MUMBAI: As the 11th season of the Vivo Indian Premier League nears its end, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla is looking to take world cricket’s biggest annual property to “places like Dubai, the UK and also America”.
Shukla, in an interview to AFP, asserted that the tournament is doing “wonderfully well”.
After Star India struck a record sponsorship deal with the IPL worth Rs 163.47 billion for the next five years, BCCI’s coffers have strengthened all the more to have greater ambitions for the tournament.
“We are not able to figure out where it (broadcast rights and sponsorship) will peak… but I think after the EPL, this is the most important league. It can match any league,” Shukla told AFP.
“Now we are planning to take it overseas, to places like Dubai, the UK and also America.”
AFP, quoting industry figures, reports that each Premier League game earns more than $11 million besides overseas broadcast rights. The IPL is still behind in this regard with $8.5 million per game earned only in India.
However, in viewership, the IPL is far ahead with 40 million viewers per game as compared to Premier League’s 12 million.
“The IPL works so well because it was devised as a complete marketing ecosystem,” Aaron Smith, a sports business professor at Loughborough University in Britain, told AFP on the IPL’s meteoric rise in the past decade. Smith called the tournament “the perfect storm of sporting entertainment with elements of the Champions League, professional wrestling, and a touch of Bollywood”.
“It has acquired “unprecedented market reach” using star players, teams spread across India, and a slick television package.”, he added.
Shukla echoed the theory by expressing confidence in an increase in viewership.
“The fan following and the viewers are increasing every year. In terms of revenue, it’s also doing wonderfully well,” Shukla asserted.
