IPL media rights: Industry seeks best price-discovery models

IPL Trophy

Last week, the ICC sounded the media-rights bugle by appointing a five-member working group. The group’s top priority in the coming months will be to consider all possible steps that can help the ICC retain the existing value for the 2028-31 cycle, or even better it, by exploring the best price-discovery models available.

The ICC’s media-rights tender, however, will not be the first to hit the market. The world governing body will have to wait for the BCCI to first draft and release the IPL media-rights tender, following which any other property around the world, including the ICC, will come up for sale.Meanwhile, the BCCI is yet to act on it. The Indian cricket administration, usually considered a sleeping giant unless woken from its slumber, hasn’t taken a call yet on bringing a financial agency on board to figure out the right price-discovery models, as it did during the previous rights cycle.

Interestingly, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia is on the ICC media rights working group, which ECB chief Richard Thompson is heading and also includes ICC chairman Jay Shah.

In 2022, the cricket board brought in financial advisory firm KPMG to draft the IPL tender document. This document included a special non-exclusive digital-rights package designed for selling a select ‘bouquet’ of high-value matches in the Indian subcontinent.

Set at 18 matches per season for a 74-game structure, this package alone rose to Rs 3,273 crore at Rs 33.24 crore per game and ensured Internet rights ended up generating more revenue for the BCCI from the subcontinent for the first time in history than the traditional sale of TV rights.“We were expecting to hear something from them (BCCI) on this. Given the way tech is changing how we consume sport, we thought the board would be keen to explore these changing revenue patterns and models for IPL.

Look at the YouTube sports-bundling model in the US, for instance. The NFL Sunday Ticket is a case study in itself,” said an industry executive.Sports industry executives strongly believe that the value can be tremendous if the BCCI explores this space in greater detail. The BCCI members will be in Mumbai starting on Friday for the AGM. Those tracking developments can’t think of a more important subject the members may need to discuss than the upcoming sale of media rights.“India has a strong cricket platform. The IPL is already a premium property on that platform. All you need to build on it is effectively what can be done outside of the live match feed. Archives, highlights, documentaries, regional storytelling, fan engagement etc. You may have one or two broadcasters in the race for rights but building a separate non-live consumer base to monetise premium properties selectively is another subject matter altogether,” the executive added.The key aligning principle here must be based on a modular concept, rather than the all-inclusive one that currently prevails. “Perhaps not a very healthy model either, considering all your eggs happen to be in one single basket,” says an IPL franchise executive, referring to IPL’s heavy leaning on JioStar for live broadcasts. OTT giant Netflix hasn’t majorly dabbled with the idea of putting live sport behind its paywall.

However, it has certainly not backed away from exploring events that can be included within its existing plans to create a reason for people to remain subscribed.“We keep wondering why an Amazon or a Netflix or a YouTube hasn’t looked at the India market. Well, the fact is, the onus lies on us to market our products to them and only then can we catch their attention. So, in the case of IPL rights, the onus certainly lies on the BCCI to go out and start talking to these platforms,” the franchise executive added.