Star India on Monday acquired the Indian Premier League’s media rights for a staggering ₹16,347.5 crore ($2.55 billion) for the next five years.
The previous 10-year contract for the IPL’s TV rights was bought by Sony for ₹8,200 crore in 2008. The media rights on offer at Monday’s auction included global broadcasting and digital rights from 2018 to 2022.
Star India was the only company to make a single consolidated global bid, which was greater than the sum of all the highest bids for each category (₹15,819.51 crore) by a little more than Rs. 500 crore.
Interestingly, Sony Pictures Network’s bid for the India broadcasting rights — ₹11,050 crore — was higher than Star India’s ₹6,196.94 crore. But since Star India made a strategic across-the-board bid that was bigger, it became the undisputed leader.
The 21st Century Fox-owned company also owns the global media rights of the BCCI and the ICC; the BCCI deal comes to an end in March 2018.
Star India chairman and CEO Uday Shankar was delighted with the result. “The IPL is a very powerful property,” he said. “It was a conscious call to bid for the global rights; we have a significant presence in all forms and markets. It made sense for us to make an attempt and win it for all the markets.”
Asked about the magic winning figure, Shankar said, “Even had it been slightly less, we would not have got the rights; that should tell [us] this is the right figure. In every category it has been competitive.
“Digital did not even exist ten years ago, and here there were three who bid in excess of ₹3,000 crore. Cricket continues to be very strong and very attractive in this country. India, cricket and IPL... all three have dramatically changed since 2008.”
A source who was part of the bid opening process said Sony “would have been disappointed, not strictly from a business point of view, but for an emotional connect,” having held the rights for 10 years.
Of the 24 companies that picked up the Invitation to Tender (ITT), 14 made bids. The Walt Disney-owned American video supplier BAMTech was disqualified for not fulfilling certain criteria.
The 13 who made the final cut were Star India, Sony Pictures Network (India), BeIN (Qatar), the UK based Perform Group, Follow On, Yupp TV, OSN, Facebook, Airtel, Econet, Reliance Jio, Super Sport and Times Internet.
Three agencies — Deloitte, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and SportsMechanics — evaluated the technical bids before the financial bids were opened.
