By Our Staff
There’s a popular reality show on general entertainment channel Colors called Khatron ke Khiladi. It requires contestants to perform daredevil acts, including tasks with snakes and scorpions, jumping off helicopters. And walking the tightrope. Literally.
Now, veteran media professional Uday Shankar who has invested a fair deal in Viacom18 is now set to do a Khatron ke Khiladi act himself (lest it’s missed, the ‘fair deal’ pun was intended). The word ‘khatron’ should of course not be construed in the negative sense, but it’s just that what Shankar has bet really big on with the digital IPL win making him a ‘khiladi’ of the really big stage.
Every summer, at the beginning and end of the cricketing extravaganza when the revenues will be aggregated, there will be an intense sweating, like it’s on the reality show. We should add the word ‘perhaps’ after ‘there will be’. Coz surely this is more than just playing fear factor. Unlike 2018 where he was an employee of Star, now he’s an investor in the project. So we can be sure there’s a method to the bidding.
So, let’s get past the foreplay. Disney Star India and Viacom18 have bagged the TV and digital rights for the five-year 2023-2027 period of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s media rights for IPL 2023-27 will – as of now – generate Rs 44,075 crore, up from the Rs 16,347 crore paid by Disney Star for 2018-2022. An official statement from BCCI is awaited.
Package A (television rights for Indian sub-continent) has netted it Rs 23,575 crore
Package B (digital rights for Indian sub-continent) has got it Rs 20,500 crore
Package C sundry digital rights have already touched Rs 1800 crore. The final outcome is awaited
Package D rights results are also awaited
It may be remembered that the entire television and digital rights were owned by Disney Star India until this year. In fact after bagging TV rights for 2023-27, Disney Star challenged Viacom18 in a fresh round of the e-auctions. Finally, Viacom18 took the big leap and closed the bidding with Rs 50 crore per match as its fee. Disney Star will need to pay Rs 57.5 crore per match for television. Overall, as of now, BCCI will earn Rs 107.5 crore per IPL encounter.
During the media rights auctions that were held on June 12 and 13, TV rights fetched Rs 23,575 crore for broadcast rights and Rs 20,500 crore for digital, said people tracking the media rights auction.
What’s balance is Package C and Package D rights, the results of which will be known later today (June 14).
According to industry sources, ad rates will go north by 20-30 per cent on both digital and television. Industry commentators say the IPL 2023-27 dynamics will see a structural change happening in the media landscape. Linear television is going south in terms of viewership, and digital consumption is going to leapfrog. However, even though digital can allow micro-targeting, ad revenues are still found wanting. The play will surely be in the case of subscription-led revenues, and given that Viacom18 is part of the Reliance Industries stable which owns the Jio telecom network, there will be synergies.
Last week, on June 14, 2022, the final results of the e-auction conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) were declared with the Board earning a whopping Rs 48,390 crore for all the packages offered by them for auction. The amount is almost three times of Rs 16,376.5 crore, the money which Star India paid for TV and Digital media rights for the 2017-2022 cycle. This has made IPL the second most valued sports league in the world, next to America’s National Football League pushing English Premier League to the third position.