 000-60, 000 crore.
With Amazon pulling out, everything pointed to a two-way battle between Disney Star and the Viacom18 joint-venture.
However, according to reliable sources in the BCCI, even Sony and Zee are believed to be in the race making it a three-way battle in each category.
There were indications that Sony and Zee, who are set for a merger, are not competing with each other and instead are in the fray for different packages.
Having not acquired any of the IPL, India cricket and ICC events in the last seven years, market analysts had predicted them to be the dark horse as they would have all the money in the kitty.