Indian Premier League

Television rights

On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India's Sony Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League. The record deal has a duration of ten years at a cost of US$1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US$918 million for the television broadcast rights and US$108 million for the promotion of the tournament.

20 percent of these proceeds would go to IPL, 8 percent as prize money and 72 Percent would be distributed to the franchisees. The money would be distributed in these proportions till 2012 after which the share of IPL would go up.

Network Ten has bought the rights to show every game live in Australia on free-to-air television for the next five years at a cost of AU$10 - $15 million.

Setanta Sports have secured the television rights for UK and Ireland in a five-year deal. All 59 games will be shown on their subscription channels.

Dubai-based Arab Digital Distribution bought the rights to broadcast the IPL in the Middle East by securing a 10 year deal. Games will be broadcasted on ADD's ART Prime Sport, and will be available to viewers in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and Libya. Terms of the deal were not released.

Willow TV, Inc. has acquired the broadcasting rights to distribute on television, radio, broadband and Internet, for the IPL in North America.

SuperSport holds the broadcast rights in South Africa.

Sponsorship rights

Indian real estate developer DLF Universal secured exclusive rights to the Indian Premier League title sponsorship worth INR 200 crore (over US$50 million) for five years.

Hero Honda has been selected as an associate sponsor for five years in a deal worth US$22.5 million.

In addition, soft-drink giant Pepsi secured the title as the tournament's Official Beverage by signing a five year deal worth USD 12.5 Million. The proceeds of the latter are to be shared equally by the league's franchise owners.

Kingfisher Airlines has been named IPL's umpire partner with rights to advertise of umpire's clothes and also sponsoring third umpire decisions for five years. The deal is worth Rs.106 crores (appx. US$ 26.5 million).

All these revenues fall under the Central Pool, 40 percent of which will go to IPL, 54 percent distributed to franchisees and 6 percent to prize money. The money would be distributed in these proportions till 2017, after which the share of IPL would be 50 percent, franchisees 45 percent and prize money 5 percent.

Franchises

The winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on 24 January 2008. While the total base price for auction was US$400 million, the auction fetched US$723.59 million. The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows:

Franchise: Mumbai Indians
Owner(s): Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries Limited
Price (USD): $111.9 million

Franchise: Bangalore Royal Challengers
Owner(s): Dr. Vijay Mallya and UB group
Price (USD): $111.6 million

Franchise: Deccan Chargers
Owner(s): Deccan Chroniclep
Price (USD): $107 million

Franchise: Chennai Super Kings
Owner(s): India Cements and N Srinivasan
Price (USD): $91 million

Franchise: Delhi DareDevils
Owner(s): GMR Holdings
Price (USD): $84 million

Franchise: Kings XI Punjab
Owner(s): Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur)
Price (USD): $76 million

Franchise: Kolkata Knight Riders
Owner(s): Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta
Price (USD): $75.09 million

Franchise: Rajasthan Royals
Owner(s): Emerging Media: (Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram)
Price (USD): $67 million

Administration

Commissioner - Lalit Modi Born on November 29, 1963, Delhi, India, Lalit Kumar Modi has been the President of Rajasthan Cricket Association and Vice President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. He holds the position of Commissioner in the Indian Premier League. He is credited with the creation and success of the IPL. He is the scion of Modi Enterprises a 4000-crore group, the industrial conglomerate founded in 1933, it has interests in agro-chemicals, tobacco, tea and beverages, education, entertainment and marketing.

CEO - Sunder Raman Mr Raman joins IPL after having spent over a decade with the WPP group in India. Previously, he was the Managing Director of MindShare. He joins IPL with immediate effect. His wide experience includes strategic media thinking for some of the biggest brands in South Asia including Unilever, PepsiCo, Motorola, Samsung and Amex amongst others.

President – To Be Announced