In three months, the 16th IPL season will begin, and on December 23, Kochi will host a mini-auction for the upcoming campaign. The league will be structured on the previous home-away system after COVID-19. Due to the expansion of teams and the new television agreement, more matches will be this season than there were previously.
This year, Star network won the broadcasting rights of the IPL 2023-27 on TV, while Viacom 18 bagged the deal of showing the league on the digital platform. The JioCinema App will live stream the IPL 2023 on behalf of Viacom18-Reliance. It happened for the first time in the league’s history that TV and digital media rights went to two different companies.
How Viacom 18 bagged digital media rights?
In the race to get digital media rights for IPL for 2023-2027, there were many digital platform companies like Hotstar, Amazon Prime, etc. But, Viacom 18 network managed to get the rights and closed the deal for a total of INR 23,578 crores.
The agreement is virtually identical to TV rights. The overall amount of media rights for the 2023–27 cycle was disclosed by BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Tuesday, June 14. This is a record-breaking sum in the Indian sports broadcasting sector.
“Since its inception, the IPL has been synonymous with growth & today is a red-letter day for India Cricket, with Brand IPL touching a new high with e-auction resulting in INR 48,390 crore value. IPL is now the 2nd most valued sporting league in the world in terms of per-match value!” Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, stated.
Separation of digital and TV rights
For the first time in the league’s history, the internet and TV rights have been split between two organisations. As we mentioned earlier, the deal of digital media rights for the IPL was closed by Viacom 18 for a total of INR 23,578 crores.
The TV rights are bagged by Star network for INR 23,575 crore (INR 57.5 crore/game). The total broadcasting value is INR 48,390 crore which is the highest in the history of the league. With a price tag of Rs 48,390, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has tripled from the Rs 16,347 crore that The Walt Disney-Star paid for it in 2017. It is now the second-most expensive sporting event, immediately after the National Football League (NFL) of the United States.
Rise of digital and the downfall of TV
We all know that digital platforms are dominating more day by day. Especially after COVID-19, most people are shifted to digital platforms and almost forget the existence of Television. Similarly, in IPL as well we are now witnessing a huge change in the value of broadcasting rights.
If one observes the evolution, linear coverage (TV) was 90% in 2008 compared to a modest 10% in the digital sphere. The TV-Digital ratio was 75:25 in 2018 when Star secured the rights, but this new agreement has increased the broadcast footprint of digital space to more than 51%.
Rebecca Campbell, Head of International Content and Operations at Walt Disney, hinted that Star would be competing for future multi-platform cricket rights in a statement after Viacom18 won the digital rights.
After losing the digital media rights deal, he said, “We will be exploring other multi-platform cricket rights, including future rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which we currently hold through the 2023 and 2024 seasons, respectively.”
Conclusion
Viacom 18 will broadcast the IPL from 2023-2027 on the JioCinema application. First-time in the league’s history, the digital platform and TV rights to broadcasting the league, were won by two different agencies. The ratio of TV-digital is almost the same this time from the last year.
FAQs:
1. Will Hotstar stream the live matches of IPL 2023?
Ans: No! The IPL 2023 will be streamed live on the JioCinema application, not on Hotstar.
2. Which application will stream live matches of IPL-16?
Ans: JioCinema application will broadcast matches of IPL-16 as Viacom 18 network won the deal of digital media rights.
3. What is the cost of one IPL match in 2023?
Ans: As per the broadcasting deals, the cost of one match is INR 118 crore.
