BCCI has announced today that Viacom18 Media Private Limited will acquire the Media Rights from WIPL Season 2023 to WIPL Season 2027 for a cumulative figure of INR 951 crores (i.e., INR 7.09 crores per match).
As ardent followers of cricket probably know, the inaugural season of the Women’s Indian Premiere League is all set to start in March 2023. In association with the event, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had issued an Invitation to Tender (“ITT”) for the Media Rights to the WIPL seasons (from 2023 to 2027).
Today, the BCCI announced that winner is Viacom18, which has secured the media rights of WIPL for Rs. 951 crore or approximately, 116 million USD (assuming Rs 82 = 1 USD).
The current BCCI President, Mr Roger Binny commented on the development, –
I would like to congratulate Viacom18 for bagging the media rights for Women’s IPL for the period of 5 years. Women’s cricket has been on the up since a few years and the recently concluded bilateral series against Australia is a great testament to how popular women’s cricket has become in India. It was only apt to get our own women’s T20 league and give the fans more of women’s cricket. I would also like to congratulate the BCCI leadership and its workforce for a successful media rights process and wish them the very best for the first edition of the Women’s IPL.”
Twitter Reacts to Viacom18’s Win
People took to Twitter to express their joy at the announcement and to congratulate both the BCCI and Viacom 18 for closing this huge deal, that is sure to encourage and help women’s cricket in India grow exponentially.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted on the announcement –
Sports commentator, Harsha Bhogle too appeared positive upon hearing the news.
Reliance Bullish on Sports
Viacom18, which is a joint venture between Network 18 (owned by Reliance Industries Limited) and Paramount Global, has been focusing on sports as shown by their recent deals.
Apart from winning the broadcasting rights for the Women’s IPL (2023 – 2027), Viacom18 also won the streaming rights for the men’s edition of the IPL for a whopping Rs. 23,758 crores (approx. $ 3 billion) in June 2022. Apart from bagging IPL streaming rights in the Indian subcontinent, Viacom18 will also have the rights to stream the matches in Australia, South Africa, and the UK.
- Reliance streamed all the FIFA 2022 matches on their Jio Cinema app.
- In addition to this, EU club football La Liga, Ligue 1, and Serie A will be streamed live on JioCinema for free.
- Reliance Jio has also signed a deal with football club, Manchester City, where, “Manchester City and Jio will collaborate on a variety of engaging experiences that fans will be able to access through Jio’s digital ecosystem comprising JioTV, MyJio, Jio STB, JioEngage and other applications and platforms, in addition to exclusive giveaways and in-market activities“
Sports, especially, cricket has always been huge in India and with the emergence of the IPL and celebrity cricketers, there is no doubt that there is money to be made in a sports and cricket-crazy country like India.
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