Pro Kabaddi League media rights to be e-auctioned

The tender document for the media rights will be released on 25th February while the e-auction will take place on 6th April

by exchange4media Staff
Published: Feb 24, 2021 1:08 PM | 2 min read

Faced with franchise disenchantment, Star India-controlled Mashal Sports is planning to auction the media rights for Pro Kabaddi League. The organisers have set Rs 900 crore as the base price for the media rights auction. The media rights will be granted for a period of five years.

The tender document for the media rights will be released on 25th February while the e-auction will take place on 6th April. The organisers have formed an independent committee to oversee the e-auction. The franchises will get 80% of the revenue generated from the sale of media rights.

The decision to auction the media rights was taken after 12 team owners and current broadcast rights holder Star India failed to agree on the right price and revenue sharing formula, The Economic Times reports. Star India's offer to pay Rs 14-Rs 15 crore per year to each franchise for the next five years was rejected by the team owners who were seeking Rs 22 crore per year.

“We are going to conduct an e-auction for PKL. All the media rights – broadcast, digital, and gaming – will be auctioned. As it is a market-driven process, we feel there will be an immediate increase in the value of PKL, which is the second-largest league in the country after the Indian Premier League (IPL),” Anupam Goswami, the chief executive of Mashal Sports and league commissioner of PKL, told ET.

Pro Kabaddi is a ground-breaking initiative by Mashal Sports and Star India. Launched in 2014, the league is backed by the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), and supported by participating members of the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) and the Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF), the league has witnessed tremendous growth over the past seasons.