BCCI looking to raise anywhere between US$5.5 to 6b from the sale of IPL rights

The BCCI has taken the first step forward in its effort to earn 'top-dollar' from the sale of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and bilateral rights in 2022. The BCCI is looking to raise anywhere between US$5.5 to 6b from the sale of IPL rights alone. However. the cricket board brought audit, tax, and financial advisory consultants KPMG on board this week.

The financial services company will advise the BCCI on how to go about with the media rights sale. Meanwhile, it will also allow transparency in the process, identify correct market resources. It will examine if the e-auctioning of rights is the way forward.

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The cricket board had earlier announced that it would come out with the tender document soon after the sale of new franchises but has now decided to wait until February next year when the mega auction of cricketers will be held. Across sports leagues in the world, the sale of IPL rights is now set to become one of the most lucrative properties for potential bidders to set their eyes on.

The BCCI wants to ensure that transparency remains the keyword when the process gets underway

"The BCCI wants to ensure that transparency remains the keyword when the process gets underway. That's the most important thing. With a global consultant coming on board, it will also help us identify the right value,"

A top BCCI officials told TOI

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"The Sony-Zee merger has ensured now that there is a possibility of new players in the room. BCCI's blacklisting of Zee – which happened with the onset of the now-defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL) – is over. Disney has shut all its Southeast Asia business in live sports production and broadcast and is only concentrating on India. Amazon has been looking to enter the cricket broadcast space from the OTT perspective," say those tracking the industry.

The most important of them all, from an industry standpoint, is Viacom's entry into live sports broadcast. Viacom18 has already bagged the rights to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and La Liga for the Indian sub-continent. "They will now come after all cricket rights. There's quite a bit of competition building up," sources added.

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Identifying these players and deriving optimum value is the reason the BCCI has signed up KPMG. The cricket board asked global consultants like McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Redbird, Ernst & Young (EY) – apart from KPMG – to make presentations for the media rights sale, a process that took place between last week of November and the first week of December.