

When Star acquired the IPL media rights for a whopping Rs 16,347.5 crore, it was widely believed that the broadcaster will not be able to recoup its investment let alone make a profit.
WHY IS IPL 5 RATED HIGHLY TV
To get an increase, BCCI will have to split it in such a way that the base price for TV is Rs 16,000 crore and for digital it should be Rs 10,000 crore," Dasgupta notes.Ī senior media executive, on condition of anonymity, says that the IPL's biggest draw is that it has been a profitable property for both Sony and Star. And this doesn't factor in the bidding intensity. I don't think a single company can bid that much on its own. "I am expecting that against the Rs 16,000 crore that Star bid, simply by 50% increase in matches, it goes up to Rs 24,000 crore. The veteran media executive also says that the IPL media rights might jump to Rs 24,000 crore over the current value of Rs 16,347.5 crore just based on a 50% increase in matches.

By forcing someone to take both TV and digital rights is like creating a situation where the monetisation will become difficult and unmanageable for any one company." Some digital players might want to spend a lot but they don't have broadcast. "To overcome such a situation, the BCCI should segregate TV and digital rights, otherwise, the true value of both the rights will not get discovered. If IPL is not on TV for five years then that will be tantamount to killing it," Dasgupta stated. "The IPL media rights will be hotly contested but if it goes off the TV by any chance because some online bidder has made a bigger bid then that will be a huge loss for BCCI.

He noted that splitting the TV and digital rights is necessary if the BCCI wants to avoid even a distinct possibility of IPL going off the TV in case a digital player walks away with the consolidated rights. He also suggests that the BCCI should consider splitting TV and digital rights and giving them to different parties rather than giving consolidated rights to a single party.

The BCCI will be smart if they think of it this way," he avers. Then the value will shoot up like anything. 47 matches in March-April and the balance 47 matches in September.
WHY IS IPL 5 RATED HIGHLY FULL
I would prefer to go for the full 94 matches but like it happened this year by accident due to Covid-19, I would like to see them break IPL into two seasons. "I don't think dividing 10 teams into two groups is exciting because some players or teams may not play each other at all. It won't be as lucrative if that happens because there is viewer fatigue if the tournament is too long," he asserted.ĭasgupta also opines that dividing teams into two groups will help reduce the number of matches to 74 but it will also kill the excitement of the tournament. "IPL media rights are valuable and will continue to be valuable but the biggest issue right now is that they are adding two new teams and the last time they added two new teams and the number of matches went up, the ratings fell. He further stated that the BCCI should consider splitting the IPL into two parts like it is happening this year albeit due to Covid-19. Triplecom Media Founder and CEO Kunal Dasgupta says that the round-robin format wherein each team plays the other twice has worked well for the tournament. The afternoon matches generally attract less viewership than the evening prime-time games. Last time around, when the IPL was expanded to 10 teams and the number of matches increased to 74, there was a drop in viewership due to the presence of a lot of double-headers. With the BCCI expected to follow a round-robin format involving 10 teams, the number of matches will jump by almost 50% to 94. While it will help BCCI earn more due to the increase in the number of games, broadcasters are wary of viewer fatigue which will disrupt all their calculations. The increase in the number of matches due to the addition of two new teams has the potential to make or mar the success of the IPL media rights auction. For one, the BCCI will have to decide on the likely format that the IPL will follow from 2023. While the upcoming IPL media rights auction has success written all over it, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will have to come up with a well-thought-out plan to squeeze the maximum value from the property. Amazon, which has gone big on live sports globally, is also considering putting up a serious bid for IPL. Experts feel that Star India, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), and Viacom18 with the backing of Reliance Industries are the three main contenders for the rights. The value of the next five-year cycle of IPL media rights is projected to be anywhere between Rs 24,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore depending on the bidding frenzy.
