BCCI Media Rights: Viacom18 creates monopoly; wins bid for five years at Rs 5,963 crore

Viacom18, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries has secured exclusive media rights for international and domestic matches by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a cumulative figure of Rs 5,963 crore for the next five years between September 2023-March 2028, said the company through its statement.

Earlier, BCCI had issued an Invitation to Tender (ITT) after which an e-auction was conducted on August 31, 2023, wherein all eligible bidders were permitted to participate to determine the successful bidder for the Media Rights.

The media rights tender by the governing body was floated for five years (2023-28), covering 88 matches. At Rs 45 crore per match, the overall base price worked out to Rs 3,960 crore.

“Live sports consumption in India has sharply pivoted towards digital, and winning the global digital rights will help us further fuel this ascendancy. Additionally, winning the broadcast rights is an extension of our strategy as we will continue to serve quality and affordable content to all viewers as they continue to migrate from linear TV to digital screens,” Viacom18 Sports CEO, Anil Jayaraj said on the company winning rights for BCCI games.

After winning rights, the media house will have rights for tournaments such as International Men’s and Women’s matches, and domestic first-class competitions like the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, among others.

Viacom18 will expand its current media rights portfolio as it already has tournaments like TATA IPL, TATA WPL, Olympics 2024, SA20, Major League Cricket (MLC), Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT), NBA, Diamond League, World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023, MotoGP, LALIGA, Ligue1, Serie A, BGIS (E-Sports), Abu Dhabi T10, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and top BWF events.

In the last bid by BCCI, back in 2018, Star Sports India had outbid Viacom18 and Sony to win media rights, for both television and digital platforms, for Rs 6138.1 crore. The rights were for the period of 2018 to 2023.