IPL rights winners might take 4 yrs to bridge gap between price and revenue

What will give the rights winners succour is predictions that IPL audiences will grow steadily and its brand burnish further with time

The bubbly might not flow freely at the winners of this week’s auctions of the broadcast rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL), the party pooper being a possible four-year gestation before they bridge the gap between the price per match and the advertising revenue.

The Indian cricket board raised eyebrows when it auctioned the 2018-22 broadcast rights for the IPL to STAR India for Rs 16,347.5 crore — for every medium and geography. That was 158 percent higher than what Sony had paid for the previous cycle. This week, the BCCI hit the ball out of the ground by auctioning