BCCI to split TV, digital rights for future bilaterals

A senior BCCI official, on the condition of anonymity, told ET that the board is seeking to extract the maximum value from both TV and digital rights. The BCCI media rights, likely to be auctioned by July, are expected to be keenly contested among Disney Star, Viacom18, and the Sony-Zee combine. Some industry experts believe the property will be valued in excess of ₹15,000 crore, or nearly $2 billion, for the next four- or five-year block.

“While we are still finalising the contours of the BCCI media rights auction, we will be unbundling the media rights this time by selling TV and digital rights separately,” the top BCCI official told ET.

The official cited above said the board is “bullish” about the value of the BCCI media rights, which should see a significant enhancement in value. “We are bullish about the growth in the value of BCCI media rights considering most big cricket properties have doubled in value,” added the official.

The value of IPL media rights has tripled to ₹48,390 crore for the 2023-27 cycle following the separation of TV and digital rights. By contrast, Disney Star had paid ₹16,147 crore for the five-year composite media rights of the IPL between 2018 and 2023. The media rights agreement between Disney Star and BCCI for the bilateral matches ended in March. The broadcaster had paid ₹6,138 crore for the five-year media rights, which translated into about ₹60 crore per tie for a total of 102 matches.

July Likely Deadline
The BCCI expects to complete the media rights auction process by July this year, just ahead of the three-match ODI series against Australia. “The BCCI media rights tender will be on schedule this year (June-July) and will depend on the Afghanistan tour, but more likely the process will start with the Australia series. The Board will speak to all stakeholders concerned and will come up with an interim decision,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah told the media recently.

Between IPL and the International Cricket Council (ICC) media rights, Disney Star, Viacom18, and Sony-Zee have committed upward of $9 billion until 2027. The commitment of Indian broadcasters for cricket rights is most likely to cross $10 billion once the process of allotting BCCI TV and digital rights for the bilateral series is completed. Disney Star, which had last year bagged the ICC media rights for $3 billion, has retained the digital rights while parcelling off the TV rights to Zee for an estimated $1.5 billion.

Media experts believe that unbundling media rights makes sense since digital has reached an inflection point due to the growth of the internet and smartphone penetration, even as TV remains a strong medium.

“The BCCI media rights have considerable value since they involve India matches, which get good ad revenue. It will be keenly fought as this is the only valuable cricket rights left after the sale of IPL and ICC rights,” media veteran Kunal Dasgupta said.