With just two days left for the Indian Premier League (IPL) to begin, its management has decided not to sell rights to show its
matches on multiplex screens yet again. Multiplex players believe this is largely because the IPL organising committee was asking for a high minimum guarantee from prospective bidders and found no takers for such a business model.

When contacted, Indian Premier League CEO Sundar Raman told ET, “We are not looking at screening Indian Premier League matches on multiplexes this year.” While Mr Raman did not divulge reasons behind the decision, multiplex players believe it is a good business opportunity lost.

A senior executive with a Delhi-based multiplex chain, who did not wish to be quoted, said, “The IPL committee was asking for a very high price as minimum guarantee, in addition to revenue sharing arrangements. This is not a financially viable business model that multiplexes operate on.” He added that multiplexes can’t hike ticket prices significantly as that would not help in attracting volumes.

As per another senior executive with a company that was looking to bid for the multiplex distribution rights, IPL was looking at a minimum guarantee of Rs 35-45 crore and was awarding the distribution rights only for a year.

“Since the matches are happening in South Africa this year, it would have been an even bigger business opportunity for multiplexes, distributors and advertisers,” UFO Moviez CFO Kapil Agarwal said. The digital cinema solutions firm had evinced interest in providing back-end technology for live telecast of the matches at multiplexes. There were reports earlier that the IPL organising committee had called in bids to award multiplex distribution rights for showing live match feed. With the tussle between movie producers and multiplexes still continuing over revenue share, IPL matches could have brought the much-needed respite for multiplexes that are currently screening Hollywood and regional movies.
Source – economictimes.indiatimes.com