Viacom18 wins TV, digital rights for Indian cricket team's home matches for 5 years

Viacom18 has won the TV and digital rights for home matches

Media company Viacom18 has won the TV and digital rights for Indian cricket team's home matches for five years during an e-auction held on August 31.

The company acquired the media rights from September 2023 to March 2028 for Rs 5,963 crore, said Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in a statement.

Ernst & Young were the strategic advisor for the BCCI media rights. Argus Partners were the legal advisor to assist in drafting the tender documents. Mjunction Services Limited provided the platform for the smooth conduct of the e-auction.

BCCI sold its bilateral cricket media rights through an e-auction.

Secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India, Jay Shah took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce the new broadcast and digital partner.

"Congratulations Viacom18 for winning the BCCI media rights for both linear and digital for the next 5 years. India cricket will continue to grow in both spaces as after IPL (Indian Premier League) and WPLT20 (Women's Premier League), we extend the partnership BCCI media rights as well. Together we will continue to capture the imagination of cricket fans," he said.

Congratulations @viacom18

Viacom18 is a joint venture between Network18 Group-- a subsidiary of Reliance Industries and Paramount Global.

"A single entity securing both TV and digital rights is advantageous, as it enhances the negotiating leverage of the platform. This allows them to offer bundled options to advertisers. Acquisition of BCCI bilateral rights will also enable Jio cinema to become even bigger in the Indian OTT (over the top platform) ecosystem. The platform has an AVOD (advertising video on-demand) market share of 22-24 percent in 2023, after factoring IPL revenue and other content. Revenues can scale up further due to these bilateral rights," said brokerage firm Elara Capital in a note.

Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.