IPL broadcast deal fetches $6.2 billion; Disney, Viacom18 bag rights

MUMBAI :U.S. media behemoth Walt Disney and Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries were the major winners in a high-stakes bid to broadcast the IPL, the world's richest cricket league, for the next five years in deals fetching the organisers $6.2 billion.

Disney-owned Star India retained the television broadcast rights to the Indian Premier League for 235.75 billion Indian rupees ($3.02 billion), Jay Shah, a top cricket board official said on Tuesday, after a three-day online auction saw the league's broadcast value triple from the last one in 2017.

At $3.02 billion, Disney will pay over a billion dollars more than its previous bid in 2017, which also included online streaming rights.

Viacom18, a broadcasting joint venture run by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, won digital streaming rights from 2023 to 2027, for 237.58 billion Indian rupees.

The BCCI received a total of 483.9 billion Indian rupees from the media rights for the five-year period, BCCI secretary Shah said in a series of tweets.

"IPL is now the 2nd most valued sporting league in the world in terms of per match value," he tweeted.

Disney's Hotstar Plus platform, which has so far streamed the IPL, is the market leader in India's crowded online streaming market, with more than 50 million paid subscribers, which analysts attribute mostly to its strong cricket content.

There were four sets of bids that took place in the online auction, two of which went to Viacom18 and Disney.

The BCCI did not specify which companies won the other two bids, which included a bespoke package that includes high-value matches as well as rights to broadcast in foreign territories.

Launched in 2008, the IPL, counting top Indian industrialists and Bollywood stars such as Shah Rukh Khan