IPL Media Rights Explained: Categories, Buyers, Bids & Record-Breaking Spendings

Breaking down the 48,000 crore spent for the IPL media rights in the auction.

A video explainer on the 2022 IPL Media Rights auction that saw Star India and Viacom18 bag the big TV and digitalrights.

(Photo: The Quint) 

Rs 118 crore for every single IPL match- That’s how much the Indian Premier League has made from the sale of its media rights, for the next five year cycle.

This number makes it the second most valuable league, in terms of media rights revenue, in the world. The highest-earning is America’s NFL that makes Rs 136 crore a game. England’s Premier League makes Rs 82 crore a match and for Indian context, each Team India match earns the BCCI Rs 60.1 crore while it made Rs 54.4 crore for every IPL game from 2018 to 2022.

And there were more firsts in this e-auction of the BCCI’s. For the first time in Indian sports broadcast history - the digital rights of a league have been sold for more than its TV rights.

Viacom18 bagged IPL’s digital rights for the Indian subcontinent for Rs 23,758 crore, or Rs 57.94 crore a match, while Star India bagged the TV rights in the subcontinent for Rs 23,575 crore or Rs 57.5 crore a game.

Fun fact: In the last IPL media rights auction, Star India bought the whole package for Rs 16,347 crore while on Tuesday, the BCCI made Rs 48,390 crore for the next five years.

But how did the companies reach the magic number? How did the auction unfold? And just how did the BCCI plan the auction in a manner that helped ensure maximum revenue from digital and TV, Indian broadcast and overseas telecast.