The Viacom18 on Monday secured the Women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights value for 2023-2027 cycle for a total of Rs 951 crore.
Viacom18 bags WIPL media rights for 2023-27 cycle.
Viacom 18 on Monday grabbed the media rights for the inaugural five-year cycle for the Women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) as BCCI Secretary Jay Shah revealed the winning bid the colossal per-match value for the 2023-27 period.
After pay equity, today's bidding for media rights for Women's IPL marks another historic mandate. It's a big and decisive step for empowerment of women's cricket in India, which will ensure participation of women from all ages. A new dawn indeed! #WIPL @ICC @BCCIWomen
— Jay Shah (@JayShah) January 16, 2023
Taking to Twitter, Jay Shah revealed that the media rights were bagged with a winning bid of INR 951 crore, implying a per-match value of INR 7.09 crore. He hailed it as a “new dawn” in women’s cricket in India.
“Congratulations @viacom18 for winning the Women’s @IPL media rights. Thank you for your faith in @BCCI and @BCCIWomen. Viacom has committed INR 951 crores which means per match value of INR 7.09 crores for next 5 years (2023-27). This is massive for Women’s Cricket,” Shah tweeted.
“After pay equity, today’s bidding for media rights for Women’s IPL marks another historic mandate. It’s a big and decisive step for empowerment of women’s cricket in India, which will ensure participation of women from all ages. A new dawn indeed!” he added.
The Network 18-owned media house has also secured the digital rights to the Men’s IPL for the same cycle, as well as the ongoing SA20 League in South Africa.
“I would like to congratulate Viacom18 for bagging the media rights for Women’s IPL for the period of 5 years,” BCCI president Roger Binny said. “Women’s cricket has been on the up since a few years and the recently concluded bilateral series against Australia is a great testament to how popular women’s cricket has become in India.”
“It was only apt to get our own women’s T20 league and give the fans more of women’s cricket. I would also like to congratulate the BCCI leadership and its workforce for a successful media rights process and wish them the very best for the first edition of the Women’s IPL.”
The inaugural season of the Women’s league will be a five-team double round-robin tournament, tentatively scheduled for March 2023.
The BCCI, as earlier reported by Cricbuzz, will conduct the auction for the WIPL franchises on January 25 and Manchester United group are one of the foreign parties to have confirmed an interest in owning a side.