Viacom 18 sweeps up digital, Star retains TV rights for IPL
For the first time, IPL’S digital rights went for more than TV and that reflects a big change in the dynamics of the game
MUMBAI: In the end, it took twenty painstaking hours of electronic bidding spanning three days pitting four prominent sporting media networks against each other for the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights value to grow three times to where it stood in the last auction five years ago.
“Since its inception, the IPL has been synonymous with growth & today is a red-letter day for India Cricket, with Brand IPL touching a new high. IPL is now the 2nd most valued sporting league in the world in terms of per match value,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah said.
The latest round of media rights sale for 2023-27 brought ₹48,390 crore to the BCCI coffers and also showed how the future of sports broadcasting is going to be digital.
Despite the base price of TV rights being much higher to digital—₹49 crore to ₹33 crore per match—viacom 18, the new digital broadcast partners of the Indian board, ended up paying a marginally greater sum (₹23,758 crore) than Disney Star (₹23,575 crore), who won the TV rights.
“India has seen a digital revolution & the sector has endless potential. The digital landscape has changed the way cricket is watched. It has been a big factor in the growth of the game & the Digital India vision,” said Shah.
On expected lines, Viacom 18 having grabbed the overall digital rights for 410 matches on Monday had to push harder in the non-exclusive marquee digital matches segment (98 key matches including the playoffs) to make sure they remained the exclusive destination for IPL digital viewing in India.
For this much talked about new category, bidding resumed from the overnight ₹1,870 crore and stretched up to ₹3,258 crore before Viacom 18’s competitors gave in towards Tuesday evening, handing Viacom 18 Category C and the exclusivity they were after.
The growth in IPL’S digital numbers can be seen as being emblematic of India’s changing consumption patterns. In the initial years of IPL in 2008-09, digital accounted for 7% of the overall media rights value. It rose to 25% in 2017-18 and today digital has caught up with TV. In fact, the amount Viacom had to shell out to win the 98 non-exclusive matches was close to the highest digital bid (₹3,900 crore) made in 2018.
Viacom’s big challenge will be recovering costs but most experts believe that it is only a small part of their gameplan.
“The big picture would clearly
(~57.5 cr/match)
(~57.94 cr/match) be around Jio, which is why they went so aggressively for digital rights,” said Karun Taurani, media and internet research analyst and Senior VP at Elara Capital.
“It’s not just about looking at profitability alone because in those terms alone, it would be challenging. As of now, 70% of monetisation is still coming from TV. But they would offer IPL to Jio TV subscribers or turn it into Jio Prime. One has to look at their move from a customer acquisition and strategic standpoint.”
Viacom 18 beating stiff competition from Disney Star and
Sony-zee is as much a win for Mukesh Ambani as it is for media executive Shankar who parted ways with Disney, formed a consortium with James Murdoch and returned victorious.
Disney Star, who had secured the TV rights on Monday itself, said in a statement after the auction ended that they did not “proceed with the digital rights given the price required to secure that package.”
“We are pleased to extend our association with the Indian Premier League and look forward to offering the next five seasons across our portfolio of television channels. We made disciplined bids with a focus on long-term value,” Rebecca Campbell, Chairman, International Content and Operations, The Walt Disney Company, said.
“We will be exploring other multiplatform cricket rights, including future rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which we currently hold through the 2023 and 2024 seasons, respectively.”
Viacom 18 also won part of the Rest of the World rights—australia, South Africa and UK, while Times Internet got Middle East & North Africa and US rights.
2008 2019