BCCI mulling multiple IPL broadcasters in new rights deal: Reports

The Indian Premier League (IPL) season is just around the corner. With the month of March beginning today, the excitement around the T20 competition is increasing. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already confirmed that the IPL will commence on March 26 this year with the final scheduled on May 29. However, the complete schedule hasn’t yet been announced.

Even as the franchises are starting to gear up for the 15th edition of the tournament, it is being reported that a lot is going on in the organising body think tank with regards to the future of the brand IPL. With the tournament becoming bigger with every passing season, it is now being learnt that the Board is even mulling at a possibility of multiple broadcasters for the T20 tournament.

This implies that there will not be an exclusive broadcaster as is the case currently but multiple broadcast networks would be able to telecast the matches simultaneously. The move could ensure more viewership of the already popular cricket league. The idea of the organisers seems to be inspired by the English Premier League- England’s top-tier football league- whose broadcast rights are not exclusively owned by a single media house but all of Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime Video and BBC Sport can telecast their matches.

If indeed the non-exclusive strategy of the IPL media rights is materialised, it is further expected to increase the revenue from the sales of these rights. While an initial estimation was already over 30,000 crore- the BCCI is already estimating a value of around 45,000 crore with the likes of Star, Reliance, Sony and Amazon- all interested in having the rights to host the T20 competition.

As far as IPL 2022 is concerned, the league matches of the competition are set to be held entirely in Maharashtra this year. Moreover, Star Sports Network remains the exclusive broadcast network for the tournament in 2022 and will be bidding for the rights for the next five years. Their digital streaming platform Disney+Hotstar will allow live streaming of IPL games this season.