Viacom18 has bagged the BCCI's TV & Digital media rights for bilateral India matches on home turf for the next five years, sources told e4m. The rights, say sources, have been acquired for Rs 5966.4 crore (TV& Digital combined) for 102 matches. The e-auction for awarding the rights was conducted on Thursday.

In the digital category, Viacom18 bid Rs 3101 crore and another Rs 2862 crore for television rights. Disney Star and Sony's bids remain unconfirmed.

According to a source, the number of matches will increase from 88 to 102.

Congratulating Viacom18, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah tweeted, "Congratulations @viacom18 ? for winning the @BCCI Media Rights for both linear and digital for the next 5 years. India Cricket will continue to grow in both spaces as after @IPL, and @wplt20, we extend the partnership @BCCI Media Rights as well. Together we will continue to capture the imagination of ??cricket fans."

Viacom18 won the rights against Disney Star and Sony Sports, which were the only other participants in the auction.

The base price set by the cricketing board per game for TV was Rs 20 crore while for digital it was Rs 25 crore. Experts had expected the final price to be 30-40% above the base price per match.

With this, Viacom18 will be the official broadcaster of India matches on home turf for the period of 2023-28.

The rights were earler with Disney Star. "Also a big thank you to @starindia @DisneyPlusHS for your support over the years. You played a key role in making India Cricket reach its fans across the globe," Shah tweeted.

Meanwhile, NP Singh, MD & CEO, Sony Pictures Networks India, too congratulated BCCI and Viacom18.

"We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the BCCI for a transparent and efficient e-bidding process and to the winners for securing the bilateral media rights. Our disciplined bid was grounded in market forecasts and a long-term growth strategy. We remain committed to delivering top-tier sporting entertainment as we continue to see growing enthusiasm across various sports genres,” said Singh.

According to Elara Capital’s Karan Taurani, this win is Viacom18m’s first large-scale sports acquisition for TV.

He said that the premium for these media rights is much lower than the last cycle as ad environment remains volatile.

“Overall premiums (vs earlier cycle) for these rights been much lower vs IPL due to lower number of T20 matches, less interest in bilateral matches with a large tournament like IPL garnering interest on home grounds already, lesser number of platforms bidding for the same and a poor ad environment over the last one year.

“IPL had attracted a premium of 117% on a per match basis vs it’s last cycle price, whereas these rights have come at a premium of mere 13% on a per match basis  vs it’s last cycle’s price,” he said.

Also, in this case, the cost of per match on digital has surpassed cost of per match on TV , as digital is 8% higher on a per match basis; in the case of IPL - TV and digital were largely on par on a per match basis.