STAR India wins BCCI’s IPL global media rights with record 16,347.5 crore bid
STAR India won the BCCI’s Indian Premier League (IPL) global media rights from 2018-2022 with a consolidated bid of Rs 16,347.5 crore at the IPL media rights auction in Mumbai.
STAR India won the global broadcasting and digital media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) thanks to their consolidated bid of Rs 16347.5 crore at the BCCI-organised auction in Mumbai on Monday. (HIGHLIGHTS)
The highest territorial combined bid was Rs 15,819.54 crore, but STAR India’s consolidated bid was way more than that. As a result, they currently hold the media rights for the next five editions of IPL.
The testimony to IPL’s growth as the premier sporting property of the country is reflected by the fact that the previous 10-year bid for TV rights only was bought by Sony at Rs 8200 crore in 2008.
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Now, the BCCI stands to earn nearly double that amount in half the duration (five years) with earnings of Rs 3270 crore from IPL media rights per year.
The BCCI will now earn Rs 55 crore approximately from an IPL match compared to Rs 43 crore, ironically, for each international match that India play.
Sony and STAR India were found eligible for TV broadcast rights in India after the initial evaluation of the bids while Airtel, Reliance Jio, Times Internet and Facebook were eligible for the digital rights.
Sony Pictures held the broadcast rights of the Indian Premier League after it paid Rs 8,200 crore for a 10-year deal in 2008 while Star India owned the digital rights ahead of this media rights auction.
A total of 24 companies picked up papers to contest for the several rights up for grabs, but 14 out of them were present at the auction. Amazon , Taj TV , Gulf DTH, Group M, Media India, Sky UK Ltd, ESPN Digital Media, BTG Legal Services, BTPLC , Twitter, Discovery did not submit their bids.
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The auction was supposed to take place in September last year through an open-tender process. Around 18 companies were in contention then but the Supreme Court intervened to postpone the bidding.
The media rights include broadcast (TV) and digital (mobile and internet) for various segments namely India, Middle East, Africa, Europe and America. It is expected that Star India’s digital vertical HotStar would be used for live streaming of IPL matches in India.
BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, on his part, said: “Our main endeavour to the stakeholders was to provide a transparent process where there should not be any iota of doubt.”
(With inputs from PTI)