The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is targeting massive profits for the LA 2028 Olympics broadcast rights in India as the game makes a grand comeback after 128 years. This is a huge opportunity for the IOC to increase revenue and also make the game more popular in other continents apart from Asia and Africa.
For the unversed, cricket will be played in the LA 2028 Olympics in a T20 format, with only six Men's and Women's teams participating in the global event based on the ICC T20 Team Rankings. However, there is no official word on qualification teams, IOC is vying for a huge interest in the bidding process. It has already issued a tender for the broadcast rights in India.
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“The sport that the Indian population cherishes the most is cricket. I think we’re here in a place where this is a game-changer not just for India, but it’s also a game-changer for the Olympic movement,” said Anne-Sophie Voumard, Managing Director of Television & Marketing Services of the IOC, told CNBC-TV18.
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IOC aiming to replicate massive IPL 2025 success, as tender of broadcast submitted
For the unversed, the IPL 2025 broadcast deals were a huge success as cricket has seen an unprecedented rise in broadcasting for the last five years. The last IPL was sold for a staggering 48,390 crore. Also, for the first time ever, IPL media rights were sold in two different baskets TV and digital. Viacom bagged BCCI's domestic media rights for 5963 crore, while Disney-Star got hold of ICC media rights for around 24000 crore.
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For a long time, cricket's impending return to the Olympics was in the pipeline. Several discussions have taken place between the IOC and ICC. After a lot of deliberation, the IOC decided to include cricket in the LA 2028 Olympics. Part of it is also due to IPL's huge success in India and globally. Sony is set to compete for the LA 2028 Olympics media rights along with Disney-Star.
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“Bringing cricket back into the Olympic sports program basically creates a new cricket competition. So whoever is going to be the winner of that bid will be bringing to the Indian fans, for the first time ever, cricket back into the games. So that’s our historical moment,” Voumard said.
