agencies
NEW DELHI, Jan 17: The BCCI on Monday announced that Viacom 18 have grabbed the media rights for the upcoming Women's IPL for a whopping Rs 951 crore for five years after pipping other bidders, including Disney Star and Sony, in a closed-bid auction.
The auction for the T20 league was conducted by the cricket board in Mumbai on Monday. The inaugural Women's IPL is likely to begin in the first week of March. Five teams will compete and all the matches will be held in Mumbai.
The global rights comprise three categories - linear (TV), digital and combined (TV and digital) and Viacom 18 successfully bid for the combined rights.
In the men's IPL, separate rights are sold across regions.
"Women's cricket has been on the up since a few years and the recently concluded bilateral series against Australia is a great testament to how popular women's cricket has become in India," BCCI president Roger Binny said in a release issued by the board.
"It was only apt to get our own women's T20 league and give the fans more of women's cricket."
According to BCCI secretary Jay Shah, the fee per match will come to `7.09 crore for the next five years.
Viacom18 had won the IPL digital rights for Rs 23,758 crore while Disney Star had retained the TV rights for Rs 23,575 crore for a five-year period starting 2023 during a three-day auction held in June, 2022.
Some of the country's biggest stars in the women's game, such as national team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and senior opener Smriti Mandhana, lauded the BCCI after the big announcement.
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