BENGALURU: IPL chairman Arun Dhumal believes that the media rights value of the world cricket’s most valuable annual property has the potential to touch a staggering $50 billion over the next two decades, provided it keeps innovating and improvising with fans’ interests in mind.
Well said for sure but that IPL’s parent BCCI has a less than stellar track record when it comes to keeping “fans’ interests in mind” goes without saying.
Be that as it may, the media rights value of the IPL stands at $6.2bn (approx Rs 48000 crores) for the current five-year cycle ending 2026.
Dhumal made his comments while speaking at the RCB Innovation Lab’s Leaders Meet India here on Thursday.
Five-year media rights for the IPL have grown from Rs 6,000 crores at its inception in 2008 to Rs 48,000 crores and the league is only second to the National Football League (NFL) across all sporting leagues in the world. Dhumal believes the widespread popularity and success of the league will act as a catalyst in its evolution over the next 10 years.
“If I have to see how it has gone over the last 15 years and if I have to go by estimates going forward, we are expecting media rights to go somewhere close to $50 billion by around 2043. Going forward, we need to keep innovating, keep doing better in terms of fan engagement, and keep making it better in terms of the quality of games. Now that cricket is becoming part of the Olympics and with the Women’s Premier League taking it to a different level for women’s cricket, I see a lot of hope and light at the end of the tunnel. Because of the way it has been happening for the last 15 years, it is only going to get better,” he said.
