IPL media rights: Appeal stays despite drop in viewership numbers

Bids likely to be 20-25 per cent higher than base price of Rs 33,000 crore, some say it may touch Rs 50,000-60,000 crore

The stage is getting set for the media rights auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is scheduled to happen next month. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which organizes the T20 tournament annually, may live-telecast the media rights auction on June 12, informed sources said, the first time it would be doing so. In 2017 and 2008, when Star and Sony won the broadcast rights respectively, the media rights auctions were not telecast on television, though IPL player auctions have been routinely telecast on TV.

At least ten companies have picked up the bid documents for the 2023-2027 media cycle including Disney-Star, Sony, Zee, Viacom18-Bodhi Tree, Amazon, Apple, Google, Dream11, Sky Sports UK, SuperSport SA and Times Internet, according to sources in the know. The BCCI has now extended the period for picking up the tender documents to May 20 from May 10 earlier.

This comes even as the 2022 edition of the IPL, currently underway in Mumbai, Pune and Navi Mumbai, suffers a viewership drop. Industry sources say that the weekly fall in IPL viewership this year has been nearly 35 per cent versus the corresponding period last year, as entertainment options open up following lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.

While the initial euphoria among potential bidders may not translate into actual bids itself during the auction process, it does point to the general excitement around the property. Though bids are likely to be around 20-25 per cent higher than the current base price of Rs 33,000 crore, some experts say it could touch Rs 50,000-60,000 crore on the auction day, depending on the appetite of bidders.

So, what explains for the IPL’s enduring appeal?

"It has everything to do with reach," says Sajal Gupta, chief executive officer of Kiaos Marketing, a Gurugram-based media consultancy.

"IPL is a platform that has established itself over the last 15 years despite the controversies it has been through. Brands get visibility instantly when they advertise on IPL and the media rights holder, digital or television, can benefit from this need that advertisers have for a consistent media platform," Gupta says.

While Amazon, Apple and Google, according to informed sources, may focus on the digital rights, attention is shifting to the broadcasters Disney-Star, Sony and Viacom18-Bodhi Tree with regard to their strategies for the upcoming auction.

Disney-Star and Sony Pictures Network India declined comment when contacted. Mails and text messages sent to Viacom18 elicited no response till the time of going to press. But experts say that Viacom18-Bodhi Tree may be the most aggressive of the three networks, given the expertise that Uday Shankar, the former chairman of Star India and president of Walt Disney Asia Pacific, who is now the joint venture partner in Lupa Systems, an investment entity promoted by James Murdoch, brings to the table.

Bodhi Tree, which recently announced it was investing Rs 13,500 crore in Viacom18, along with Reliance Industries, is a platform promoted by Lupa Systems and Shankar.

"The ones who have the potential to bid across television and digital are Disney-Star, Sony and Viacom18-Bodhi Tree," an industry executive, part of one of the three media networks, said on condition of anonymity.

"Disney-Star has the media rights currently. They will want it for another season. Sony had the rights before Star and had benefited from the IPL for ten years from a viewership and advertising perspective. Viacom18-Bodhi Tree, on the other hand, are building up for the action ahead. I don't think Star and Sony will scale down their efforts to bag the rights despite Sony indicating otherwise. Having said that, Viacom18-Bodhi Tree could be the most aggressive of the lot on the auction day," he said.

In an investor call last week, The Walt Disney Company, which owns Disney-Star and Disney+ Hotstar in India, had said that it would continue to bet on sports, even as it was ramping up investment on general entertainment content.

"One-third of the $32 billion content spend for fiscal 2022 will be going to sports. Of the balance, a meaningful amount will be dedicated to investments in general entertainment content that we can leverage across all our distribution platforms," Christine McCarthy, senior executive vice-president and chief financial officer, The Walt Disney Company, said.

The media giant had indicated that India, led by its Disney+ Hotstar platform, was a key contributor to global subscriber additions in the March quarter due to the IPL. From an advertising perspective, media experts said that Disney-Star had made around Rs 3,300 crore from selling spots on TV and digital in 2021. This year it was looking to cross Rs 4,000 crore in ad revenue, given the higher number of matches (74 versus 60 last year) and a 10-15 per cent escalation in ad rates for 10-second spots on TV.  

But with viewership falling consistently, some advertisers, said media industry sources, had asked Disney-Star to make good the loss by giving them spots on other high-impact properties.