IPL media rights auction to continue on Tuesday with $5.1b already in the bag

The media rights auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest cricket league, spilled over into a third day, with broadcast and digital rights for the Indian subcontinent already fetching the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) almost $5.1 billion, two sources told Reuters on Monday.

The online auction, which began on Sunday, is yet to conclude bidding for another set of media rights, including a bespoke package that includes rights for high-value matches as well as rights to broadcast the IPL in foreign territories.

The bidding for television broadcast and online streaming of the matches in the subcontinent concluded on Monday, one of the sources said. A top BCCI official said the TV rights for the Indian sub-continent had attracted the highest bid of 575 million rupees ($7.36 million) per match. The highest bid for the digital rights for the region was 500 million rupees for each game.

Based on 74 games each season for the next five years, the combined TV and digital rights for the sub-continent rights is worth 397.75 billion rupees ($5.09 billion).

The source declined to say which companies had won the two bids, but media giants like Sony Corp’s India unit, Reliance Industries’ broadcasting JV Viacom18 and Disney, which currently holds the rights, were all in the fray.

* ($1 = 78.0918
 Indian rupees)