Top five media rights deals in sports

Published at :July 2, 2022 at 12:59 AM

Modified at :July 2, 2022 at 12:59 AM

The Indian Premier League (IPL) climbed up to the second spot after the mega auction of June 2022.

Disney Star and Viacom18 emerged as the big winners following the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights auction. The pair have bought the Indian subcontinent’s TV and digital rights respectively for a whopping ₹48,390.5 crore ($6.2 billion) for a five-year period, starting in 2023.

The Walt Disney-owned Disney Star won the rights to broadcast IPL on TV in India for ₹23,575 crore ($3.02 billion). Whereas, Reliance-owned Viacom18 clinched the Indian digital rights for ₹23,758 crore, which translates to $3 billion.

Viacom18 also won the media rights (both TV and digital) for Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa for ₹23,758 crore ($3 billion). Also, Times Internet got the media rights for two other global regions — the Middle East for ₹205 crore ($26.27m) and the USA for ₹258 crore ($33.06m).

Comparing the existing media rights deal to the new one shows just how much the league has grown. Star India, the current rights holder for both TV and digital, paid ₹16,347.5 crore ($2.5 billion) in 2017 for a five-year cycle. And the winning bid for the very first edition of IPL, by Sony Sports Network, stood at $67m.

The combined bids have made the IPL one of the richest sporting leagues in the world. On that note, here’s a look at the top five leagues with the most lucrative media deals in the world.

For the sake of uniformity, all values are converted to the approximate US Dollar ($ or USD) value to make an easy comparison.

5. National Basketball Association

The NBA's current media right deal, which runs till the 2024-25 season, sees it generate an average of $2.66 billion a year in revenue. The league is currently partnered with AT&T-owned Warner Media and Disney, while it also has a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Chinese company Tencent Holdings.

The per match value of the league stands at $2.12m. And it is expected to increase exponentially in the next cycle.

4. Major League Baseball

MLB’s media rights package deal with Turner Sports, which came into effect in 2022 for a period of seven years, is worth roughly $3.2 billion over the seven years. The league also signed a $4 billion media rights extension with ESPN for the same period, which brings the total broadcast value to $12 billion.

Breaking the numbers down, the per match value of MLB is roughly around $9.57m.

3. Premier League

The Premier League is the richest and most-followed football league in the world, and its worth is shown by the money it generates via media rights deals. The league has worked tirelessly over the years to perfect various deals across the globe, both satellite and digital.

The domestic rights of the league for 2019-22 stand at £1.61 billion and at $1.8 billion roughly for international rights. Breaking down the combined value, the per match cost for EPL stands at $11m.

2) Indian Premier League

**IPL's media deal became the second-most expensive in the world earlier in June 2022. (Courtesy - Pinterest)**

The newly-signed ₹48,390.5 crore ($6.2 billion) deals for 2023 to 2027 push IPL up the list to second in the table. The new deal is 196% higher than the previous IPL rights deal, which stood at ₹16,347.5 crore ($2.55 billion).

The breakdown of the value per match gives us staggering numbers. Disney Star will pay $7.36m (₹57.5 crore) per match, while Viacom 18 will pay $6.40m (Rs 50 crore) per match. Viacom18 will also pay $4.26m (₹33.24 crore) per match for a non-exclusive package of high-profile games, which takes their total investment to $7.43m (₹58 crore) per match.

1) National Football League

In March of 2021, the National Football League (NFL) signed media rights deals that are combined worth $112.6 billion for a period of ten years starting 2023, which is an 82% average annual increase over the current deals.

A breakdown of the numbers shows us that the NFL’s per match value stands at an astonishing $17.36m, though this deal extends till 2033. With the next cycle of IPL’s media rights starting in 2028, the T20 tournament could well surpass NFL in five years’ time.

[All figures have been sourced from Duff & Phelps, BCCI, Forbes and ESPN.]

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