Does this mean we won't get to watch it on ESPN next year?? T__T

IPL Season 2 - Everyone Happy with Its Share of Pie
Tuesday, 26 May 2009

The month long twenty-20 extravaganza has come to end and it is now clear that the shifting of venue could not affect IPL Season 2. Starting from the franchisers to the broadcasters and every single stake holder, IPL Season 2 ended in a happy note. Everybody including the champs and the finalist and also those who could not quite make it to the top layer - all of them seemed to manage higher revenues, thanks to a re-worked deal between BCCI and Multi Screen Media (MSM) that owns Sony channels.

Since the very beginning it was marred in controversies. Finally the tournament had to be relocated for security concerns. Those who predicted that Indian Premier League outside India will die like fish outside water are now left with eggs on their faces. For not only every stake holder has made a profit this year, they also managed to increase their revenues despite the increased logistic costs.

And not only the Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers that have made profits on the merit of their performance - every single team has been reported to have made a profit out of this year’s tournament.

Knight Riders, the team that finished off at the bottom of the league table, has managed to make the third-highest profit of Rs 25.8 crore in IPL Season 2. The highest profit maker of the season however, is Team Jaipur which has made a cool profit of Rs 35.1 crore at the second season of Indian Premier League.

The prize money for the winner is Rs 4.8 crore, Rs 2.4 crore for the runners-up and 1.2 crore each for the losing semifinalists; Rs 80 lakh for the team that finished fifth (Kings XI Punjab), Rs 70 lakh for the sixth placed (Jaipur), Rs 50 lakh for the seventh (Mumbai Indians) and Rs 40 lakh for the lowest one.

However, what has really helped the franchises accumulate such huge revenues is the sharing of the common pool of the broadcasting rights. According to the renegotiated contract with WSG, BCCI got about Rs 335 crore, which is straight 90% jump from the figure in the original contract that was signed for ten years.

BCCI’ s profit from last year’s IPL was Rs 350 crore, while Sony’s profits from ad-sales alone stood at Rs 270-280 crore for the last season. But this year, both the entities decline to divulge the exact figures. “We are yet to calculate the profits,” said a BCCI official from South Africa.

This year Sony has doubled its air-time rates to sell the 10 second spots for anything between Rs 3.75 lakh and Rs 4 lakh. While the MSM officials confirm the rise in the revenues, they too refuse to disclose the actual figure. “We have increased our revenues significantly over the last year, but can’t disclose figures,” MSM president (network sales) Rohit Gupta said.

However, it was the unlikely rise of the Royal Challengers to the prominence that sent the punters on tenterhook, while leaving the bookies all smiling. One bookie described the tournament as worse than race betting with no pre-tournament favorites having made it to the finals.

In all, over Rs 5,000 crore were exchanged during the championship, informs a bookie on condition of anonymity. With hardly any pre-tournament tips working in their favor, punters could make little money, while it was really the day for the bookies when Deccan Chargers beat the Royal Challengers in the final.

In a nutshell, it was Deccan Chargers that won the title, but each team tasted success-that is on the cash side.