IPL Media Rights Auction: IPL per match value crosses Rs 100 crore mark on Day 1, Digital Rights rule the roost

Indian Premier League's media rights auction witnessed a robust bidding for TV and Digital rights of the Indian sub-continent with the valuation of per match of the cash-rich league being earmarked at more than a whopping Rs 100 crore. With the bidding going into the second day, the cumulative valuation of the media rights could well touch a staggering Rs 50,000 crore mark, which will be one of the biggest in terms of global rights across any sport. Four out of the seven players in the fray --- Viacom18, Disney-Star, Sony and Zee were involved in a near seven hour slugfest that remained inconclusive with Package A (India TV Rights) and Package B (India Digital Rights) cumulatively fetching upwards of 42,000 crore ($5.37 billion approximately) and still counting.

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Moving away from the long-held practice to call for closed bids, BCCI has opted for an e-auction for the first time ever. The process began on Sunday at 11 am. A total of 12 companies had picked up the Invitation To Tender (ITT) less than two months ago and seven have decided to come to the bidding

The final result might not be out late on Monday or Tuesday as the battle for Packages A and B will continue on Monday. Once it is over, the winner of package B can challenge for Package C which has 18 non-exclusive digital rights game for Rs 16 crore per game and subsequently Package D (Overseas TV and Digital combined rights at Rs 3 crore per game) will come up for bidding. "As of now after 5.30 pm, the bid for TV has gone up to Rs 57 crore per game from its base price of Rs 49 crore and India digital rights has seen an unbelievable growth from its Rs 33 crore to Rs 48 crore per game," a senior BCCI