New Delhi & Mumbai: The Tata Group has exercised its ‘right to match’ to retain the title rights of the Indian Premier League for the next five seasons. The 2024-28 season rights will cost the salt-to-software conglomerate ₹2,500 crore, or ₹500 crore per year, two persons close to the development told Mint.
For the same rights, the company had earlier paid ₹350 crore per year.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which is the organiser for the event, had invited bids in December to seek title sponsors for the event.
The Tata group had replaced Vivo in 2022 as the title sponsor of the T20 cricket tournament for the previous two seasons for 2022 and 2023, as the Chinese mobile phone maker did not want to continue with the sponsorship anymore.
Vivo had then agreed to pay ₹440 crore annually for the sponsorship when it bagged the rights in 2017. A total of ₹2,199 crore for five seasons beginning 2018 had been agreed upon.
Originally, the IPL sponsorship deal with Vivo was set to expire in 2022.
However, in 2020, Dream11 stepped in as a temporary replacement for one season. This meant the Vivo contract was extended until 2023, but with conditions.
While Tata took over the remaining sponsorship rights and paid the corresponding fee, there was an additional 6% contingency amount attached to the original Vivo deal.
Since Vivo ultimately did not fulfill the complete five-year term, this specific 6% sum will be paid directly to the BCCI by Vivo itself.
As per the new bid process put out by the BCCI, the incumbent company had the first right to match the offer.
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Published: 19 Jan 2024, 11:55 PM IST