The IPL Media Rights Value Will Double Again In The Next Cycle: Lalit Modi

Days after the BCCI bagged a whopping amount of over Rs 48,000 crore for the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the 2023-27 cycle, former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, in an exclusive interview to NDTV, said the IPL will become the No. 1 sports league in the world.

The former chairman of the cash-rich cricket league added that he believes that IPL media rights valuation will double again in the next cycle.

I Always Said That IPL Is Recession-Proof: Lalit Modi

The viewership is now probably the highest in the world in terms of the number of people watching and the eyeballs getting attracted to the game. I have always maintained, and everybody laughed at me, that IPL is recession-proof.

“It really is coming out to be true. We have got newer and newer fan bases joining in. But we have to be careful going forward. Because the younger age group is mostly on digital, that is why the digital rights have gone up tremendously in price but their experience has not been so good in India today,” Modi told NDTV.

Modi was the IPL’s first chairman and commissioner. From 2008 to 2010, he played a key role in the league’s management. From 2005 to 2010, he served as a vice-president of the BCCI.

“It is the fan base that has done it (increase IPL’s valuation). I have always said that in three or four years it will double. The price of IPL will continue to double. If you look at all my interviews from 2008, I said that IPL value will double in terms of media rights.

“It has gone up by 98 per cent from the last cycle. From the last cycle to this cycle is 98 per cent and I am telling you going forward in the next cycle, it will double again,” Modi said.

Modi fled India in 2010 amid claims of tax cheating, money laundering, and proxy ownership, and has spent the following few years in London. He allegedly influenced the process of granting IPL broadcast rights in 2009 in exchange for a bribe of over 125 crores, according to the Enforcement Directorate.

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