Indian T20 League media rights sold for a humongous amount

The Indian T20 League media rights for the five-year cycle of 2023-27 is currently underway. It has been reported that the TV and online rights have gone for more than 100 crores per match. The base price set for the media right auction was 90 crores by the Indian Cricket Board. The price was uniform for the broadcasters across continents.

The event had started on June 12 and continued on Monday after the bidding crossed the 100-crore mark. Reportedly, the bidding war was an intense one between two parties. The names, however, weren’t revealed in the media. Meanwhile, the non-exclusive special package (Base Price 18 crores) and Rest of the World Package (3 crores) haven’t been introduced in the auction yet.

The reports say that the rights have been sold to Sony Sports Network, which was the holder from 2008 to 2017. They have acquired the TV rights for 23,575 crores. This means that every game of the cash-rich league will cost them 57.5 crores for the next five years. On the other hand, digital rights have been sold to Viacom 18 for 20,500 crores. Every game of the cash-rich league will cost them around 48 crores.

At lease 410 games is expected to be played in the next cycle. It has recently been reported that the format of the tournament will be changed in 2025 and the number of games will be increased per year. Coming back to the media rights, the amount of television and online rights combined has gone past 40,000 crores.

In 2018, when the media rights auction was conducted for the cycle of 2018 to 2022, the Indian Cricket Board earned 16347.50 crores. The rights were sold to Star Sports Network and Disney + Hotstar.