BCCI sets the base price of Rs 33,000/- crores (4.38 Billion US Dollars) as base price for media rights - IPL 2023-2027

BCCI sets the base price of Rs 33,000/- crores (4.38 Billion US Dollars) as media rights for the next cycle of 2023-2027 editions of IPL. 

This is only the base price and the final bidding amount could be twice or even trice this amount. 

Don't be surprised if the final media rights amount touches the magical Rs 1,00,000/- crores for five years. That is a whopping 20,000/- crores for one-year media rights. 

According to "The Times newspaper" quote For the 2022 to 2025 rights cycle, The international deals will be worth UK£5.3 billion (US$7.1 billion), up 30 percent, while domestic deals bring in UK£5.1 billion (US$6.9 billion), with commercial partnerships taking the total to UK£10.5 billion (US$14.2 billion, Rs 1,00,707 crores) unquote. 

This is amazing. IPL with a limited footprint will challenge EPL, the behemoth. EPL is followed throughout the world and it had a headstart. EPL started in 1992 and IPL only in 2007. 

Even though started 15 years late, IPL has caught up. Remarkable marketing and it is astonishing to see how T20 cricket caught the imagination and pulse of the people. 

With so much money BCCI dictates the cricket world including bossing over the ICC. 

PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) must be green with envy. They can't get a pie from this cake and rubbing salt in the wound, their players are not even allowed to play! 

But so much money can harm the sport. For example, in soccer, the clubs dominate the scene, and club owners and managers reluctantly release the star players for national duty. 

In the coming years, we can expect IPL to be long drawn out affair like the EPL. Maybe 20 teams will participate (allow one team from each major city in India) and more money will roll in!. 

Make the players play 10 tests, 20 ODI, and 30 T20I per year in a 3 or 4-month window that BCCI will allow. I am sure all boards expect PCB will happily lap this offer and make even more money. 

According to "The Times newspaper" quote For the 2022 to 2025 rights cycle, The international deals will be worth UK£5.3 billion (US$7.1 billion), up 30 percent, while domestic deals bring in UK£5.1 billion (US$6.9 billion), with commercial partnerships taking the total to UK£10.5 billion (US$14.2 billion, Rs 1,00,707 crores) unquote.

This is amazing. IPL with a limited footprint will challenge EPL, the behemoth. EPL is followed throughout the world and it had a headstart. EPL started in 1992 and IPL only in 2007.

 Even though started 15 years late, IPL has caught up. Remarkable marketing and it is astonishing to see how T20 cricket caught the imagination and pulse of the people.

It is all about money honey.

exciting new times for tracking TV viewership

For a long time, TV viewership details were a lot of hocus pocus. It was imagination and conjecture. However, technology and cutting the cord by the young netizens has led to some fascinating insights. Many of us are exasperated by the antics of satellite channels who want to charge for every channel separately.

Now we have an option. We can shift to online streaming platforms. Hotstar live streams EPL and PKL, Sony Liv, is streaming India tour of West Indies and Australia tour of England.

The most exciting part is when live sports get streamed on Hotstar a ticker that shows the number of people watching the telecast at the exact point of time.

When India played New Zealand in the cricket world cup, the ticker went crazy, 13.5 million watched the contest that is a whopping 1.3 crore Indians!

However, the finals did not even get a fraction of that viewership. India rules online streaming platforms.

Last Sunday the blue boys of world football Manchester United played the Wolves, and only 65,000 Indians watched the match!

Today when Tamil Thalivars are playing Jaipur Pink Panthers in the Professional Kabbadi League (PKL) a whopping 6.14 lakh people are watching! In India, kabbadi is the second most liked sports, at least in the online platforms. 

Moreover, these are only preliminary matches and imagine what will happen when the PKL season progresses. In future, PKL will challenge Indian cricket and IPL in the popularity charts.

Wish that Sony Liv also gives us ticker details of the number of viewers watching the telecast. Very exciting for marketing professional and marketing teachers and analysts. These are hard dynamic stats getting displayed right in front of our eyes. Wow, I love it.

Manchester United, Arsenal, Tezer and Foosball - The heart of Ethiopian Games - Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post no - 21

(Continued from Blog post no - 20)

watching EPL match in a hotel

What do the Ethiopians get in return for the two birr they paid. They get to watch the live telecast and also get a free chilled coca (Coca-Cola). The regular price of the coke in the market too is two birr. So how do Ethiostar or the other hotels that extend the same service get benefited? Simply it’s the hotels’ way of paying back to the society. Most of the youngsters watching the live telecast are from the local community and they are literally the ears and eyes of that area.

