The television rights to the competition were bought by broadcasting powerhouse Viacom 18 on Monday, a massive milestone for women’s cricket and notably the Women’s IPL (WIPL). Viacom 18 paid $116.7 million for the media rights to the WIPL for a five-year term (2023–2027), with an average match price of about $857,000. The competition will begin in March 2023 and is anticipated to be finished within a month.
After pay equity, today’s bidding for media rights for Women’s IPL marks another historic mandate
BCCI Secretary Jay Shah announced the historic agreement on Twitter and referred to it as a landmark mandate for the women’s game. “After pay equity, today’s bidding for media rights for Women’s IPL marks another historic mandate. It’s a big and decisive step for the empowerment of women’s cricket in India, which will ensure the participation of women of all ages. New dawn indeed!”
The winner was chosen by closed-bid auction. The media rights tender document, which was put up for sale last month, had been purchased by eight bidders. Viacom 18 will have access to linear (TV), digital, and combined media rights, in contrast to IPL media rights, which were split into separate categories and distributed to various broadcasters (TV and digital).
The Women’s T20 Challenge will be replaced by WIPL
After years of procrastination, the BCCI eventually agreed to approve the women’s edition of the IPL in October of last year. It’s anticipated that five teams will compete in the opening round. Owners of male IPL clubs including the Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Titans, and Punjab Kings are reportedly among those who have filed bids, according to various media reports.
The deadline for submitting technical bids for the same has been established by BCCI on January 23. The first player auction is anticipated to happen next month. The Women’s T20 Challenge, a two-team competition that began with just one game in 2018, will be replaced by WIPL. The next year, it expanded to a three-team exhibition event, and it also happened in 2020 and 2022. For a while now, women’s cricket has been on the verge of a significant transformation. WIPL is expected to revolutionize the women’s game, just the way IPL did for the men’s game.