Viacom18 is the new online home of Indian Premier League Cricket for the next five years.
A growing television and broadcasting company, a joint venture between Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, Paramount Global and Bodhi Tree Systems, an investment firm backed by James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, will receive an increase in the number of IP video subscribers in India . Begins. But the company paid handsomely for the privilege: $2.6 billion (Rs 205 billion) in the Indian subcontinent for league rights from 2023 to 2027, according to a local press release. India times.
IPL’s Indian TV rights are said to have been sold to a separate company for a further $3 billion (Rs 235.75 billion), but the winner has yet to be revealed. Auction of two packages of additional rights: TV and digital broadcasting rights outside India; And non-exclusive rights to select matches, including tournament openers and some knockout games, are also in the works and will continue through Tuesday.
Star India, now owned by The Walt Disney Company, spent an estimated $2.5 billion (Rs 163.5 billion) on all of the league’s television and digital rights during the previous 2017-2022 cycle. This time, the auction rights managers, the Cricket Control Council in India, chose to split media ownership into four tranches, a strategy that appears to be paying off.
The auction began on Sunday and saw fierce competition, with US tech giants Amazon, Alphabet and Apple choosing to sit next to each other at the last minute. Viacom18, Disney’s Star India and Sony Pictures Networks India participated in the bidding, while Indian pay-TV channel Zee also claimed the digital rights. Local media names Sony a favorite for television rights.
The most popular sport in the world’s second most populous country, IPL is considered the crown jewel of sporting rights in cricket-crazy India, a similar property to the NFL in the United States. Rights ownership is seen as an overnight accelerator for both viewers and digital consumers in India, a market that tech and entertainment giants are eyeing as a significant long-term growth opportunity.
However, the high price may have stopped some well-heeled media players from fighting for it. Particularly focused on Disney, some analysts suggested that House of Mouse could play it safe on the rising value of rights and the recent reassessment of the direct user model economics.
IPL Cricket is seen as the backbone of Disney+ Hotstar’s leadership position in India’s massive streaming market, where the service accounted for approximately 43 million subscribers in the most recent financial quarter, representing 30% of the total number of Disney+ subscribers. . The difficult economics of the broadcasting market in India likely forced Mouse House to relinquish the rights. In the second quarter, Disney generated just 76 cents per month per Indian customer, compared to $6.32 in ARPU in North America and $6.35 in international markets excluding India. CEO Bob Chapek was invited by many Disney analysts to come to the auction to consider financial discipline.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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