Massive update regarding Indian T20 League

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently conducted mock auctions for the Indian T20 League media rights ahead of the e-auctions for the same. Individual tender buyers interested in the media rights participated in this mock auction. The media rights e-auction will be conducted by mJunction, a joint venture (JV) between Tata Steel and SAIL on the 12th of June.

According to a source close to the development, mJunction, which previously organised the media rights e-auction in 2018, has been instructing individual Indian T20 League tender document buyers on how the e-auction process will function. According to the source, Amazon India, Disney Star, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited (Sony Pictures Networks India), Viacom18, Sky Sports (UK), Google India, FanCode (Dream11), MX Player, and SuperSport (South Africa) participated in the mock auction.

"The final list of the bidders will only be known by 11th June. The mock auction saw participation from all the buyers of the Indian T20 League tender," an anonymous source said as per exchange4media.

According to an official from one of the firms, the BCCI conducted a fast round of training for tender bidders followed by a mock auction through mJunction. "The mock auction was conducted to appraise the tender buyers on how the system works. The mock auction is finishing on the 6th of June," the official said.

The BCCI has set a base price of Rs 32,890 crore for the media rights, which is more than double the winning bid of Rs 16,347.5 crore made by Star India in 2017. The media rights have been split into four categories - TV rights for the Indian sub-continent, Digital rights for the Indian sub-continent, Special games package, and Rest of the World (ROW) rights for all Territory Groupings and each territory grouping.

Here are all the category details

Bundle A (Indian sub-continent TV rights)- The base price for this category is Rs 49 crore per game. The base price of TV rights is Rs 18,130 crore for 370 games spread across five seasons at 74 games each season.

Bundle B (digital rights for the India sub-continent)- The base price for this category is Rs 33 crore per game. The five-year starting price is a hefty Rs 12,210 crore.

Bundle C (special games package)- This category comprises 18 games, including the opener, playoff matches, and double-header night matchups. It has a five-year reserve price of Rs 16 crore each game or Rs 1440 crore.

Bundle D (Rest of World (ROW) territory )- This category starts at Rs 3 crore every game, or Rs 1110 crore over five years. The bundle winner will receive both TV and digital rights for worldwide markets outside of the Indian subcontinent.