Viacom18 dethrones Disney-Star to become India’s No 1 sports destination

Disney-Star is no longer the favourite sports destination of Indians. Sports18 and JioCinema is the new King of sports broadcasting in India. With Viacom18 bagging BCCI Media Rights for Rs 5,963 Cr, it now has all premier sports properties. JioCinema already holds the Indian Premier League (IPL Digital Rights) besides FIFA World Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, NBA, La Liga and Summer Olympics among others.

On Thursday, in the e-auction held in Mumbai, Viacom18 pipped Disney-Star and Sony Sports to bag the BCCI Media Rights. Viacom18 secured TV rights for India’s home matches for Rs 2,862 Cr and digital rights for Rs 3,101 Cr for five years. Disney-Star secured the rights in 2018 for Rs 6138.1 Cr.

Also Reads: Viacom18 seals both TV & digital rights in BCCI media rights auction

With that, Disney-backed Star Sports now have lost momentum in India. Even though it holds IPL TV rights besides ICC Media Rights, the absence of premier sports content throughout the year on its OTT platform makes it lose the No 1 spot.

No show by Disney-Star

What’s interesting is, in Thursday’s auction, Disney-Star was a silent spectator. What should have been a three-way fight, ended up as a straight contest between Sony and Viacom18 as Diseny-Star did not even put out a bid.

The reason? The California-headquartered company was not interested in further investment in cricket. It already holds ICC Media Rights which it will sub-license to Zee.

Until last year, Disney-Star had a monopoly in the global cricket market, especially in India. However, the loss of IPL Digital rights and subsequent loss of HBO shows on Disney+ Hotstar meant, it has lost a lot of subscribers. With no regular cricket content on the OTT platform, Hotstar has seen a decrease in subscribers.

“Disney-Star has consistently maintained that it will participate in any bid for sports properties only to the extent that it makes business sense. Declining viewership, a jaded format and the absence of key players for many matches may have made them take a call that it was best to let the BCCI bilaterals rights go,” Cricbuzz quoted an industry source.

Innovation behind BCCI Media Rights:

What works in Viacom18’s favour is the price which it will pay for BCCI Media rights. Viacom18 will shell out Rs 67.8 Cr per match for 88 games in the next five years. Disney-Star paid Rs 61.38 Cr per game back in 2018. That is only an increase of just Rs 6.32 Cr per game. Viacom18 will begin its journey with India vs Australia ODI series in September.

Congratulations @viacom18 🤝 for winning the @BCCI Media Rights for both linear and digital for the next 5 years. India Cricket will continue to grow in both spaces as after @IPL, and @wplt20, we extend the partnership @BCCI Media Rights as well. Together we will continue to…

— Jay Shah (@JayShah) August 31, 2023

However, more than financial muscle, it is Viacom18’s innovation that stands out. It became the first platform to offer 4K live streaming of sports matches in India. Furthermore, with multiple camera angles and live commentary in 11 languages, JioCinema managed to woo viewers. The broadcaster also managed to rope in some of the top broadcasters as well as commentators and experts for all disciplines. Despite offering all of that, it still made it free for all, capturing the market.

While JioCinema did suffer server lag and frequent crashes initially during IPL, it rectified those issues later on to offer viewers a smooth experience.