IPL media rights tender likely to be divided into four packages

The bidding for the Indian Premier League‘s (IPL) media rights tender will start in the second week of June. Anticipated to be released next week, the tender will be divided into four bundles. The Governing Council (GC) for the IPL, when they met on March 25 in Mumbai, determined that the multiple broadcasters or OTT platforms will not be allowed to come together to form a group for the bidding.

It had come to notice that the GC had agreed upon the splitting of the digital and television rights and that there would be a separate package that might permit various parties to broadcast a smaller conglomeration of games at the same time. Apart from that, there would be a separate package for people in other parts of the world. The obvious connotation of that package is that a composite bid may not be possible.

“Package A will be for the television rights, Package B will constitute the digital rights, Package C will be the non-exclusive special category and Package D is for the Rest of the World. Largely those are the packs that will be up for sale and the tender could be out next week,” a source told Cricbuzz.

June 12 might be the tentative date for the e-auction

The source shed light on the matter and said that the non-exclusive package might only be availed for the digital rights and revealed that June 12 might be the tentative date for the event. “That is when the BCCI is planning to conduct the bidding,” added the source.

A starting point will be a pre-requisite at the e-auction, the bidding process method, and thus every package will start at a base price. The prices have not yet been revealed by the BCCI officials, as they opted not to speak on this matter. There will be more clarity when the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document is available next week at the time of the tender announcement.

Representatives of the industry said that INR 40,000 crore is the expected value of the media rights, as the BCCI expects the television rights to cross the INR 20,000 crore mark. It is also said that the price of digital rights will be somewhat similar to that of television rights, as the world is shifting to digital mediums.