IPL media rights tender expected to be out on March 28; likely to have four bundles

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E-AUCTION to be conducted on June 12th, Tender will be released the coming week

The media rights tender of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is expected to be out on March 28 as per numerous media reports. The e-auction for the same has also been decided to be conducted in the second week of June and will likely be in four bundles.

The IPL Governing Council (GC), which met in Mumbai last week also decided that the multiple broadcasters or OTT platforms will not be allowed to bid together by forming a consortium.

There will be no consolidated rights category in the current tender. The BCCI will invite bids across four separate packages for the cricket tournament—digital, TV, the rest of the world and a new non-exclusive bundle of 18 matches as per the advice from KPMG, the consultants of the current tender.

As per a credible source,

“Package A will be for the television rights, Package B will constitute the digital rights, Package C will be the non-exclusive special category and Package D is for the Rest of the World. Largely those are the packs that will be up for sale and the tender could be out next week.” 

The report further states that the non-exclusive pack could only be for digital rights and revealed that, tentatively, the bidding could take place on June 12.

“That is when the BCCI is planning to conduct the bidding.”

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This bidding date though gives some credence to reports that mentioned that Star, the current broadcaster, wants the rights for the new 2023-27 cycle to be sold after the completion of the current edition of the IPL. This notion however has been denied by a top BCCI official.

The key development though is that as per an internal valuation for IPL Rights Cycle 2023-27 by KPMG, the IPL Digital Rights package this time will fetch almost 500%-600% of the last cycle.

The highest BIDS for the Digital Rights package in 2018 was by Facebook. The social media giant had bid Rs. 3,900 Crore for 5 years of Rights. Airtel was the next highest bidder for the category at Rs. 3280 Cr followed by Reliance JIO.

The incumbent Star Sports bid only Rs. 1443 Cr for the DIGITAL Rights last time. They still managed to acquire the rights on account of the highest overall number (broadcast + digital and other categories). However, this time the bidders won’t have an option for a single bid for both Television and Digital Rights.

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“Technology has changed since the last bid. Digital and OTT subscription is a big play now. Each and every player in the market know that IPL Rights can drive anyone’s subscription. We feel the values to be really high this time. It can go 5-6 times. We are sure multiple parties will be interested in the package”,

the top source has revealed.

Currently, Disney Plus Hostar is the only Live Streaming Platform of the IPL in India. Other than Disney Star, Zee-Sony, and Reliance (Viacom 18) is expected to bid for the TV rights. BCCI is expecting aggressive bidding for the digital space with the likes of Amazon Prime, Meta, and YouTube determined to fight for the rights.

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