IPL TV rights sold for whopping Rs 23,575 crore

Mumbai: The frantic bidding process to secure IPL media rights for the 2023-2027 cycle has come to an end, with the television rights being sold for a whopping Rs 57.5 crore (per match) and digital for Rs 50 crore (per match).

The final count for the TV rights stands at Rs 23,575 crore, while the digital rights closed at Rs 20,500 crore. The names of the winners are yet to be disclosed but as per reports, Sony has won the TV rights, whereas for digital, the winner is either Viacom 18 or Jio. The media rights value has grown more than two and a half times than what Star India paid in the year 2017.

The process was divided into a total of four packages (A, B, C and D). Package A is exclusive for TV (broadcast) for the Indian subcontinent while package B is for digital-only grouping for the same region. The winner will be able to digitally broadcast the games across the Indian sub-continent.

There are four specific packages in which e-auction was conducted or 74 games per season for a five-year period with a provision of increasing the number of matches to 94 in the final two years. 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 made separate bids for each package. Bidders for Package A must have a net worth of Rs 1,000 crore; it is Rs 500 crore for those bidding for other packages. The biggest media houses in the country were fighting to earn the right to broadcast the world's richest cricket league on their platform.