HOW DOES IPL COMPARE TO OTHER MAJOR WORLD LEAGUES?

Recently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly claimed that the IPL generates more revenue than the English Premier League (EPL), the most popular football tournament...

- RENIN WILBEN

The e-auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the 2023-2027 cycle has produced some astoundingly insane bids, proving that the T20 cricket league is well on its way to becoming one of the grandest in the world. Package A (for TV) and Package B (for Digital) have been sold for unbelievably high costs, beating all previous figures. The BCCI earned a whopping Rs 23,575 crore (which comes to Rs 57.5 crore per game) for TV rights, while Package B for Digital was sold for Rs 20,500 crore (Rs 50 crore per game). If you combine the two, the figure comes to Rs 107.5 crore per match. Just to put things into perspective, the current IPL media rights are held by Star India for the 2017-22 cycle. Star had won the bid for Rs 16,347.50 crore for both TV and digital back in September 2017. Before that, Sony Pictures Network won the IPL TV media rights for a period of 10 years when the tournament started. They had a bid of Rs 8,200 crore.

IPL AS BIG AS THE NFL AND THE EPL?