The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is still the darling of big companies even in a market that has slowed down. Even Disney-Star has frozen any more cricket investments. But that has not put a dent in BCCI’s financial might. Considering the market trend and slowed-down economy, the Indian board set a lower base price in all sponsorship categories. Yet, it came out as the winner with at least a 12-15% increase in title sponsorship, BCCI Media Rights and lead sponsor. With BCCI releasing tender for associate sponsors, the trend is only set to continue.
The big companies that were on a spending spree in Indian Premier League including Byju’s are on a tough footing. They have fired thousands of employees. Disney-Star, BCCI’s IPL broadcast partner and previous media partner, too has been in a difficult spot. Globally, Disney has let go of thousands of workforce including India to streamline its operations.
“Despite of market being very tough, as always BCCI assets are standing tall. The board is extremely happy with what they have generated. Keeping the base price low for both Title Sponsorship and Media Rights was a strategy and it delivered well for us,” a senior BCCI official told InsideSport.
BCCI remains the Big Bull
Title Sponsorship: The previous lead sponsors did not have a great time. PayTM transferred the rights to Mastercard with one still left in the contract. Mastercard did put in the bid this time around. But did not do enough to secure the rights. Considering the market situation, BCCI set a base price of just Rs 2.4 Cr per match, compared to Rs 3 Cr in the previous cycle. However, IDFC First Bank paid Rs 4.2 Cr per match. Mastercard paid Rs 3.8 Cr per match in its one-year contract and BCCI ended up with a Rs 40 lakh increase in per match fee.
Bidders: Sony, IDFC First Bank, Reliance Jio, TATA Sons, Joy E-Bike (Technical bid rejected), Axis Bank, Viacom 18, Rhiti Sports, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (Technical bid rejected), Yes Bank, Jana Bank, Hero, Mastercard
Lead Sponsor: The same trend continues in lead sponsorship. A struggling Byju’s exited after the end of Australia’s tour of India. Byju’s had an option to continue till World Cup 2023 but the ed-tech giant chose to end the contract in March. The company paid Rs 5.5 Cr per bilateral match and Rs 1.7 Cr for ICC events. Dream11 which was an associate sponsor upgraded to Lead Sponsor for Rs 358 Cr for three years.
Jersey Sponsor: BCCI switched from Nike to MPL in 2020. But within 2 years, MPL decided to exit, handing over rights to KKCL (Kewal Kiran Clothing Limited) till May 2023. Adidas came on board as the new jersey sponsor for Rs 250 Cr.
BCCI Media Rights: After a successful IPL media rights deal, all eyes were on BCCI Media Rights with the Indian board separating TV and digital. However, the lukewarm response from broadcasters forced BCCI to lower the base price to just Rs 45 Cr. In 2018, Disney-Star paid Rs 61 Cr per match for 100 games.
This time though, there was no bidding war like IPL. At the e-auction on Thursday, only Sony Sports, Viacom18 and Disney-Star entered. However, Disney-Star chose not to bid, leaving the room open for a straight fight between Sony and Viacom. Reliance-backed Viacom18 bagged both TV and Digital for a combined price of Rs 67.8 Cr per match for 88 games. The company would pay a total of Rs 5983 Cr (2,862 Cr for TV and Rs 3,101 Cr for digital).
With Sony pushing for TV rights, BCCI saw an increase of 62% in the final per match price. The base price for TV was Rs 20 Cr and BCCI ended up with Rs 32.5 Cr. There wasn’t a sharp increase in digital price. But yet, BCCI scored 35.3 Cr per match, almost 10 Cr over the base price of Rs 25 Cr.
Considering this, the trend is likely to continue as BCCI is now looking for associate sponsors. The Indian board has released the tender for associate sponsors on Friday. ACC, Hyuandai and Dream11 were the three associate sponsors. They together paid Rs 222.74 Cr between 2019-23. And it is only going to increase.