And as we know that it is always better to be in friendly terms with the immediate environment in which a business operates. Coca-Cola missed out on building more good will. If Coca-Cola had added some Kolo or a Dabo Kolo, the good will would have increased by leaps and bounds. Delight the customer and make him the brand advocate for a life time!

Manchester United Fans, Ethoipia

But the rivalry that generates the maximum fun, enjoyment, and ribbing and sometimes even clashes and scuffles are the bi-annual matches that involve Manchester United and Arsenal. Manchester United and Arsenal are top notch Premier clubs that boast of fierce fans who are ready to do anything for their team.

Arsenal Fans and Flags 

Come Sunday and we have supporters coming with huge towels or flags with their team colours and logos  and they would boisterously support their own teams. The support for both teams was uniform and other wise close friends almost come to blows over a penalty missed or some injustice meted out to their teams. Arsenal was more popular than Manchester United as Arsenal had more black and players of African origin. Once I watched a Manchester United Vs Arsenal match in BDU auditorium and it will remain as one of the most enjoyable interactions with the football crazy Ethiopians.

Another interesting ethnic game that I saw being played is ‘Tezer’. In this game first a suitable pole is chosen. A long rope may be of two or three feet is firmly tied to the middle section of the pole. At the other end of the rope a small round ball made by a roll of plastic sheet shoved into socks is fixed. The rule of the game is that the players should not touch the rope to which the ball is tied. Also the ball should not touch their clothes. When kicked, if the ball finishes revolving around the pole unchecked by the player in the defender position, the player who kicked the ball will be a winner. I found the acrobatics involved in the game to be of very high calibre!

I should thank my student and now a distinguished faculty at department of accounting, BDU,  Dr. Elefachew Mossisa who has guided me in identifying this game and telling me its name. Betam Konjo (very Good) and ahmesugenalew  (thank you) . Also I should also thank Hider Ali, who has sent very old and rare photos.I will be use them later Hider. 

Of course fun loving Ethiopians also play the loud and very boisterously ‘foosball’. Ethiopians call it Joteni (thanks to Dr. Elefachew Mossisa again) . Table football, also called fuzboll and sometimes table soccer. Foosball is a table-top game that uses figures representing football players, fixed on rotating rods.  To begin the game, the ball is served through a hole at the side of the table, or simply placed by hand at the feet of a figure in the centre of the table. The initial serving side is decided with a coin toss. Players attempt to use figures mounted on rotating bars to kick the ball into the opposing goal. Expert players have been known to move balls at speeds up to 56 km/h (35 mph) in competition.

It is a very engrossing game, but tends to get very noisy. In the chilly evening breeze slightly tipsy Ethiopians and sometimes even foreigners engage and enjoy this maddeningly intoxicating ‘foosball”.

The world most beautiful game - Football and Ethiopia - Made for each other - Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post no - 20

Ethiopian Kids Playing Football

But the game that all the Ethiopians love is Football. For the slim built Ethiopians, playing football comes naturally. They play with anything including cloth rags rounded up as a ball. They can play football continuously and with great élan.  It was a truly fascinating seeing the agility, the body feints and dodges. Football and Africans are made for each other.

Waiting to Get inside 

The passion for football cuts across all demographics like age, class, ethnicity and gender. Ethiopia at that time in 2002 had a magic wand that made it popular with the football crazy Bahirdar residents. Ethiostar had a dish antennae that could beam Super Sports channel. 

EPL, English Premier League

Super Sports has the rights to beam live EPL (English Premiership league) matches. English Premiership League is an England based soccer league that features world class football stars who play for legendary football clubs. EPL is the 4^th most watched sports league in the world.  EPL matches are usually played on Saturday, Sunday and sometimes on Thursday.

IPL, Indian Premier League

According to the same post IPL (Indian Premier League) stands sixth in the list of most watched sports leagues in the world. And Indians should be proud of the fact that IPL is only ten years old whereas the other sports leagues have had a head start. If sheer number of people watching the sport on Television is taken as measure, IPL would be head and shoulder above the other leagues.  Millions of viewers watch matches across India and in many other countries. Many leading cricket players from other countries play in IPL and this had generated lot of spectator interest for IPL across the world.

One advantage India has is its population. Only China could have given it a run for its money. But China has wisely opted out of the race. India very soon will have the dubious distinction for being the most populous country in the world.

