World Sport Group Pays $1 Billion For IPL Rights
By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 15 Jan 2008 12:58 AM PST
The Indian Premier League (IPL), the Twenty20 league being formulated by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), has sold media rights to the World Sport Group (WSG) for $1.026 Billion, in a 10 year deal, report Economic Times and Moneycontrol. The broadcast rights amounting to $918 million have been signed over to Sony (NYSE: SNE) Entertainment Television (SET) for five years, while another $108 million will need to be spent on marketing and promotions. ContentSutra readers should note that the New Media rights will remain with WSG. The BBCI had set a reserve price for $59 million per year.
The IPL is the BCCI’s official league, in competition with the Indian Cricket League formed by the Zee group, for promoting its own TV channel; The stakes for the broadcasting rights for the IPL were high, particularly since top cricketers are not permitted by the board to participate in the ICL, and the fact that India won the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup. ESPN-Star Sports had submitted a conditional bid, and was disqualified from the bidding process, while NDTV reportedly failed to raise funding and had to drop out. Nimbus didn’t even bid. Details on the bids here, while details of the league are available here.
