The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is set to make a windfall profit from the auction of media rights for the Indian Premier League.
At the end of the second day of the e-auction, the BCCI was assured a minimum revenue of Rs 45,950 crore for the five-year cycle from 2023 to 2027.
With two of the four categories media rights yet to be finalized, industry experts expect the figure to cross Rs 60,000 crore. The e-auction which started on Sunday is likely to end on Tuesday.
On Monday, bidding concluded for the first two packages – television rights for the Indian subcontinent and digital rights for India. With base prices of ₹49 crore and ₹33 crore per game respectively, multiple sources in the BCCI and bidders told The Hindu that the winning bids were ₹57.5 crore and ₹50 crore.
On the first day, the bidding in two categories closed at ₹57 crore and ₹48 crore.
Reliance-backed Viacom18-Paramount is believed to have bagged the digital bouquet for Rs 20,500 crore, but it could not be confirmed whether Disney or Star had the highest TV rights bid of Rs 23,575 crore.
However, it was confirmed that for the first time the IPL broadcast will be split between the two platforms on television and digital media. For the last five years, Star India has global rights across all platforms.
This means that the IPL is assured of receiving at least ₹13.5 million per game, second only to the American National Football League’s ₹17 million per game.
At the end of proceedings on Monday, bidding began for the non-exclusive digital package and the overseas rights package.
The bidding for the non-exclusive package (including 20 games per edition) closed at ₹18.75 crore for the day. Viacom 18-Paramount Combine has the option to challenge the highest bidder on a non-exclusive package with incremental bidding.