IPL per match value crosses Rs 100 crore

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

With the bidding going into the second day, the cumulative valuation of the media rights could well touch a staggering Rs 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 USD 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 for Package C, which has 18 non-exclusive digital rights for Rs 16 crore per game. Subsequently, Package D (Overseas TV and Digital combined rights at Rs 3 crore per game) will come up for bidding.

“As of now, after 5.30 pm (Sunday), the bid for TV has gone up to Rs 57 crore per game from its base price of Rs 49 crore and India digital rights has seen an unbelievable growth from Rs 33 crore to Rs 48 crore per game,” a BCCI functionary said.

“So, from per game combined valuation of Rs 54.5 crore from the last five-year-cycle, it has already surpassed Rs 100 crore mark (Rs 105 crore plus). It is unbelievable. It will again start (on Monday),” he added.