Fierce competition off the field as well; It will be interesting to see the charisma of Disney-Star and Viacom

The Indian Premier League (IPL), the annual event of cricket, started from today. 10 teams are participating in this tournament and all of them have left no stone unturned to keep their preparations in check, but not one but many winners are already seen waving their flag outside the field.The enthusiasm of the ten teams participating in IPL 2023 is on a high even outside the field. In fact, the revenue of these ten teams from the Central Fund of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to at least double (increased from Rs 305 crore to Rs 630 crore).This fund includes revenue from the sale of television and digital rights to IPL matches and revenue from key sponsors.The amount received from the BCCI’s central fund accounts for 75-80 percent of the total revenue of the IPL franchise. BCCI, the mastermind of this mega event, will also become much richer than before due to the proceeds from the sale of television and digital rights.The BCCI earned Rs 8,174 crore from IPL during 2018-22 and is expected to increase to Rs 24,195 crore in the next five years.It is also certain that the number of people watching IPL is going to increase. According to estimates, more than 55 crore population of the country will definitely spend some time on digital or TV to watch IPL matches.This is also encouraging from the point of view of IPL because the number of viewers has come down to 22.9 crores last year, which was 26.9 crores in 2021. Disney-Star had bought the television and digital rights of the IPL matches and only those who had subscribed were enjoying the matches through the digital medium.But this time Viacom 18 will not charge people for watching the match on Jio Cinema. It is understood that this will definitely increase the number of viewers. Reliance Jio has offered cheap data packages so that people do not have to spend more on data to watch the match. To increase its reach, Disney-Star is also telecasting some matches for free.But all this is due to broadcasters buying TV and digital broadcasting rights. The broadcast rights on the former are divided between two broadcasters, Viacom 18 and Disney-Star. Viacom holds the digital rights while Disney-Star holds the rights to broadcast the matches on television.For some time now, both Viacom18 and Disney-Star have been leaving no stone unturned to grab maximum share of the Rs 4,500 crore advertising market.The combined amount paid by the two companies is three times more than what was fetched in the auction five years ago. Both these companies have bought the broadcast rights of the matches for Rs 48,390 crore. This simply means that both will have to earn at least Rs 10,000 crore every year to break even.But looking at the current figures, it does not seem possible to perform this charisma for a few years.10 IPL franchises will make huge money without any special effort. According to Elara Capital, the average revenue per franchise in this IPL will increase to Rs 630 crore from last year’s Rs 305 crore.The bulk of the earnings will come from a threefold increase in revenue from television and digital rights. Half of this amount is distributed equally among all the franchisees. The income coming from the sponsors of the tournament is there. Teams also bring sponsors with them. These sponsors can contribute up to 20-25 per cent of the total revenue. Along with this, the teams also earn from the sale of equipment. According to estimates, some of the franchises have brought sponsors with them up to Rs 100 crore.