Women’s IPL: Viacom18 bags historic WIPL media rights at Rs 951 Cr for next five seasons

There is a layer of excitement among fans with the upcoming inaugural season of the Women’s IPL which is set to take centre stage from this year onwards.

On 16 January, Monday, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah tweeted that the media rights for the first five years of the forthcoming Women’s IPL have been won by  Viacom 18.

The Viacom18 team has made the winning bid at INR 951 crore, which is INR 7.09 crore per game for the years 2023–2027 and thus won the media rights a ( i.e., Global Television Rights and Global Digital Rights) as confirmed by the BCCI.

On this occasion, Roger Binny, the president of the BCCI, said:

 “I would like to congratulate Viacom18 for winning the media rights for Women’s IPL for a term of five years.”

The Women’s IPL presently holds the second-highest media rights contract in the world, behind the WNBA ($35 million per season across its domestic broadcast partners, including $25 million from ESPN), at $23 million each season.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah shares his views

Inaugural WIPL to see a double round-robin tournament

With a tentative to take stage in March 2023, the inaugural season of the Women’s IPL will see a five-team double round-robin tournament. The auction for the WIPL franchises will take place on January 25 as confirmed by the BCCI.

With multiple IPL franchises having shown interest in buying a WIPL team, the Manchester United group is rumoured to have shown interest in owning a side. The BCCI have informed that the last date for the players to register their names is January 26 for the historic auction that is set to take place in February.

This is going to be a huge moment in Indian Women’s cricket history. Cricketing nations like Australia, England etc already have women’s leagues running in their country. Now, with the commencement of the inaugural Women’s IPL in India, this will indeed be a huge boost in the development if women’s cricket in India and also World Cricket.

Few months back, the BCCI had announced equal pay for women’s cricketers as to the men’s cricketers which was another milestone in the path of development.