Reports: IPL media and digital rights set to be sold for close to INR 50,000 crores

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to rake in huge sums of money as it gets ready to sell the broadcasting and digital media rights of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL).

According to a report published in the Economic Times, the Indian board is in the closing stages of finalizing the tender. If market experts are to be believed, the five-year-cycle media rights of the IPL are likely to be sold for close to a whopping INR 50,000 crores.

This will be more than thrice the amount at which Star + Disney bought the rights five years ago. Back in 2017, Star bought broadcasting as well as digital rights for a staggering INR 16,347.5 crores.

This time, however, the BCCI is planning to sell the broadcasting and digital rights separately. A source close to one of the potential bidders was quoted as saying by the Economic Times said:

“The value of the rights will be more than anything one could imagine. If you go just by the profit and loss statement, the value could not go beyond INR 30-32,000 crore, but it’s the strategic value that every player will attribute to the property depending on their business which will swing the overall value.”

“It’s debatable whether Star & Disney India recovered or made money on their bid, but on the back of the property, they also built Hotstar. For any potential bidder, the value will be the new or incremental subscribers that the rights will get. Disney+Hotstar is the company’s streaming platform.”

Apart from Disney + Star, the likes of Sony Pictures Network (SPN), Reliance Industries-owned Viacom18 and Amazon Prime Video are expected to be the major players in the bidding game.

Will Disney Star retain the IPL media rights for the next five-year cycle?

The BCCI were originally scheduled to make the tender open on February 10. However, the process was delayed as the Indian board, alongside KPMG, is still in the final stages of preparing the document and taking a legal standpoint.

Back in 2021, President Sourav Ganguly reckoned that the media rights could be sold for close to INR 40,000 crores.

Tuhin Mishra, the managing director of a sports marketing firm, Baseline Ventures, believes that the bidders will have to ‘break the bank’ in order to win the rights of one of the most lucrative properties in sport. He said:

“The grapevine has it that, in the end, the firm loses money over the rights period but then rights are sought after not only for profits. A lot of times, it could be for valuation or simply existence. It’s not always rationality attached to the high numbers. The final shape is being given to the packages, and in another 10 days, the ITT will be out.”

Mishra also believes that Star Disney would be aware of the fact that their subscriber growth depends heavily on the IPL. They will be going all out to retain the rights. He said:

“Star Disney will be aware of the fact that their subscriber growth is largely dependent on the IPL and their aggressive bidding should be a reflection of that. We have seen how Netflix’s stock was hammered down due to slow subscriber growth guidance.”

He added:

“The same thing will happen to Disney stock in the US if they are not able to show strong subscriber growth, which is why the company will be bidding aggressively.”

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Initially, one of the factions in the BCCI was in favor of having a closed auction. However, with three-four players expected to ‘break the bank’, the top-brass decided to conduct an e-auction.