Star India has "seen off rival offers from Sony Pictures and Facebook" with a record $2.6B bid to secure the "rights to show the Indian Premier League cricket competition around the world for the next five years," according to Stacey & Garrahan of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Star India, a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, won the auction for the IPL rights on Monday, beating Sony Pictures, which owns the broadcast rights until next year, and Facebook, which bid $600M for the digital rights. Sony paid about $1B for its 10-year contract, "meaning the value of the competition has quintupled in a decade." The IPL "lasts for just two months of the year, but its popularity among cricket-mad Indians means it has become one of the most lucrative sports tournaments in the world." It has "already set records for player fees," with the Rising Pune Supergiants paying England all-rounder Ben Stokes about $2.3M to play for the club in this year's competition. A range of U.S. West Coast players, from Amazon to Yahoo, "expressed interest in the IPL package," but Facebook was the only one to make an offer for the digital rights. It was "pipped by Star," which was the only company to make a "global bid" for worldwide broadcast rights and digital rights. Sony bid about $1.7B for the domestic rights as well as some of the int'l ones. Star's "knockout offer reflected similar bids" by Rupert Murdoch's other companies -- namely Sky, which has "used Premier League football rights to build a commanding position" in U.K. pay-TV (FT, 9/4). The HINDUSTAN TIMES reported a total of 24 companies "picked up papers to contest for the several rights up for grabs," but 14 of them were present at the auction. Amazon, Taj TV, Gulf DTH, Group M, Media India, Sky UK Ltd., ESPN Digital Media, BTG Legal Services, BTPLC, Twitter and Discovery did not submit their bids. The auction was "supposed to take place" in Sept. '16 through an open-tender process. Around 18 companies "were in contention then but the Supreme Court intervened to postpone the bidding" (HINDUSTAN TIMES, 9/4).
'POWERFUL PROPERTY': In Chennai, G. Viswanath reported Star India Chair & CEO Uday Shankar "expressed happiness at the bid process," saying, "The IPL is a very powerful property. We believe that a lot more value can be created for the cricket fans on broadcasting and digital platforms and we would remain very committed to make sure that the growth of sports in the country is driven by the power of cricket. It was a conscious call to bid for the global rights, we have significant presence in all forms and markets" (THE HINDU, 9/4). The HINDUSTAN TIMES also reported of the IPL's media rights auction, Shankar said, "We were either prepared to get everything or lose everything. It feels good because at Star, when we try for something you want to succeed" (HINDUSTAN TIMES, 9/4). In New Delhi, Sanjjeev K. Samyal reported Star Sports is the "most dominant" player in cricket broadcasting but has "so far concentrated solely on cricket action." Shankar promised that "will continue to be the case even in the cash-rich T20 league." Shankar said, "You have seen on Star Sports (that) our focus is strictly on the sport. We believe that the spotlight should be on the sport and we will continue to do that… I am not commenting on what anybody else does." The bidding was so close that it could be termed a "last-ball win" for Star India. The difference of "only around" Rs 500 crore ($75.1M) "proves how the winners got their strategy right." Shankar added, "If it (our figures) were slightly less, we would not have got the rights. We won by a really narrow margin of 2-3 percent, so we were very close (in predicting the right value of IPL)" (HINDUSTAN TIMES, 9/4). The PTI reported the IPL media rights "emerged more lucrative than the Indian team's home matches." The per game numbers for an IPL game amounts to Rs 55 crore ($8.3M) and Rs 3,270 crore ($491.5M) per year. In '12, Star won broadcast and digital rights of India matches from '12-18 for Rs 3,851 crore ($578.8M), a figure broken down to Rs 43 crore ($6.5M) per match. At $512M, the annual media rights of the BCCI, England & Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia combined are "at par with what IPL commands." However, the rights for the India matches are "up for grabs next year and with the way the cricket is pulling in the money from all quarters, another mind-boggling payout for the BCCI will not be a surprise" (PTI, 9/4).
IN COMPARISON: In London, Nicholas Godden reported how the IPL TV deal compares to other sports.
- IPL: £6.5M ($8.4M) per match.
- Premier League: £7.2M ($9.3M) per match.
- Champions League: £17.75M ($23M) per match.
- FIFA World Cup: £28.9M ($37.4M) per match.
- Olympics: £59M ($76.3M) per session (LONDON TIMES, 9/4).
