CRICKETING aficionados had expected a record-shattering deal, and they were right. On September 4th the Indian Premier League (IPL), a domestic tournament which uses the abridged Twenty20 (T20) format, announced that it had signed a five-year contract worth $2.55bn for its worldwide broadcasting and digital rights. The $510m yearly fee stumped up by Star India, a television network owned by 21st Century Fox, is 158% greater than that of the previous deal, in which Sony had controlled all of the media rights. Star beat 23 other bidders that had competed for various parts of the new package, including Facebook. The IPL’s annual cricketing circus is a brief one, lasting just 60 matches across six weeks in April and May, which means that its $8.5m cost per game will be four times that of the National Basketball Association and two-thirds that of the English Premier League.
The deal also dwarfs those which have been negotiated by national sides. On an annual basis, it is as valuable as those of the “big three”—England, Australia and...Continue reading