Cricket Media Rights to reach astronomical USD 2 billion figure by 2021

All About rights and Royalty: The Cricketing Economy surges like hurricane

TV rights were never expected to have played such a dynamic role in Sports economics when the concept first came into serious consideration during the 1996 World Cup. Jagmohan Dalmia realised its potential and brought big players like Star and Sony to give this domain some financial influx and impetus.

5 years ago, if a finance and media planning expert used USD 2 billion tag for anything related to media rights, we would have laughed upon his estimation skills. But yes that's true, according to a new report in reputed analysis and data firm Media Partners Asia (MPA) the global media crossed the USD 1 billion mark last year and is set to reach USD 2 billion figure by 2021.

Smartphones and digital devices were reported to be key fuelling agents for this massive growth. Apart from that, cricket clubs and the focus on women and youth cricket were also found to be a major factor responsible for the growth in this sector.

Image credit: Flickr

"Cricket is Asia's biggest sport in terms of viewership and has successfully absorbed three different game formats. Audiences and fans have moved rapidly to shorter formats, allowing new avenues for monetization as digital distribution accelerates. Cricket boards now need to harness new audiences and markets as digital content formats open up for monetisation," said Vivek Couto, executive director, MPA after releasing the report.

In the first three weeks of IPL 2019, more than 267 million viewers watched the matches via Hotstar. Fantasy gaming and VR has also enhanced user experience inviting more youngsters into the arena. The report also highlighted that a calendar with appropriate and exclusive windows for club T20s and international cricket can grow all game formats.

Cricket Boards selling media rights for multi-million figures is also linked to the increasing popularity and craze of T20 leagues. The report could be used by Media platforms as it gives indicators to evaluate future valuations of all facets of Cricket Media Rights.

Bottom Line

The MPA report says three key markets – India, Australia and England – accounted for 90 per cent of the value of cricket's global media rights in 2018. Despite a slump in audiences for Test cricket in stadiums media rights continue to rise.

ICC CEO David Richardson had said in 2016 that media outlets were resistant to the concept of two-tier Test cricket as the context was a continuing challenge. Today they are fighting like rats to impact the business model of content consumption in the second most popular sport on the globe.