The media rights auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of the biggest sporting events in the world, went underway Sunday 11 am IST in Mumbai. The bidding is for the next cycle 2023-2027 from top broadcasters and over-the-top (OTT) players and is expected to spillover to Monday.
With Amazon pulling out of race late Saturday evening, the seven final bidders comprise Disney Star, Sony, Viacom-Reliance, Zee, Fun Asia, Super Sport and Times Internet.
On March 29, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced the release of invitation to tender for the media rights cycle, which is divided into four categories.
Participants during the e-auction for IPL’s media rights can make incremental bids of over Rs 50 lakh for each bid. According to the rules for bidding during the e-auction, winner of package 1 will have the right to rebid for package 2 and winner of package 2 will have the right to rebid for package 3.
There are four specific packages (A, B, C, D) in which e-auction will be conducted or 74 games per season for a five-year period from 2023-2027 with a provision of increasing the number of matches to 94 in the final two years.
Package A is exclusive for TV (broadcast) for the Indian subcontinent while package B is for digital-only grouping for the same region. Package C is for 18 selected games in each season for digital space. In Package D all games will be for combined TV and digital rights for overseas markets.
All bidders will have to make separate bids for each package, this time. Bidders for Package A must have a net worth of Rs 1000 crore; it is Rs 500 crore for those bidding for other packages. According to media reports, the board is expected to fetch nearly double the money this term, as compared to the last auction which took place in 2017. Star India bought IPL media rights for Rs 16,347 crore in 2017. This time the base price is Rs 32,890 crores, which means the BCCI is expecting to get at least twice the previous amount.
There is no deadline for the auction, though it is expected to last through Monday. It will continue until the placement of all bids. This is the first time that an e-auction will be conducted for determining the winner of IPL’s media rights. The BCCI is looking forward to continuing the online mode of the auction in the coming years.
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