BCCI’s CEO Rahul Johri predicted that they are expecting a “Historic” revenue from the upcoming IPL media rights auction.

According to the quotes in PTI, Johri said, “Monday’s auction could produce historic numbers. While I am not in a position to predict numbers, our primary focus is to deliver a transparent and robust bidding process for each and every stakeholder. We are extremely grateful to the Honourable Supreme Court and the Committee of Administrators (COA) for having faith in our existing system.”

The auction is scheduled to take place in Mumbai and the winner will be awarded media rights for five years between 2018 and 2022. There is also rest of the world media rights on offer comprises of key international markets like the Middle East, Africa, Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

PTI reports suggested that BCCI is expected to be richer by more than INR 20,000 crore through their earnings from the IPL media rights. Johri said, “The IPL is one of the biggest cricketing property globally. That the best companies in the global market have shown interest is a testimony to the value that it brings in for the investors.” 

The digital rights market for Indian sub-continent could see a two-way battle between Reliance Jio Digital Services, and Airtel. Commenting of the same, BCCI CEO said, “You have to understand the digital market is growing very rapidly. The increase in bandwidth and connectivity for all the major digital players have also helped. The IPL is a catalyst for the growth of their business.”

When asked about why the period of rights has been reduced from 10 years to five years, Johri explained, “A period of 10 years was too long a period from a buyer’s perspective as well as seller’s perspective. In an ever changing world, a decade is a very long period which restricts the property (IPL) from growing.”

He concluded, “Now we have digital rights for five years. Currently, digital feed (live streaming) is a delayed but we don’t know how the scenario will change after five years.”