Days after BCCI received over Rs 48,000 crore for the media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the 2023-27 cycle, former IPL chairman Lalit Modi said in an exclusive interview to NDTV that the IPL will become number 1. 1 sports league in the world. The former chairman of the franchise cricket league said that he believes the valuation of IPL media rights will double again in the next cycle.
“It is the fan base that has made it (increasing the valuation of IPL). I have always said that in three or four years it will double. The price of IPL will be doubled. If you look at all my interviews since 2008, So I said the value of IPL will double in terms of media rights. It has increased by 98 per cent from last cycle. From last cycle till this cycle is 98 per cent and I am asking you to move on to the next cycle, this Will double again,” Modi said.
“It will definitely go ahead and I have always said that IPL will become the No. 1 sports league as soon as possible. It all depends on innovation, digital rights for the OTT platform. If we do our work in digital the right way. You will see digital overtaking television in terms of viewership and revenue. I think digital rights will be three-four times that of television in the next five years. That is, if we do our job right. Money on technology The spending should be on digital platforms. The feel has to change. New technologies will bring the user experience to a better level. Right now we are not doing that. BCCI needs to invest money.”
Modi said his prediction that IPL is recession proof has come true. “The viewership is now probably the highest in the world in terms of number of people watching and the number of people attracted to the game. I have always maintained, and everyone laughs at me, that the IPL is recession proof. It really is What is coming out is the fact that as far as India is concerned, it is recession proof. We have new and new fan bases joining in. But we have to be careful going forward. As the young age group is mostly on digital, So the cost of digital rights has gone up a lot, but their experience has not been so good in India today as to watch it on a particular platform,” Modi told NDTV.
“The Jio platform that has this is not very user-friendly at the present time. When you move the phone from horizontal to vertical, it doesn’t capture it… which makes fans lose faith.”
Modi was the first chairman and commissioner of IPL. He was instrumental in running the league from 2008 to 2010. He was also the Vice President of BCCI from 2005-10.
The former cricket administrator said that there is a need to improve the infrastructure in Indian cricket stadiums. “The IPL has contributed a total of Rs 100,000 crore to the BCCI. It has contributed Rs 58,000 crore in the last eight years alone. Fifty per cent of the money remains with the BCCI, fifty per cent is shared with the IPL franchises. BCCI What has been done to upgrade the infrastructure? You look at the Kotla. They should demolish the Kotla. They should build most of the stadiums and build anew. You look at the world class infrastructure, air-condition, good Toilets, good clean dining spaces, good spectator experience, can be put in car parks. You need to invest that money to build a world class stadium,” he said.
Modi left India in 2010 amid allegations of tax evasion, money laundering and pseudo-ownership and has been in London for the past few years. BCCI suspended him in 2010 following allegations of financial irregularities and then in 2013, Modi was banned for life by the cricket governing body.
“It (IPL) has actually been able to do this (clean-up act). It is moving in the right direction as Gujarat Titans have been performing well in the first season. It has shown that there is faith in the game now.” There is no fixing now and it has taken a new turn.”
In the IPL media rights e-auction, Disney Star retained the TV broadcasting rights with a bid price of Rs 23,575 crore. “I am thrilled to announce that Star India has won the India TV rights with a bid of Rs 23,575 crore. This bid is a direct testimony to the organizational capabilities of BCCI despite two pandemic years,” wrote BCCI secretary Jay Shah in a tweet.
“Viacom18 has bagged the digital rights with its winning bid of Rs 23,758 crore. India has witnessed a digital revolution and the sector has endless potential. The digital landscape has changed the way we look at cricket. It is the evolution of the game. and Digital India vision,” Shah confirmed in another tweet.
Reliance’s Viacom18 won the rights to Package C with a bid of Rs 3,258 crore. As a result, Viacom, which also won Package B rights with a payment of Rs 20,500 crore (Rs 50 crore per match for 410 matches), paid Rs 23,758 crore for the entire bouquet of digital rights.
publicized
Package D, which included the rights to the rest of the world, was won in a bid of Rs 1058 crore.
In the end it was the BCCI who laughed at the bank for a total of Rs 48,390 crore for the A, B, C and D packages.
Topics mentioned in this article
