The Indian Premier League or IPL
chairman Arun Dhumal believes that the media rights value of the league has the
potential to touch a staggering $50 million over the next two decades, provided
it keeps innovating and improvising with fans’ interests in mind.
The current media rights value of the
league stands at $6.2 billion (approx Rs 48,000 crore) for a five-year period
starting from 2022. Even by this estimate, the IPL is the second-most
high-valued league after the National Football League (NFL), as the American
sporting entity struck a $110 billion media deal for an 11-year period starting
from last year.
“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 (of the IPL) to go somewhere close to $50 billion by
around 2043,” said Dhumal while speaking at the RCB Innovation Lab’s Leaders
Meet India here.
Dhumal, who is also a former BCCI
treasurer, also pinned his hopes for a financial windfall on the advent of the
Women’s Premier League (WPL) and cricket’s inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles
Olympics.
“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,” he said.
“Now that cricket is becoming part of
the Olympics and with the WPL taking it to a different level for women’s
cricket, I see a lot of hope and light at the end of the tunnel,” said Dhumal.
The media rights value of the IPL has
grown exponentially in the last decade and half from the Rs 6,000 crore in
2008, going past several other major sporting leagues across the world.
Dhumal dissected the growth and
ever-swelling popularity of the IPL.
“IPL is the most-watched cricket league
in the world. Personally, I feel IPL is the best Make in India brand we can
think of post-Independence.
“We are a very diverse country in terms
of states, cultures and languages being spoken. But this is one platform (IPL)
which is rooted so well that you are able to showcase India to the globe,” he
said.
PTI
