IPL enters its 10th year in 2016. It coincides with the advent of 4G in Indian markets. There are digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Reliance Jio. They compete to acquire the digital rights of the IPL for a five year period starting from 2017. It clearly shows that there is appreciation of the fact that the way IPL will be watched in the future is going to change. This trend was visible in 2016 itself when fans watched 140 million videos on the Facebook pages of the IPL and the eight teams. There were 10.6 million tweets. IPL was the biggest social media event for a period of seven weeks it was played. Over the next few years, we can expect live content streaming off behind-the-scenes action, questions and answers with players and live tweets by players on social media platforms.

These matches could be live streamed by Facebook. They could be part of the Amazon Prime offering. It is a huge business opportunity. More people will watch the sporting events with the roll out of 4G. They may watch on smart phones and tablets. This could reduce the advertising revenue of the TV channels in future.

The BCCI can expect a windfall in the media rights for the next cycle of IPL starting 2018. A total of 18 companies have picked up tender documents by October 18, 2016. The application is a universal document on which the applicants can choose to bid for digital and/or TV rights for a chosen territory.