At Rs 591 million per match, BCCI rights exceed IPL media rights fee

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) media rights are proving to be a windfall for the governing body for cricket in the country. The second day of the e-auction saw the per match fees for the BCCI media rights exceed the per match fees pledged by Star India for the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) for the 2018-22 period. 

The latest bid in the BCCI media rights auction stands at RS 60.32 billion, which amounts to Rs 591 million per match. The IPL media rights, sold for Rs 163.5 billion across 300 matches amount to Rs 545 million per match. This is a huge premium over what Star India was paying for the BCCI rights so far at Rs 430 million per match.

With no conclusive outcome by the end of the second day of bidding, the auction has been carried forward to Wednesday, April 5 when bidding will resume at 11 am. The day’s bidding started with Rs 45.17 billion and went up consistently to Rs 45.65 billion, Rs 54.88 billion, Rs 57.48 billion, Rs 60.01 billion, Rs 60.03 billion to finally end the day at Rs 60.32 billion.

Three companies – Star India, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Reliance Jio are currently embroiled in an intense bid war for the coveted rights which include 102 international matches across 190 days in the 2018-23 cycle. The bidding started on April 3 which ended with a final bid of Rs 44.42 billion. This is the first time a sports property is using the e-auction process for its media rights sale. Under the rules of the auction process, while the involved parties can see the bids, but the identity of the bidders is kept under wraps till the conclusion of the process. 

The e-auction
 

Rs 591 million per match 

The highest bid so far 
 

Rs 430 million 

Per match payout in Star India’s previous contract with the BCCI
 

Rs 545 million 

Per match payout for IPL media rights 
 

Auction 

To resume April 5, 11 am

Three categories of rights have been put on sale by the BCCI – global television rights and rest of the world digital rights (GTVRD), digital rights for the Indian subcontinent alone (ID), and the global consolidated rights comprising worldwide TV and digital rights (GCR). As was the case with the Indian Premier League, if the globally consolidated bid exceeds the sum of the GTVRD and ID, then that bid wins. If not, the individual bids – India television+global digital and India digital rights will be deemed winners. 

The base price for the 2018-19 season for the GTVRD is Rs 350 million crore, Rs 80 million for ID and Rs 430 million for the global consolidated rights. For the 2019-2023 tenure, the base price for GTVRD is Rs 330 million, for ID is Rs 70 million and Rs 400 million for GCR. 

While six companies showed intent to bid, only the three currently involved in the bid process chose to bid actively. The three companies that did not enter the process were Google, Facebook and YuppTV.