Viacom18 has emerged as the winning bidder to both TV and digital rights for international cricket matches to be played in India for the next five years (2023-28 cycle).
This particular enterprise might be new to the game but as has been seen, cannot be underestimated.
The winner
Sports18 is now in charge of broadcasting the matches, both international and domestic on TV.
The same will be live streamed on JioCinema- the OTT (over the top) platform.
As mentioned earlier the deal covers five years of matches.
So, the broadcast cycle starts from September 2023 and stretches till March 2028.
This translates to a grand total of 88 bilateral matches (could go up to 102 matches) involving India.
Break this down and you get 25 Tests, 27 ODIs and 36 T20Is.
The auction
The participating bidders were Disney Star, Sony Pictures Network India and Viacom 18 who participated in the e-auction on 31 August.
In case of Sony, it does hold some weight.
It currently holds the TV rights for the ICC World Cup for the next four years starting 2024.
secured through its merger with Zee.
The rights were up for sale in two separate packages.
Package A
Package A comprises India subcontinent TV.
Base price is Rs 20 crore.
Package B
Package B has India subcontinent digital plus world TV and digital.
Base price is Rs 25 crore.
In total this is a combined base price of Rs 45 crore per game for a total of 88 matches.
In perspective
This includes 25 Tests, 27 ODIs, and 36 T20Is — 21 games versus Australia, 18 against England, 10 with South Africa and 11 versus New Zealand among the major nations.
Earlier Disney Star won the rights in 2018 for Rs 6,138 crore (Rs 60 crore per match).
This has now ballooned to Rs 5,966.4 crore for the five-year cycle – at Rs 67.8 crore per match.
In comparison, IPL media rights (digital and TV combined) for 2023-27 cycle went for Rs 48,940 crore (approximately $5.2 billion) last year.
IPL still superior
Yeah, IPL still trumps BCCI when it comes to ticket sales.
The observable trend is a significant drop in interest for bilateral series.
Here also Viacom18 secured the digital rights and Star the TV rights. It set the value of each IPL match at a (comparatively) mere Rs 118 crore.
Meanwhile Star Sports Network is in charge of next month’s Australia series and the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 in October-November.
