Picture Credit: Twitter/BCCI

Over the years, the Indian Premier League has been the most successful T20 tournament in the world and gave birth to franchise leagues outside the Indian subcontinent. The sponsorships and interest from the multinational conglomerate are at an all-time high for the cash-rich league.

In the recent announcement, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released an Invitation to Tender the IPL 2023-27 Media Rights. The Tender was divided into 4 Bundles, Package A, B, C, and D. Package A is reserved for the Indian sub-continent television rights, while Package B is for the digital rights. Package C is for the OTT players, and Package D is reserved for players interested in telecasting the matches outside of Indian subcontinent. While, the BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal spoke on Package C, which is designed for allowing the small players to bid for the IPL media rights.

“For Package C (non-exclusive digital rights) the base price is Rs 16 crore per game. Package C will have only 18 games, including Play-offs and Final. For Package D (Rest Of the World TV and digital rights), the base price has been set at Rs 3 crore per game. We don’t speculate or set target for price. It is the market that decides the price. Our objective and job is to ensure a fair, transparent and inclusive ITT,” Dhumal told PTI.

The base price of the IPL media rights is fixed at INR 33,000 Crore as a combined package, for the parties interested in buying the Indian subcontinent television rights, digital rights, OTT, and the telecast for outside of the Indian subcontinent. Certainly, a small player will not have the liberty to spend this much amount to have exposure to the IPL.

”IPL is a global league, the idea is to make it more participatory from small to big players. There are few players for whom cricket may not be main the sport as of now but in their future plans, so they may not want to eat the whole cake but start with a small pie. This ITT ensures their participation either in a non-exclusive bundle or for international territories.” Dhumal added.

"Someone may be interested only in the UK, Middle East or Australia territories and they can participate. Similarly, someone may not be interested in all 74 games, they can go for the limited pack,” the Treasurer concluded.

With a heavy bidding war expected between the giants like Reliance Viacom 18, ZEE-Sony, and Star Sports, the BCCI is expecting the bidding amount in excess of INR 40,000 Crore, which will further enhance the income of BCCI. In 2018, Star Sports bought 2018-22 media rights for INR 16,347 Crore.