On Tuesday, the world’s richest cricketing body BCCI considerably increased its wealth after selling the media rights for the next five seasons of IPL for a whopping Rs 48,390 crore.
The TV rights went to Disney Star India for Rs 23,575 crore. Viacom18 bagged the digital rights for Rs 20,500 crore at the rate of Rs 50 crore per game.
The major players in the fray for the bidding this time were Sony, Zee, Google, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Dream11, Sky Sports UK, SuperSport SA and Fancode along with the ultimate winners, Disney Star and Viacom18.
NP Singh, MD and CEO, Sony Pictures Networks India, said that he wishes the league to grow and would have liked to see it on the Sony Network again. He said, “We made a reasonable bid, considering all the expected returns. We had to factor in the market's anticipated expansion and potential economic and other concerns over the next five years. Fiscal prudence, in my opinion, is critical for strategic management.”
He further said, “I would like to congratulate and thank BCCI for an extremely well-managed and transparent bidding process. Next, I want to congratulate the winners of the four IPL media rights packages. The IPL began with SPN and has since developed into one of the world's most popular sporting leagues in its 15-year history.”
In 2008, Sony Pictures Network won the IPL media rights for a period of 10 years with a bid of Rs 8,200 crore.
Similarly, Rahul Johri, President, Business - Zee Entertainment Enterprises, commented, “At Zee, we evaluate all business decisions through the prism of value creation for all our stakeholders and we will continue to evaluate every sports property with the same prism.”
He then congratulated BCCI for conducting the e-auctioning efficiently. “Zee would like to congratulate the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for running an extremely efficient and transparent e-auction process. We are grateful to the BCCI, President, Sourav Ganguly, Secretary, Jay Shah and Treasurer, Arun Dhumal; for their able leadership and unwavering support in enabling Zee’s participation in the IPL media rights tender process.”
Singh further said that Sony Sports Network will broadcast over 1,800 hours of cricket this year. “In addition to the marquee India tour of England, the team plays three T20Is and three ODIs in the country. This will happen between India's games in Ireland and India's games in Zimbabwe. In addition to this action-packed calendar of Indian Men's cricket, we have the Women's team touring England and an enviable bilateral men's cricket calendar featuring England vs New Zealand, Australia vs South Africa, Sri Lanka vs Australia, England vs South Africa, Australia vs England, and more, as well as popular T20 tournaments like the Big Bash League, Pakistan Super League, Women's Big Bash League and more,” he added.
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