At stumps on Day 1, the scorecard looked healthy. The TV rights bid had reached Rs 57 crore per game and digital rights Rs 48 crore per game. Taken together, the IPL 2023-2027 cycle’s per-game media rights value stood at Rs 105 crore — and Rs 43,050 crore for the five-year period, an increase of Rs 10,160 crore from the BCCI’s base price of Rs 32,890 crore.
More than half the match is still to be played.
Five years ago, Facebook was the highest digital rights bidder with Rs 3,900 crore, which amounted to around Rs 13 crore per game. Back then, though, the route taken was a composite bid.
This year, the BCCI sensed an opportunity, given digital viewing’s fast-growing popularity — a 49 per cent post-pandemic growth in digital subscription. The decision to do away with composite bids has also proved to be a smart move.
Converted into US dollars, IPL’s per-game value after the first day’s bidding stands at about $13.43 million. It has already trumped the English Premier League, for which the official broadcasters pay around $11 million per match.
Speaking to The Indian Express on the eve of the auction, BCCI secretary Jay Shah was confident that the IPL would go past the Premier League to be the No. 2 sports league in the world in terms of media rights per game.
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