At $16.8 million per match, the IPL is only behind America's National Football League.
The broadcasting rights per match for the prestigious Indian Premier League (IPL) are the second most expensive among sporting league tournaments in the world.
At $16.8 million per match, the IPL is only behind America's National Football League (NFL), but ahead of the English Premier League (EPL), Spain's La Liga and the US' National Basketball Association (NBA) League, according to a report by Jefferies.
The rights per match for the American NFL, featuring 32 teams, stood at $36.8 million.
IPL's high value is helped by its duration -- the league is the shortest among those in the list, with only 60 days featuring 74 matches compared to the NBA and Major League Baseball (MLB) -- it packs in over 2,000 matches -- football leagues such as EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga that hold more than 300 games and NFL with over 250 games every season.
Secondly, IPL has been around for 16 years making it a much younger event compared to other global tournaments.
According to Jefferies, overall broadcasting rights' values grow with years. That is reflected in the fact that EPL broadcasting revenues have gone up 50 times from £60 million per annum in 1992 to £3 billion currently.
However, when it comes to annual broadcasting rights' value among the top sports leagues, the IPL is down at seventh place in the pecking order with NFL taking top honours.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
