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Arun Dhumal, chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), said the cash-rich league’s media rights value may reach a staggering $50 billion in the next 20 years.
“If I have to see how it has gone over the last 15 years and if I have to go by estimates going forward, we are expecting media rights to go somewhere close to USD 50 billion by around 2043,” Dhumal said at an event in Bengaluru. “Now that cricket is becoming part of the Olympics and with the Women’s Premier League taking it to a different level for women’s cricket, I see a lot of hope and light at the end of the tunnel. Because of the way it has been happening for the last 15 years, it is only going to get better,” he said.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had set up a rivalry outside the ground starting IPL 2023 between Disney Star and Mukesh Ambani’s flagship OTT platform JioCinema after it split the TV and digital rights of IPL from 2023-2027 to eventually garner a whopping Rs 48,390 crore in total.
Disney Star bagged the TV rights for Rs 23,575 crore and Reliance-backed Viacom18 got digital rights for Rs 23,758 crore.
Dhumal noted that the media rights value for IPL positions it as the world’s second-largest sporting entity, following the National Football League (NFL). NFL, the American sporting, had secured a massive $110 billion media agreement spanning 11 years, commencing from last year.
Discussing IPL’s pivotal role in shaping India’s global image, Dhumal said, IPL’s fanbase spans the globe, providing spectators with glimpses of India’s diverse culture and heritage.
Matches are held nationwide, from the North to the South, East to West, showcasing India’s rich diversity of states, cultures, and languages.
“IPL is the most-watched cricket league in the world. Personally, I feel IPL is the best Make in India brand we can think of post-Independence.
“We are a very diverse country in terms of states, cultures and languages being spoken. But this is one platform (IPL) which is rooted so well that you are able to showcase India to the globe,” he said.
In the fiscal year ending September 2023, Star India, a subsidiary of Walt Disney, reported an 82% increase in operating losses for its sports business, reaching $432 million, as revealed in the annual filings of the media conglomerate. The decline in annual revenue for Star’s sports business, encompassing Star Sports-branded channels, was primarily attributed to a reduction in Indian Premier League (IPL) matches broadcasted.
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