Next IPL Media Rights: Can Z’s FIFA bet turn into a serious challenge to JioStar?

The next Indian Premier League media rights auction slated early next year could see a familiar name return to the bidding table, but under very different circumstances.

Punit Goenka-led Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, which was among the bidders in the landmark 2022 IPL media rights auction, could emerge as a potential challenger to incumbent JioStar for the 2028–32 cycle, observers said. 

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Z’s FIFA World Cup 2026 play, media rights acquired last minute but believed to be fairly successful, expansion of its sports portfolio and growing digital subscription proposition have given the broadcaster a considerably stronger sports proposition than it had during the last IPL auction.

While Z has not publicly confirmed its IPL strategy, insiders confirmed that the group would surely participate in the bid and await the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finalizing the structure of the next tender.

A senior Z executive, requesting anonymity, said, “We are willing to invest in premium sports where there is a strong opportunity to build a sustainable business. The IPL media rights, both TV and digital, are very much on our table.”

A senior JioStar executive, also speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that ZEEL could emerge as a bidder. “ZEEL has of late shown that it is serious about sports. If the BCCI creates more granular packages, it could bring more players into the auction,” the executive said.

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That possibility could make the upcoming auction more interesting than it currently appears. But the fundamental question is whether Z can — or would want to — challenge JioStar on the IPL at a time when the economics of the property are becoming tougher.

However, many industry experts believe JioStar remains well-positioned to retain the rights for the next cycle, given the financial muscle of the Reliance Group, its massive audience base and its experience in monetising the property across platforms. 

Z’s Sports Proposition

Zee's FIFA strategy has done more than put the broadcaster back into the sports conversation. It has given the company an opportunity to experiment with how premium sports can be monetised.

In June, Z announced a deal with FIFA covering 39 global football events through 2034, including the 2026 and 2030 FIFA World Cups and the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup. The company positioned the agreement as a strategic step towards building a diversified sports portfolio, with the events distributed across its Unite8 Sports channels and ZEE5.

The early World Cup numbers were encouraging. The company said the tournament reached more than 100 million viewers across its digital, linear and social platforms during the opening weekend, while ZEE5 recorded around six million viewers over the same period.

Read On: Punit Goenka hails FIFA partnership as milestone for football's growth in India

More importantly for the IPL conversation, Z experimented with a paid proposition around FIFA. The company offered dedicated ZEE5 subscription plans for the World Cup, with annual and quarterly options, while continuing to monetise the property through advertising and distribution.

Industry estimates peg that FIFA property could have generated over ₹450 crore revenue for the company through a combination of subscription, digital and linear advertising and incremental distribution. The estimate is an external analysis rather than a revenue figure disclosed by Z, but it highlights the significance of the experiment: premium sports can potentially be monetised through multiple revenue streams rather than advertising alone.

That approach is relevant to the IPL because Z would not be entering the next auction simply as a broadcaster looking for television inventory. It would be entering with a sports ecosystem spanning linear television, digital, subscription and distribution.

Z has also continued to add to that portfolio. In July, it secured exclusive Indian broadcast and digital rights to the Bundesliga for five years, with matches to be available on ZEE5 and Unite8 Sports. 

“However, FIFA and IPL are not comparable propositions in terms of audience behaviour, rights economics or advertising depth. The IPL is India's biggest premium sports property, with an established commercial ecosystem and a far higher ability to command rights fees. That makes the question around Zee less about whether it can build a sports business — it clearly is doing so — and more about whether it can justify the scale of investment required to acquire the IPL,” said a sports marketing expert. 

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Will IPL Economics Support More Challengers?

The biggest obstacle to a fresh bidding war may not be the appetite for IPL but the economics of IPL rights.

The current 2023–27 cycle fetched ₹48,390 crore, almost three times the ₹16,347 crore value of the preceding cycle. That sharp increase was driven by intense competition between Disney Star and Viacom18.

That competitive landscape has since changed fundamentally. The Disney-Star and Viacom18 combination has created JioStar, bringing the television and digital IPL rights under one corporate roof. The company therefore enters the next cycle with an existing IPL ecosystem across television, streaming and connected TV.

JioStar's performance during IPL 2026 illustrates the scale of that ecosystem. The company said cumulative reach crossed 1.06 billion screens, while average match reach grew 6% year-on-year. Connected TV emerged as the fastest-growing platform, with reach up 26% and consumption up 20%.

This matters because JioStar is not looking at the IPL purely as a rights asset. The tournament is embedded within a much broader TV, streaming, advertising and subscription ecosystem.

Media Partners Asia's assessment makes the challenge for any new bidder even clearer. Its 2025 report, cited by Business Standard, projects the 2028–32 IPL rights at around $5.4 billion — broadly flat against the current cycle. With the number of matches expected to rise to 94 a season, the implied value per match would decline by about 13%. The report also estimates that rights holders could face cumulative losses of more than $1.75 billion during the current cycle.

In other words, the next auction may not offer the same straightforward growth story that underpinned the 2022 bidding frenzy.

“Economics are going to be much more important this time. A bidder has to look at the entire monetisation stack — advertising, subscription, distribution and the value of the audience across screens — rather than just the prestige of owning IPL,” said a senior media executive familiar with sports rights.

This is where the BCCI's packaging strategy could become critical. As e4m reported recently, the board is believed to be considering whether the next IPL tender could have a more granular rights architecture, including a possible separate Connected TV proposition.