

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been a cash cow for sports—and sports broadcasters. A new report by investment bank JM Financial indicates that the media rights value of IPL has compounded at an impressive annual rate of 18 per cent in 15 years since the league began. This estimate is based on the latest valuation ($6.2 billion) of IPL’s media rights for the period of 2023-2027.
In contrast, the English Premier League (EPL), on which the IPL was initially modelled, has seen its media rights grow at 15 per cent CAGR over the past 30 years (1993-2023). And America’s National Football League (NFL) saw the value of its media rights increase at a CAGR of 10 per cent in 33 years (1990-2023).
While conventional math dictates that a younger league is likely to record sharper growth, JM Financial reckons that the IPL could actually grow the value of its media rights further even as it matures. And this growth will likely come from new and existing international territories as the game of cricket spreads its wings globally.
“To put things in perspective, EPL’s media rights value was driven by both domestic (20 per cent CAGR) as well as international rights (25 per cent CAGR) in the first 15 years since its launch (1993-2008). However, in the past 15 years (2008-2023), international rights (15 per cent CAGR) have driven growth even as the value of domestic rights has slowed down (7 per cent CAGR),” the investment bank stated in its report.
Cricket in global media rights
Despite IPL’s staggering growth, with the league now accounting for 60 per cent of total ad expenditure in the sport, cricket holds just a 3 per cent share of global sports’ media rights, lower than even US college sports.
But that is changing now.
According to JM Financial, “The emergence of T20 cricket and the subsequent mushrooming of T20 franchise leagues across the globe is changing that. Cricket’s annual global media rights value has risen from $0.5 billion in 2008 to $2 billion currently, driven largely by T20. IPL has led the way through its commercial success and has helped spawn multiple leagues across the globe.”
With Big Techs like Amazon, Apple, and Facebook showing interest in streaming sports, IPL — and other franchise cricket — is expected to find newer growth opportunities. Amazon has bagged the media rights for EPL games during Christmas, while Apple has bid for NFL’s Sunday Ticket rights. Facebook, meanwhile, made a failed bid for IPL’s digital rights for 2018-2022.
“Whatever be the intent, one thing is certain though. Sports media rights feature prominently in the plans of these tech giants. Given their reluctance to spend large sums of money to buy the primary media rights, IPL’s strategy to further slice the packages [like the BCCI did this year] should attract greater interest from these companies,” JM Financial added in its report.