IPL media rights bid: Fight for exclusivity to dominate Day 3

For the digital winner to benefit, it needs to ensure control of the 98 non-exclusive ties and that would only be known today

MUMBAI: After the first hour of bidding on Day 2, the maximum permissible limit of 30 minutes to contest a bid had lapsed both in India TV and digital rights categories. The final numbers trickled in from BCCI sources– ₹23,575 crore for TV and ₹19,680 crore for digital. Except that these were not the final numbers.

This particular e-auction has been structured differently with no room for a consolidated bid to win the rights. The collective value of four separate categories–india TV rights (A), India digital rights (B), non-exclusive bundle of select digital matches for Indian viewers (C) and Rest of the World (D) would decide the final valuation.

But there is provision for the winner of A to challenge winner of B, winner of A or B to challenge C and for any of the three winners to challenge the winner of ROW rights.

That’s how winner of TV rights decided to challenge the digital winner by entering into a fresh round of bidding with the entity in the post-lunch session on Monday. But BCCI’S hopes of an engaging a bidding war were soon dashed. The digital value had meandered from ₹19,680 crore to ₹20,500 crore before, it is learnt, the challenger threw in the towel.

IPL’S digital value had risen from ₹13 crore per match value in the 2018-22 cycle to ₹50 crore per match. Consumers may soon have to shell out a lot more to watch IPL on mobile phones or to stream on TV. Advertisers may be queuing up to come on board with the party that has splurged more than ₹20,000 crore to win these rights.

But there is a catch. For the digital winner to truly benefit, it needs to retain exclusivity. And that would only be known on Tuesday when bidding resumes for the non-exclusive digital bundle of marquee matches (opening match, playoffs including the final and evening matches of double headers).

What happens if a new player or even the winner of TV rights goes on to grab these non-exclusive matches? “They could offer the matches for free or very cheap rates by bundling them with a platform that belongs to a competing player to the winner of B,” explained an industry executive.

“Another party winning rights for these matches also offers the advertisers another platform to join the IPL bandwagon. Other than deriving value for themselves, they could prove to be disrupters for winners of B.”

Not wanting to let go of exclusivity is a primary reason, while mainstream sports broadcasters have reservations on sharing of IPL feed with the public service broadcaster–dd. In 2018, Star India did it reluctantly ‘as an act of courtesy’, in the worlds of their then head Uday Shankar. Those were select matches, that too on one hour deferred live basis.

That’s what makes one BCCI official confident that IPL’S final value could cross the ₹50,000 crore mark–it is currently ₹45,950 crore–on the back of a fierce bidding war in Category C.

Which is why for a small pool of 98 matches in the five-year cycle, having a per match value of ₹16 crore for the bidding to start has significant relevance. According to a top industry executive, the way this bundle was structured may have discouraged Amazon from entering the fray.

Category D is rest of the world rights, which accounted for only 5.5% of the overall value. With a collective base price of ₹3 crore, one expects limited activity in that space. The marathon e-auction could come to an end after some early rounds of bidding in Category C.

But it’s one that could potentially prove to be a pocket-sized dynamite for some, a mini-disrupting force for another.

BCCI doubles pension

BCCI announced a hike in monthly pension of former cricketers (both men and women) and also former umpires. First-class players, who used to get ₹15,000 will now get ₹30,000 while former Test players, who get ₹37,500, will now get ₹60,000 and those with ₹50,000 pension will get ₹70,000. The women internationals, who got ₹30,000, will receive ₹52,500 from now.

First-class cricketers who retired before 2003 and get ₹22,500 will now get ₹45,000.