The per capita income of Ethiopians in 2000 was around three birr/day. That is slightly less than eighteen rupees. But most poor and underprivileged, earned between one and two birr per day. Before we all become teary eyed and sentimental, let us look at hard facts.

Let me work out the math for you. One birr had lot of purchasing power (one birr = 100 santims). For sixty santims one could get an Injira, fifteen santims could buy a Shai and at the end of the day with the 25 santims remaining, one could buy a glass of Talla (a yellow frothy ethnic Ethiopian beer)! Not bad!

So from an Ethiopian view point, a birr is a lot of money. On Saturday and Sunday, the locals come in hordes to Ethiostar. They dress nattily and are in joyous mood. They pay two birr (that is their one day salary) and get into the dining area and settle into the chairs. They patiently wait for an event that they anticipated for an entire week. Then the TV set flicks on and their favourite EPL match comes on - and it is LIVE. They start screaming, hollowing and enjoying themselves. This continues for the entire duration of the match.

Cloak and Dagger style functioning of IPL franchisees!

Laxshmipathy Balaji

Saurav Ganguly

Mohammed Kaif

 Can we blame the football and cricket players for all the bad things in EPL and IPL? They are only trying to maximize their earning capacity. We had the case of the Sri Lankan cricketers giving up on an English tour and playing in the IPL. Big players like Gilchrist, Hayden, Shane Warne have retied prematurely so that they can extend their careers and play in the lucrative IPL. The case of travel weary Australians landing up in various Indian cities to represent their franchises is reflecting the way things will shape out in the future. 

The first match of the IPL series four had an interesting side light. Harsha Bogle was interviewing Anirudha the Chennai Super Kings player and asked him whether the word traitor was mentioned when Laxmipathy Balaji was seen by CSK players. Why traitor? Poor Balaji played for CSK for three years and later went on to Kolkata Knight Riders for the fourth season.

Harsha was insinuating that Balaji being a local player has betrayed Chennai by playing for Kolkata. Come on Harsha you should know better. Poor Balaji I am sure did have a choice and had to take what was offered to him. We are not privy to any information as to whether it was Balaji who opted out or if was CSK who opted not to retain him. I am betting my bottom dollar that it was CSK who let Balaji go and not the other way round.  

The players are very small pawns in the entire IPL game. A player like Saurav Ganguly did not get a bid and Mohammed Kaif was only taken up only in the last minute. Pakistani players not even considered. They were not considered even when they won the 20 20 world cup! There were no instructions from BCCI but mysteriously none of the franchisees bid for even one Pakistani cricket player. And all the franchisees say that they are independent. Their functioning certainly does not merit such a claim.

IPL going the EPL way?

The way IPL is going things are getting very worrisome. The crassness of the entire thing is now frightening. More of that later. The thing that I am interested in whether commercialization helps the development of the sport in the country. Does hosting EPL and IPL and getting famous players to play in the country help the game of Football in England and Cricket in India. EPL is played in England and IPL is played in India. IPL is very new for any type of research.

So I took the case of the English Premier League. The league is so popular that In African Countries people wait for an entire week to see the clash between Manchester United and Arsenal and pay an astronomical amount to watch a live telecast. The league has billions of followers and is very lucrative. But has it benefitted the country that is England where the league is played? The League was started in the year 1992 and check out for yourself the English national team’s performance in all the FIFA football world cups from 1990.

FIFA worlds Cup               England Team performance

1990                                                       4th

1994                                                       DNQ (Did not qualify)

1998                                                       9th

2002                                                       6th

2006                                                       7th

2010                                                       13th

2014                                                       26th

2018                                                       4^th

England’s best performance came in the year 1990. That was in the year when there was no Premiership league. England did not even qualify for the 1994 world cup, Finished 9^th, 6^th, 7^th, and 13^{th in} the later world cups. They made it to the pre-quarter-finals on two occasions and quarterfinals in two other. Not very flattering for a country that boasts of the richest football league. In contrast, Brazil does not have a great football league but continues to produce the greatest footballers in the world.

So what did EPL achieve? Lots of money for the clubs, TV channels, and the players. The players have benefited so much all the footballers are any how famous, even their WAGS (wives and girl friends) too are featured in page 3 of major newspapers. But apart from this nothing else has been achieved. The footballers have become more loyal to their clubs than the country that they represent. There are occasions when the players have not been relieved from national duty by the club or have feigned injuries so that they don’t have to attend coaching camps for major national events.