MUMBAI: In the wake of sustained demands from the franchises, sports management company Mashal Sports, founded by Anand Mahindra and Charu Sharma, and now majority owned by Star India, has confirmed it will open the tender process for the media rights of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).
The rights will be awarded for five years, from Seasons 8 to 12, or until 2025, whichever is earlier.
The media rights tender document will be released on Thursday, 25th February while the e-auction will take place on 6th April.
The organisers have formed an independent committee to oversee the e-auction. The franchises will get 80% of the revenue generated from the sale of media rights.
The decision to auction the media rights was taken after the 12 franchises and Star India failed to agree on PKL’s media rights value and revenue sharing formula, Economic Times reports. Star India’s offer to pay between Rs 140 million and Rs 150 million per year to each franchise for the next five years was rejected by the team owners who were seeking Rs 220 million per year.
“We are going to conduct an e-auction for PKL. All the media rights – broadcast, digital, and gaming – will be auctioned. As it is a market-driven process, we feel there will be an immediate increase in the value of PKL, which is the second-largest league in the country after the Indian Premier League (IPL),” Anupam Goswami, the chief executive of Mashal Sports and league commissioner of PKL, told ET.
Launched in 2014, PKL uses a franchise-based model and its first season was held with eight teams each of which having paid fees of up to $250,000 to join.
The inaugural season was seen by 435 million viewers, second to the 2014 Indian Premier League’s 552 million, while the first season final between Jaipur Pink Panthers and U-Mumba was watched by 86.4 million.
Star Sports, the Pro Kabaddi League’s broadcaster, subsequently announced in 2015 that it would acquire a 74% stake in the league’s parent company Mashal Sports.
