Vivo bid 50% higher than their nearest rival to secure the title rights of IPL until 2022. ©BCCI

Vivo's bid for title sponsorship of the IPL, at INR 2199 crores [or about 340 million US dollars] is astounding, not just for cricket watchers but for those whose business it is to estimate value. Typically, bidders will work out what a rational bid should be, based on what their business objectives are and what competitors are likely to do. They must then, in a logical world, seek to find a number that can win them the bid by as small a margin as possible. Sometimes, as Vivo seems to have done, they will arrive at a number beyond which a rational bid is unlikely and then bid above that on the understanding that no one else will. That is a bid to win and that explains the staggering difference between Vivo's bid and the next best [Oppo bid INR 1430] and the fact that it is five times higher than their bid in the previous cycle.

Clearly they wanted it at any cost but even that doesn't explain bidding more than 50% higher than the rival bid which was the number that people in the know seem to have anticipated. It tells me that either the person who put down that number will face a few questions or that in India's consumer markets the IPL is seen as a more powerful vehicle than even hitherto imagined. It also tells me that they expect to sell a lot of mobile phones and that has implications for how content will be delivered to users.

I have been in the media for many years now but even I was bewildered, rather pleasantly dare I say, by the number of people watching the simple videos I do for Cricbuzz on their mobile apps. I mention this purely as an illustration of where we are headed but more than 140 million views is an indicator that the mobile phone is well on the way to becoming the primary screen to access content. A lot of others are reporting huge viewing numbers and the pattern forming suggests that the digital rights for the IPL will be colossal too. Live sport is one of the last bastions of traditional appointment viewing but even here Hotstar has reported a significant increase in the number of people watching cricket online. So while there will be an enormous bid for TV rights to the IPL, I am getting ready to be surprised by the size of the bid for digital rights.

Shortly after that, a couple of other rights will come up for renewal and that will tell us what the marketing people think of where cricket is headed. These people understand who is watching what and to that extent have a finger on the pulse of our game. Television rights to India's home internationals beginning 2018 will be sold soon and we will then know if anyone is interested in buying rights to overseas cricket coming in from traditionally strong territories like England and Australia.

The value of India's home internationals will be an indicator of how important Test cricket and One-Day Internationals are still perceived in an era where T20 is the biggest blockbuster. And the fact that no one has still bought rights to cricket from England and Australia [and remember we no longer see cricket from New Zealand] tells you that either there isn't a lot of money left or that they have fallen way down the pecking order. It isn't good news for other cricket playing countries because the money that Indian networks paid for their cricket was a big factor in their sustainability.

And so everyone is moving towards T20. England take their time over it but there is a revolution underway there and South Africa have just announced their own T20 league. Everyone is seeking to become self-sufficient and T20 is currently the hottest route to get there. But not everyone has the size, and the patronage, of India's cricket followers and outside of the IPL, it is still a bumpy ride for T20 leagues.

It isn't just India that is watching how networks bid for Indian cricket. Everyone is because the more money Indian cricket takes away, there is less available for other cricket. Vivo's IPL title rights bid is a stunning indicator of how corporate India is thinking about Indian cricket. It is good news for India but not so good for everyone else.

There will be much activity in cricket over the next twelve months and only some of it will be on the cricket ground.

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