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IPL (Indian Premier League) has signed a new nine-year agreement with Multi Screen Media (MSM, formerly Sony) and World Sport Group (WSG), declaring the two as the Official Broadcast Partners of the Indian Premier League, up to 2017. The deal was closed at a whopping sum of Rs. 8,200 crore. With the second season of DLF-IPL starting from April 18, in South Africa, all the 59 scheduled matches would be brought live on SET Max, by MSM.
IPL had initially signed a deal with WSG-Sony for $1.026 billion, in 2008, for 10 years. The sum included $108 million that was mainly reserved for marketing and promotion. However, the cordial relationship between the entities went soar after breach of certain contractual obligations, which led to cancellation of the agreement by BCCI (BCCI had annulled the contract mainly due to the poor quality of broadcast last year and issues relating to ground sponsor rights).
Initially, MSM had moved to the court to seek an interim relief against the termination of its 10-year contract. However, even when the litigation was being filed, speculations were rife that the parties would enter into an out-of-court settlement, mainly because MSM had made a huge profit out of the inaugural IPL and had offered a much higher price to IPL. Nevertheless, the renewed agreement is sure to act as a healer on the wound.
WSG-Sony's last year bid, of Rs. 4,700 crore, was revised to the present Rs. 8,200 crore, after news arrived that DLF-IPL would hold its second edition in South Africa. As per the agreement made between IPL and MSM, the latter would share 80 percent of the revenue from the media rights in the first five years and 60 percent from sixth to tenth year. It is assumed that the surcharge faced by BCCI, from moving DLF-IPL overseas in the 2nd season, will be recovered from the media rights.
