Ashok Namboodiri
The 2023-27 broadcast-rights bidding cycle for the IPL saw a 2.96X jump, led by the unbundling of TV and digital rights. The rights now stand at a whopping USD 6.2 Bn with per-match rights second only to the NFL. Less than two decades after the inception of the league, will we continue to see appreciation in the rights, or will they plateau going forward? What are the inhibiting factors and what can the BCCI do to unlock further value?
With the unbundling of TV and digital rights already done, there are fewer structural levers left to exploit. On the other side, advertisers are pushing back with price resistance at INR 1.4 to 1.5 Mn per 10-second spot. The digital ARPUs in India at USD 6-10 per year for a sports package are still very low. All indicators are therefore that the next cycle in 2028-32 will witness low single digit / flat growth in rights.
At this juncture, the English Premier League (EPL) case study is quite pertinent. In 2016, after 15 years of domestic rights boom, the league saw a turning point. The 2016-19 cycle was sold in February 2015 for 5.136 Bn pounds, a 70% increase over the previous deal. This made EPL’s per-match value of 10.2m pounds the highest of any sports league in the world. This surge was driven by the intense bidding war between Sky and BT. In the 2019-22 cycle, the broadcasters refused to engage in another bidding war and the domestic deal value actually fell slightly to 5 Bn pounds, the first drop since the formation of the league in 1992.
It was at this stage that the league shifted focus to overseas markets. The US rights jumped from USD 250 Mn to USD 2.7 Bn in 2021-28. China, Southeast Asia and MENA saw big increases. By the 2022-25 cycle, the International rights revenue stood at 5.6 Bn pounds, on par with the domestic rights!
I think the IPL is at this stage and unless the BCCI unlocks new levers, we will witness a similar slowdown in domestic rights for the next cycle.
The IPL is undoubtedly one of India’s most successful cultural exports …a content product that not only dominates the cricket calendar but also commands audiences and revenue streams across continents. However, international rights revenues are less than 5% of the total at present.
If the BCCI wants to unlock more value from the IPL, especially as domestic rights approach a plateau, it needs to move beyond the “sell media rights and collect sponsorships” formula and turn the IPL into a multi-channel global entertainment product. What could be some ideas here ?
Maximising country-specific packages by perhaps providing language-localised coverage, much like the regional languages in India. How about Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin?
Take the IPL offshore in a deliberate manner with some regular-season games in high-value markets (UAE, USA, UK) to attract local sponsors. Evaluate the potential of micro-sized video rights to leverage the growing popularity of micro dramas and the fact that Gen Alpha is more prone to watch live sport in such formats.
Make the IPL relevant all through the year instead of a two-month summer carnival. How about a two leg IPL – first leg in India, second overseas, with points carrying over? How about building merchandise revenues, retail partnerships and digital tokens? Permanent fan shops in London, Dubai, Singapore, Toronto? Link IPL performances with BBL, The Hundred, SA20 to keep players in fan conversations year-round? Leverage the women’s league across more geographies ? Or perhaps just two matches each in the UAE and the USA every season to begin with?
I think there is a critical need to set a destination target for 2035 – to take the split between domestic and interantional rights to 75:25, and then work methodically on initatives to take it there. By 2035, the IPL can go from being India’s biggest sports export to the world’s most valuable sports-entertainment league. The only question is whether we start shaping that journey now … or wait until the domestic curve forces us to.
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