Women's IPL: Viacom18 wins media rights, value surpasses Rs 950 crore

Deepti Sharma (left) celebrates after taking a wicket (AFP file photo)

Viacom18 has won the media rights for Women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. The media company made a bid of Rs 951 crore which means per match value is Rs 7.09 crore for next 5 years (2023-27).

"This is massive for women’s cricket," said Jay Shah, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary.

Shah said that after pay equity, bidding for media rights for Women's IPL marks another historic mandate. "It's a big and decisive step for empowerment of women's cricket in India, which will ensure participation of women from all ages," the Secretary tweeted.

As many as 10 media companies had submitted bids to acquire the media rights to WIPL and interested parties included Disney Star, Sony Network, Viacom18, Amazon Prime, Fancode, Times Internet and Google, according to reports.

BCCI had issued two tenders for WIPL-- one for the league's media rights and the other to own a team in the new league. The media rights auction which took place on January 16 will be followed by franchise rights auction in February.

The league will have five franchise-based teams that will play a total of 22 matches. The league will be played for a duration of 25 days. Each team will have a maximum of 18 players in the squad, including six foreign players. Each team will play each other twice and the top team in the league will directly qualify for the final. The other finalist will be decided by an eliminator match between the second- and third-placed teams.

The first edition of Women's IPL which will be played after the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa and before the men’s IPL season begins, is all set to run from March 3 to 26.

While it was expected that the BCCI will host WIPL matches in different cities, the inaugural season of the women’s tournament now will be held in three Mumbai stadiums, Brabourne, DY Patil and Wankhede, which have a capacity of 20,000, 60,000 and 32,000 spectators respectively.

The thinking within the BCCI seems to be that holding WIPL in Mumbai will see a high attendance, given the turnout for the Women's T20 international series between India and Australia in December in Mumbai last year. According to reports, over 25,000 spectators were in the stands on the first day. For the second match of the series, the number of visitors went up to 47,000, considered as one of the highest attendance for a women's bilateral game in India.

Analysts say that the cities where the league will be hosted will play an important role in the auction of WIPL's media rights. Marketers note that regions where the matches of franchise-based leagues including the Indian Premier League, the men’s edition, were an important factor in determining the value of the media rights as certain venues in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai, among others, help in better monetisation and also drive the aspirational value of the league.

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