Media Rights Auction, new teams make the Indian T20 League, a Decacorn

The valuation of the Indian T20 League outshined $10 billion in the calendar year 2022, as per reports. Since 2020, the weight of the league has leapt 75 per cent in dollar terms from $6.2 billion to $10.9 billion. When it comes to the Indian currency ‘Rupees’ it jumped 90 per cent.

The valuation of the Indian T20 League, as per “Beyond 22 yards” launched by D & P Advisory, increased in the initial stage by the $6.2 billion sale of media rights and auction of two new franchises namely Gujarat and Lucknow. The two new teams combinedly have a value of $1.6 billion.

"On a constant currency basis, the value of the Indian T20 League would have been close to $12 billion. However, the currency depreciation of 10-12 per cent has taken away the value of the Indian T20 League media rights in USD terms," Santosh N, managing partner of D and P India Advisory Services quoted.

In the present year’s auction, the media rights were divided for the first time between separate rights holders. The Television rights of the League went to Disney Star for Rs 23,575 crore and the digital rights went to Viacom18 for Rs 23,758 crore.

There is another aspect that led to the rise in valuation was the rise in the number of matches in the upcoming season from 74 to 94. That always means more ticket sales and stadium revenue. The valuation of the current teams is somewhere around the value of $400-$600 million. 

"There could be some outliers like certain franchises would be above or below, depending on the franchise we are talking about. However, most teams would be sitting in that range," Santosh N added.

The capability of media rights owners to spend higher amounts of money in future auctions, according to Santosh N, will rely on the kind of monetisation of the 2023 year’s cycle.