IPL media rights growth looks set to stall at US$5.4bn as market dynamics shift

The Indian Premier League’s (IPL) broadcast rights are expected to plateau in the next media cycle, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA), signalling the end of a two-decade growth streak that transformed the competition into one of the most valuable properties in global sport.

The IPL’s media income has risen six-fold since the tournament launched in 2008, powered by India’s surging appetite for live cricket and the competition’s ability to command premium attention across television and digital platforms. In 2025, the league again demonstrated its scale by reaching more than one billion viewers across JioStar’s linear and digital ecosystems.

That momentum peaked in the current 2023-2027 cycle, when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) split the rights into separate television and streaming packages for the first time. Disney Star secured the domestic TV rights for US$3.02 billion, while Viacom18 won the streaming rights for US$3.05 billion, taking the combined value to more than double the previous arrangement.

But MPA’s latest study, The IPL: Teams, Rights & Valuations, projects the 2028-2032 cycle will remain flat at US$5.4 billion. If the BCCI proceeds with plans to expand the tournament to 94 matches, that would also reduce per-match value by 13 per cent, from US$13.2 million to US$11.5 million.

The implication is significant: the IPL’s rights market is no longer being propelled by the same competitive forces that produced the record 2022 auction. That auction created an intense bidding war and pushed the league’s per-match media value into second place globally, behind only the National Football League.

Since then, the market has changed materially. Disney Star and Viacom18 have merged to form JioHotstar, removing the rivalry that helped inflate pricing in the previous cycle. At the same time, broadcasters are carrying estimated losses of US$1.8 billion to US$2 billion across the current rights term, limiting their appetite for another aggressive escalation.

Advertising conditions are also softening. Restrictions on lucrative categories such as real-money gaming and crypto have reduced the IPL’s monetisation potential, while ad revenue growth has slowed to seven per cent annually over the last three seasons, down from 18 per cent in the prior cycle.

“The IPL has created extraordinary value over two decades, but the conditions that drove that growth are now shifting in ways that are structurally consequential,” said Mihir Shah, vice president of India at MPA.

“The rights reset in 2028 will not be a correction to be absorbed and forgotten. It marks the beginning of a period in which franchise value creation depends on building the non-media revenue base, focusing on sponsorship, international presence and digital monetisation.

“Owners and investors who are pricing franchises today on current Ebitda multiples need to factor in both the rights cycle headwind and the concentration risk it implies. The window at current multiples may be shorter than the market assumes.”

For franchises, the shift is especially important because media rights now represent 75 per cent of total team revenues, up from 48 per cent in 2017. Non-media income has grown at a 22 per cent annual rate since the Covid-19 pandemic, but from a much smaller base, leaving clubs heavily exposed to any slowdown in central rights growth.

That exposure is already influencing valuation activity. MPA notes that franchise stake sales are accelerating as investors reassess upside potential beyond 2028. Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals have both been linked with sale processes, with bids for the former expected to approach US$2 billion. Rajasthan Royals was reportedly sold this week for around US$1.63 billion to a consortium led by US entrepreneur and existing team shareholder Kal Somani.

The last IPL franchise to change hands was Gujarat Titans, after Torrent Group agreed in February to acquire 67 per cent of the team from CVC Capital Partners for a reported US$575 million.

The broader takeaway is that the IPL is entering a more mature commercial phase. Rights values may no longer be compounding at the pace investors have come to expect, and future growth will depend less on the next media auction and more on how effectively teams and league stakeholders diversify revenue, deepen sponsor demand and convert digital scale into sustainable profit.

As platforms multiply, audiences fragment and media rights deals plateau, the economics of elite sport are being rewritten. Understanding where value is now being created has never been more important.