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IPL Matches Worth More Compared To India’s International Games

Star India set to pay Rs 55 crore for an IPL game; CEO says figures reflect market value.



Cricket balls at a factory in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)
Cricket balls at a factory in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

The IPL media rights have emerged more lucrative than the Indian team’s home matches, with Star set to pay Rs 55 crore for an IPL game – Rs 12 crore more than what it currently pays for an international fixture.

Star India on Monday won the global broadcast and digital rights for Rs 16,347.5 crore for the next five years, a staggering amount considering the Indian cricket board BCCI, which owns the IPL property, is in the middle of an administrative crisis.

The per game numbers for an IPL game amounts to Rs 55 crore and Rs 3,270 crore per year. Back in 2012, Star had won broadcast and digital rights of India matches between 2012- 2018 for Rs 3,851 crore, a figure broken down to Rs 43 crore per match.

At $512 million, the annual media rights of three cricket boards including the BCCI, ECB and Cricket Australia combined is at par with what IPL commands ($508 million).

However, the rights for the India matches are up for grabs next year and with the way the cricket is pulling in the money from all quarters, another mind-boggling payout for the BCCI will not be a surprise.

Despite the off-field issues of BCCI, watching a cricket match in India remains an amazing experience.
Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India

The amount may seem astronomical but Shankar said that the figures reflect market value, after securing a successful IPL bid.

“This is the right figure. You have seen that in every category it has been so competitive, so that there are three digital rights which have gone for over Rs 3,000 crore. Digital did not exist 10 years ago,” Shankar said.

"In television, you have seen it was aggressively tendered to. This tells you that cricket continues to be very strong, very healthy and very attractive in this country," added Shankar.