Minutes after Star India was announced as the winner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the next five seasons on Monday, employees of the network were already feeling the pressure. To drive sales, with new, revised targets coming very soon. Whatever math Star India must have done to win these rights, across digital and television, for India and rest of the world, the total amount it has paid is eye-popping. At $2.55 billion. Or a massive Rs 16,347.5 crore. Or Rs 54.5 crore per IPL match.

As it turns out, Star India’s bid was approximately Rs 527.99 crore (or 3.3%) higher than the sum of all winning bids in individual categories (Rs 15,819.51 crore).

AUTHOR

Venkat Ananth

Venkat is currently in his tenth year in journalism. Prior to The Ken, he was Deputy Content Editor at Mint as part of the newspaper’s digital team. He also wrote in-depth features on the business of sport for the newspaper. His earlier assignments include Yahoo! (as a columnist) and the Hindustan Times, where he began his career. Born in Mumbai, Venkat holds a Bachelor of Mass Media (Journalism) degree from SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai and a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently resides in New Delhi, where he moved nearly five years ago.

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