BCCI announces invitation for IPL media rights

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the release of invitations for tender for the media rights of the Indian Premier League between the 2023–2027 period.
The tender document will contain the detailed terms and conditions governing the tender process including eligibility requirements, process for submissions of bids, proposed media rights packages, and obligations and can be purchased for a non-refundable fee of ?25 lakh (plus ?4.5 lakh in GST). The last date to buy the tender document is May 10 and the auction will most likely be held in June and is reported to be an e-auction.

The BCCI released a statement that read:
“The Governing Council of the IPL invites bids from reputed entities to acquire the media rights for the Indian Premier League Seasons 2023-2027, through a tender process.
“Interested parties are requested to email the details of payment made for the purchase of the ‘Invitation to Tender’ (ITT) to iplmediarights2022@bcci.tv, as per the procedure laid down in Annexure A. It is clarified that the ITT documents shall be shared only receipt of payment of the non-refundable ITT fee.
“BCCI reserves the right to cancel or amend the bidding process at any stage in any manner at its discretion.”

Jay Shah, BCCI Secretary, said:
“I’m pleased to announce that the BCCI has issued the tender document for IPL media rights for seasons 2023-27. With two new teams, more matches, more engagement, more venues, we are looking to take TATA IPL to newer and greater heights.
“I’ve no doubts that with this process there will not only be revenue maximisation but also value maximisation, which will benefit India Cricket immensely.”

The BCCI has also stated that all interested parties who want to submit bids will have to buy the ITT and those who fail to meet the eligibility criteria set out in the ITT will not be eligible for the bid.
The current media rights holding company is Star, which paid a whopping ?16,000 crore to acquire the rights for a five-year period that is set to end following the conclusion of IPL 2022. Disney+ Hotstar, Star’s OTT platform, holds the current digital rights of the IPL. With more teams and the total number of matches being increased from 60 to 74 per season, one expects the figures to increase as well.
Aside from Star, the other interested parties are reported to be Zee-Sony and Reliance Viacom 18 for the TV rights, while Amazon Prime, Meta, YouTube and Disney+ Hotstar are interested in the digital rights.