IPL franchises to earn Rs. 150 crore each next season

Indian Premier League (IPL), since its inception, has been termed a ‘cash-rich’ league and it is again hinting to bring some more money. BCCI has decided to award media rights on September 4 and its profits would be enjoyed not only by the board but also by the franchises. The eight franchises of the league are set to earn Rs 150 crore at least even before the extravaganza begins.

As far as estimates are to be believed, the media rights for television and digital coverage of the IPL is expected to amass at least Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 14,000 crore for the period of next five years from 2018 to 2022. The title sponsors Vivo has committed a huge amount of Rs 2199 crore with few official partners which is expected to garner around Rs 700-800 crore. All this would surely increase the revenue stream of the board by Rs. 15,000 crore over the period of 5 years.

Team owners react

BCCI would be sharing 40% of the amount (around Rs. 1200 crore) among the eight IPL franchises who will compete for glory in the next year. Expectedly, the team owners look elated with the profits they will make and expressed their happiness.

“At the given cost structure, all the teams will comfortably break even next year. If the player cost doesn’t increase much, the profits will be upwards of Rs 50 crore,” said a top executive of an IPL franchise to Economic Times. Kings XI Punjab owner also had his say on the news. He said, “We are hoping that the central revenue pool will be significantly higher next year. So a higher revenue pool will only help if the cost also does not increase much.”

Venky Mysore, the CEO of Kolkata Knight Riders, was calculative in his approach and believed that the health of the franchise should be independent of central revenue. “Yes, the central revenue pool will see an increase, but I don’t want to be presumptuous on what that number will be. “It will make a lot of franchises profitable, but the way we see, the health of a franchise has to be independent of central revenue. One has to build a brand and a fan base, which ensures good valuation,” the CEO said.