Star walked away with all the rights and full honors, laying claim to 300 days of cricket over 5 years, at a price tag about Rs. 54.5 crore a match
The CEO of the BCCI, Rahul Johri, had predicted before the IPL media auction that the rights would fetch Rs 18,000 crore. He was not far wrong. The winner, Star TV, on Monday picked up the 5-years broadcast and digital rights for an eye-popping Rs16,348 crore to stump out incumbents Sony who held the rights of the IPL since its very inception 10 years ago, having bid Rs 8,200 crore in 2008.
The initial tender documents had been picked up by 24 entities: Star India Pvt. Ltd., Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd., Followon Interactive Media Pvt. Ltd., Taj TV India Pvt. Ltd., Sony Pictures Networks Pvt. Ltd., Times Internet Ltd., Supersport International (Pty) Ltd., Reliance Jio Digital Services Pvt. Ltd., Gulf DTH FZ LLC, GroupM Media India Pvt. Ltd., beIN IP Ltd., Econet Media Ltd., SKY UK Ltd., ESPN Digital Media (India) Pvt. Ltd, BTG Legal Services, BT PLC, Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc., DAZN / Perform Group, Discovery, Yupp TV, Airtel and BAM Tech and Oath (Yahoo). Of these, only 14 showed up yesterday at the auction. Prominent amongst those missing were e-commerce giant Amazon and microblogging site Twitter. Also missing from the lineup were Discovery, Yahoo and ESPN Digital. Group M, the media buying company, who were expected to bid on behalf of a consortium of clients, gave it a miss.
The highest bid for the broadcast rights came from Sony Pictures Network. They bid Rs 11,050 crore. The highest bid for digital rights came from none else but Facebook who placed an offer of Rs 3,900 crore. Telecom operators Airtel and Reliance Jio were not far behind Facebook, bidding Rs 3,280 crore and Rs 3,075 crore, respectively. Star actually lagged in each category bid, offering Rs 6,196 crore for broadcast rights and a mere Rs 1,443 crore for digital rights. But eventually, Star proved to be the smartest bidder, and a winner, with a global bid of Rs 16,348 crore that beat the sum of the highest bids in individual categories which totaled Rs 15,820 crore. Star walked away with all the rights and full honors, laying claim to 300 days of cricket over 5 years, at a price tag about Rs 54.5 crore a match.
The initial tender documents had been picked up by 24 entities: Star India Pvt. Ltd., Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd., Followon Interactive Media Pvt. Ltd., Taj TV India Pvt. Ltd., Sony Pictures Networks Pvt. Ltd., Times Internet Ltd., Supersport International (Pty) Ltd., Reliance Jio Digital Services Pvt. Ltd., Gulf DTH FZ LLC, GroupM Media India Pvt. Ltd., beIN IP Ltd., Econet Media Ltd., SKY UK Ltd., ESPN Digital Media (India) Pvt. Ltd, BTG Legal Services, BT PLC, Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc., DAZN / Perform Group, Discovery, Yupp TV, Airtel and BAM Tech and Oath (Yahoo). Of these, only 14 showed up yesterday at the auction. Prominent amongst those missing were e-commerce giant Amazon and microblogging site Twitter. Also missing from the lineup were Discovery, Yahoo and ESPN Digital. Group M, the media buying company, who were expected to bid on behalf of a consortium of clients, gave it a miss.
The highest bid for the broadcast rights came from Sony Pictures Network. They bid Rs 11,050 crore. The highest bid for digital rights came from none else but Facebook who placed an offer of Rs 3,900 crore. Telecom operators Airtel and Reliance Jio were not far behind Facebook, bidding Rs 3,280 crore and Rs 3,075 crore, respectively. Star actually lagged in each category bid, offering Rs 6,196 crore for broadcast rights and a mere Rs 1,443 crore for digital rights. But eventually, Star proved to be the smartest bidder, and a winner, with a global bid of Rs 16,348 crore that beat the sum of the highest bids in individual categories which totaled Rs 15,820 crore. Star walked away with all the rights and full honors, laying claim to 300 days of cricket over 5 years, at a price tag about Rs 54.5 crore a match.
This includes 1a. Indian Sub-continent Broadcast (TV) rights
1b. Indian Sub-continent Digital rights. And Rest of World (ROW) media and digital rights for 1. Middle East 2. Africa 3. Europe 4. USA 5. Australia and New Zealand.
Compared to the Rs 43 crore per match that it currently pays to the BCCI for India’s international matches in India, this is a 20% increase, which on the face of it is not such a major issue perhaps. But the sheer size and scale of the overall Rs 16,348 crore bid have left many media watchers gasping for breath.
What are the key issues with the Star bid?
1. Did Star pay over the top?
2. Will Star now have a monopoly over cricket?
3. Will the market support the increased prices for advertising?
4. Are digital rights as valuable?
5. Are ROW markets as monetisable?
6. Will the game of cricket gain from this hyper bidding?
Let us address each of these issues one by one.
1. Did Star pay over the top?
Star bid Rs16,348 crore against the Rs15,820 crore sum that was the total for the highest bids in individual categories. This consolidated Star global bid was just a teeny-weeny 3% higher but sufficient for Star to pip Sony, Facebook, Airtel, Jio and other smaller players to the post. Star’s bidding strategy was flawless. And bang-on. ...(Read more)
What are the key issues with the Star bid?
1. Did Star pay over the top?
2. Will Star now have a monopoly over cricket?
3. Will the market support the increased prices for advertising?
4. Are digital rights as valuable?
5. Are ROW markets as monetisable?
6. Will the game of cricket gain from this hyper bidding?
Let us address each of these issues one by one.
1. Did Star pay over the top?
Star bid Rs16,348 crore against the Rs15,820 crore sum that was the total for the highest bids in individual categories. This consolidated Star global bid was just a teeny-weeny 3% higher but sufficient for Star to pip Sony, Facebook, Airtel, Jio and other smaller players to the post. Star’s bidding strategy was flawless. And bang-on. ...(Read more)
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