IPL Media Rights: per match value crosses ₹100 crore mark on Day 1 of rights auction

Viacom18, Disney-Star, Sony, and Zee were involved in an inconclusive seven-hour slugfest of day 1 bidding war over TV Rights and Digital Rights fetching upwards of $5.37 billion and counting

The Indian Premier League’s media rights auction witnessed robust bidding for TV and Digital rights of the Indian sub-continent with the valuation of per match of the cash-rich league being earmarked at more than a whopping ₹100 crore.

With the bidding going into the second day, the cumulative valuation of the media rights could well touch a staggering ₹50,000 crore mark, which will be one of the biggest in terms of global rights across any sport.

Four out of the seven players in the fray – Viacom18, Disney-Star, Sony, and Zee were involved in a near seven-hour slugfest that remained inconclusive with Package A (India TV Rights) and Package B (India Digital Rights) cumulatively fetching upwards of 42,000 crore ($5.37 billion approximately) and still counting.

The final result might not be out late on Monday or Tuesday as the battle for Packages A and B will continue on Monday.

Once it is over, the winner of package B can challenge Package C which has 18 non-exclusive digital rights games for ₹16 crore per game and subsequently Package D (Overseas TV and Digital combined rights at ₹3 crore per game) will come up for bidding.

“As of now after 5.30 pm, the bid for TV has gone up to Rs 57 crore per game from its base price of ₹49 crore and India digital rights has seen an unbelievable growth from its ₹33 crore to ₹48 crore per game,” a senior BCCI functionary told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“So from per game combined valuation of ₹54.5 crore from the last five-year-cycle, it has already surpassed ₹100 crore mark (₹105 crore plus). It is unbelievable. It will again start tomorrow.” While it is not known which part was the most aggressive amongst the four bidders, it is expected that the Viacom18-Uday Shankar consortium is locked in an intense bidding war with current rights holder Disney (Star).