The upcoming 2028-32 cycle for Indian Premier League media rights is expected to be flat at $5.4 billion, Media Partners Asia projects, indicating that the lucrative sport is “approaching a structural ceiling.”
IPL rights have grown for two decades, MPA says in The IPL: Teams, Rights & Valuations, reaching $5.4 billion in the 2023-27 cycle. While 2028-32 will be flat, media rights will be down 13% per match, from $13.2 million to $11.5 million, following the expansion to a 94-match format.
“The Viacom18-Disney merger that created JioHotstar has eliminated the primary source of competitive tension,” MPA said.
MPA further projects that IPL rights holders face cumulative losses of $1.8 to $2 billion across the current cycle. Ad revenues were up 7% this cycle, versus 18% in the last one. Media rights now account for 75% of total IPL franchise revenues, up from 48% in 2017.
Mihir Shah, VP for India at Media Partners Asia, noted, “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. 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 monetization. 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.”
