BCCI's Delay in IPL Media Rights Affects ICC's Plans
The next great auction in world cricket is on the horizon, but the starting gun hasn’t gone off yet. Everyone is waiting on one player: the BCCI.
Last week, the ICC quietly moved its biggest chess piece by forming a five-member working group to plot the sale of its media rights for the 2028-31 cycle. The mandate is clear – protect the current value of its rights or, ideally, push it higher by finding the smartest price-discovery model on the market.
But there’s a catch. The ICC can’t move until the BCCI does.
The global body’s tender will not be the first to land. Every major rights holder is effectively in a holding pattern until the BCCI drafts and releases the next IPL media-rights tender. Only after the world’s most powerful cricket board sets the tone will other properties, including ICC events, truly know what the market is willing to pay.
Right now, that tone is silence.
BCCI’s slow play – and a familiar name at both tables
For an organisation often described as a sleeping giant, the BCCI is leaning into the reputation. No decision yet on whether to bring in a financial advisory agency to shape the tender and structure the rights, as it did so successfully in the previous cycle.
There is an intriguing overlap though. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia sits on the ICC’s media-rights working group, chaired by ECB chief Richard Thompson and also featuring ICC chairman Jay Shah. The man helping shape ICC’s roadmap is inside the room for India’s as well.
In 2022, the BCCI turned to KPMG to help design the IPL tender. That move changed the game. The document carved out a special non-exclusive digital package for the Indian subcontinent – a curated “bouquet” of high-value matches.
Eighteen games per season in a 74-match schedule. That small slice alone climbed to Rs 3,273 crore, at Rs 33.24 crore per game. The result was historic: for the first time, internet rights from the subcontinent out-earned traditional TV rights for the BCCI.
That’s the kind of innovation the industry expected to see explored even more aggressively this time.
A booming market, but a board yet to knock on the right doors
“Given the way tech is changing how we consume sport, we thought the board would be keen to explore these changing revenue patterns and models for IPL,” said an industry executive. The reference point came from across the world – the YouTube sports-bundling model in the US, with NFL Sunday Ticket as a benchmark case study.
Executives in the sports business are convinced the upside is enormous if the BCCI leans deeper into this space. The IPL is not just another property; it is the premium asset in the strongest cricket market on the planet. The question is how boldly the board is willing to sell it.
BCCI members gather in Mumbai from Friday for the AGM. Those tracking the build-up see one agenda item towering over the rest: the upcoming sale of media rights. The stakes are too high, the timing too delicate, for it to be treated as routine business.
Beyond live: the battle for the second screen
“India has a strong cricket platform. The IPL is already a premium property on that platform. All you need to build on it is effectively what can be done outside of the live match feed. Archives, highlights, documentaries, regional storytelling, fan engagement etc,” the industry executive pointed out.
That’s where the next phase of growth lies. Live rights will always attract one or two heavy-hitting broadcasters. But building a separate, non-live consumer base – and monetising premium content selectively – is a different game entirely.
The current model leans heavily on a single basket.
“Perhaps not a very healthy model either, considering all your eggs happen to be in one single basket,” an IPL franchise executive said, pointing to the league’s dependence on JioStar for live broadcasts. The warning is clear: concentration brings comfort, but it also brings risk.
Netflix, Amazon, YouTube – the missing heavyweights
One name keeps hovering at the edge of the conversation: Netflix. The streaming giant has stayed away from placing live sport behind its paywall, but it has not walked away from sport altogether. It continues to explore events that can sit within its existing plans, giving subscribers another reason to stay on.
Then there’s Amazon. There’s YouTube. Global platforms that have reshaped viewing habits elsewhere, but have not yet fully bitten into Indian cricket rights.
“We keep wondering why an Amazon or a Netflix or a YouTube hasn’t looked at the India market. Well, the fact is, the onus lies on us to market our products to them and only then can we catch their attention. So, in the case of IPL rights, the onus certainly lies on the BCCI to go out and start talking to these platforms,” the franchise executive said.
That brings the debate to a central principle: modularity. Instead of one all-encompassing deal, a more flexible, modular structure could spread risk, widen the buyer pool, and unlock new revenue streams – from live matches to archives, from regional feeds to fan-centric content.
The ICC has already signalled it will chase every available rupee and dollar. The IPL, as cricket’s most valuable league, holds the key. Once the BCCI finally moves, the rest of the sport’s economy will follow. The only question now is whether the board will simply repeat a successful formula – or rewrite the playbook again.
