IPL media rights auction: Bidders, process and all you need to know

The Indian Premier League’s (IPL) media rights auction for the upcoming five-year cycle of 2023-27 gets underway on Sunday. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to earn at least Rs 32,000 crore with the IPL now expanding to 10 teams. For the 2017-22 cycle, Star India had paid Rs 16,347.50 crore to acquire the complete media rights. Here’s everything you need to know about the IPL media rights auction. When will the IPL media rights auction take place? While close bidding took place for the last cycle, this time the BCCI is conducting an e-auction. The bidding gets underway from 11 am India time on 12 June.  No deadline has been announced by BCCI hence the bidding could go on for multiple days. The final announcement will happen after the completion of the e-auction and technical verification of the bid winner/winners. What is on offer? The media rights have been divided into four packages — A, B, C and D. Package A includes TV rights only for the Indian subcontinent. B is for the digital rights only for the Indian subcontinent. C is for 18 non-exclusive matches for an IPL season for the India region and D is for the rights of the Rest of the World — both TV and digital. Base price for each package Package A: Rs 49 crore/match Package B: Rs 33 crore/match Package C: Rs 16 crore/match Package D: Rs 3 crore/match Who are the bidders? While multiple parties have shown interest, Viacom 18 JV (Joint Enterprise), present rights holder Walt Disney (Star), Zee and Sony are expected to be the top four contenders. Instances Web, FunAsia, Dream11 and FanCode are also expected to fight for digital rights, while Sky Sports activities (UK) and Supersport (South Africa) will compete for Rest of the World rights. Over-the-top (OTT) media service giants Amazon had earlier pulled out of IPL media rights bidding. What is the auction process? Across categories, the potential bidders would have to bid how much they want to pay (per match) for the package. The incremental bids will be made till the competitors drop out and only one bidder is left. The highest bidder left will be awarded the rights. Can I watch the IPL media rights auction? No. There is no telecast for the IPL media rights auction. It has been reported that the final announcement is expected to be made on 14 June (Tuesday). Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.