Friday, March 26, 2010

IPR in the IPL: Further updates

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This post updates the following posts:


The third edition of the IPL has brought further moolah to all -- but most of all, to the BCCI itself. Consider: 
  •  Two more team franchises (Pune, Kochi) were auctioned, and fetched a price of $703 Mn (Rs.3200 crores) -- just a shade below what all the 8 teams fetched two years earlier.
  •  The main, domestic TV rights have been auctioned for about Rs.8,700 crores.
  • Mobile application rights for the next 8 years have also been sold this year for an undisclosed sum, to DCI Mobile Studios (a division of Dot Com Infoway Limited), in conjunction with Sigma Ventures of Singapore.
  • This year, BCCI sold broadcast rights to Youtube (Google) and to Britain's ITV.
  • Even the right to run and operate the official website of the tournament is www.iplt20.com has been sold and the minimum guarantee has been negotiated at US $50 million over 10 years.
  • In Britain, 0.5 million people are reported to have watched the IPL3 opening game alone, while 42 million people watched in India.
  • That it is an unparalleled marketing bonanza become clear when you see that women are estimated to comprise 38% of viewers and a full 45% are between ages of 15-35, the "spenders".
  • Some teams that have been promoted incessantly (like Shah Rukh Khan's KKR) have already become profitable, while others are still making a loss, smarting from the sudden shifting of IPL2 to South Africa for security reasons, leading to inability to earn revenues from ticket sales of home stadia. 
  • However, team owners are happy because they have been more than compensated in other ways -- the valuation of the IPL, and consequently of each team franchise, has skyrocketed. The IPL itself is valued at $4.13 Bn and there are reports of team owners who bought a franchise for under Rs.300 crores is looking for selling their stake for Rs.920 crores after just two years. Also, at least one team finds team ownership and other sponsorships as an ideal vehicle for surrogate advertising of liquor brands (liquor is not allowed to be directly advertised).
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