It was historical in the way Star India pipped Sony to bag the digital and TV rights to broadcast Indian Premier League 11. They bagged the rights with a whopping Rs 16347.50 crore bid. It was Star, who outbid current broadcaster Sony’s bid of Rs 11058. At the outset, there were 24 bidders in the fray with some of the biggest names featuring on that list. However, only 14 of the 24 names turned up with their respective bids, which meant that there was no participation by the likes of Yahoo, Amazon and ESPN digital. But it was Star, who were well prepared with their documents and they ruled the roost at the bid.
Just after the successful bid, chairman of Star India, Uday Shankar spoke to the media and said, “We believe the IPL is a very powerful property, and we believe there is lots more value that can be created for fans of cricket on digital and TV.”
“We would remain committed to ensure the growth of sports in this country continues to be driven by the power of cricket,” he further added.
In 2008, with a bid of 8200 crores, Sony Pictures Network had won the IPL media rights for a duration of 10 years. Here is how Twitter made a joke on this as well.
Star Sports Wins #IPLMediaRights. Good News. Now Sony Can Play #Sooryavansham Without Any Disturbance. Aur Kitne Acche Din Chahiye? ___
— mahendra singh dhoni (@suresh_jani29) September 4, 2017
There goes the broadcasting rights of IPL #IPLMediaRights pic.twitter.com/E4m8TqREXj
— Archer (@asianarcherr) September 4, 2017
No more Hindi non sense pre-innings talks,
No more Bollywood b-grade movie promotions,
Good thing happend for @IPL finally_#IPLMediaRights pic.twitter.com/Evc2xmMF2v— BrainFaden Smith (@brainfadesmith) September 4, 2017
Sony execs after losing #iplmediarights to Star pic.twitter.com/291RruO4Jt
— cricBC (@cricBC) September 4, 2017
Every over bowled in @IPL henceforth will be worth Rs 1.35 crore! #IPLmediarights https://t.co/Mw97qAuiwG
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) September 4, 2017
So Suryavansham jokes after IPL final will come to an end. #iplmediarights @gauravkapur
— Shubham Singhal (@shubh1606) September 4, 2017
Sony be like #iplmediarights pic.twitter.com/uP58TdESgH
— Dhananj Modi (@modi_dhananj) September 4, 2017
In a lighter vein, @ 16000 crore INR, #IPLMediaRights value is equal to GDP of Maldives and MORE than GDP of Bhutan __ #IPL __
— Lalit Kumar Modi (@LalitKModi) September 4, 2017
*Meanwhile Reaction of Set Max*#IPLMediaRights pic.twitter.com/s2p9LomoFP
— BAWAL _ (@BawalHuMe) September 4, 2017
After all of this, we just hope the fans have a gala time at the Summer of Indian cricket, Indian Premier League 2018.
