IPL Media Rights Auction: Event to continue on Wednesday

The media rights auction for the world's richest cricket league - Indian Premier League, which has media giants like Disney and Sony Corp vying for broadcast rights that could fetch India's cricket board upwards of $6 billion, has spilled over into the third day, a BCCI official said on Monday. The online auction for television and digital broadcast rights from 2023 to 2027 for the IPL, the hugely popular two-month cricket league that draws top television ratings, began on Sunday morning and continued all day on Monday as well.

The auction was likely to conclude on Tuesday, the official who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media on this subject, told Reuters.

"The bidding went well and it's not over yet," the BCCI official told Reuters.

"It's been fairly satisfying and we are confident of an impressive number tomorrow."

The high-stakes bidding war has Viacom 18, Reliance Industries' broadcasting joint venture, Sony Corp's India Unit and Disney, which currently owns the television and digital rights, all fighting for a piece of the cricketing pie.

The current digital and television rights are held by Star India, now owned by Walt Disney Co, which paid Rs 163.48 billion ($2.09 billion) in 2017.

Meanwhile, the IPL media rights value for the 2023-2027 cycle has been sold for a whopping Rs 44,075 crore for 410 matches on Monday as per sources in the ongoing e-auctions. According to the latest information with ANI, Package A of TV is sold at Rs 23,575 crore which is Rs 57.5 crore per match and Package B of Digital Rights for India is sold at Rs 20,500 crore which is Rs 50 crore per match. The details of who bid what are yet to come but the value for per match TV, and digital rights is Rs 107.5 crore.

According to ANI sources, there are two media houses who have won the bid, one for TV and the other for digital. The media rights value has grown more than two and a half times than what Star India paid in the year 2017.