Q. What is the strategic thinking behind the acquisition of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)?
The Times Group’s entry into cricket has been a bit sideways relative to others. We've been building it up over the last 10 years in different ways. Our first foray was when we bought the digital rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2011. So, 15 years later, we went from the rights side to the ownership side. But we've been close to the IPL for a long time. [After the rights], we acquired Cricbuzz, a global news site for cricket; we bought Willow TV, which is the major broadcaster for cricket in the US, Canada, Middle East, Southeast Asia. We started Major League Cricket about five to six years ago. And then I was part of the consortium that bought the London Spirit team in The Hundred [UK’s domestic T20 franchise league] about a year ago. We’ve been doing everything around the IPL, but, inevitably, all roads point to the mainstay. Historically, there have not been many controlled transactions in the IPL. The last few were the expansion teams. When there was this unique window where there were two controlled transactions happening in parallel, it was an important opportunity and a time for us to put our hat in the ring.
Q. How did the four of you—Aditya Birla Group, The Times of India Group, Bolt Ventures, Blackstone-backed investors—come together to form the consortium?
We'd all been speaking. Everyone who was looking at the process seriously was talking to each other in some form or another over the past few months. But ultimately, you find partnerships that work well and ones that won't. The Times of India Group and the Birlas have a long relationship, so there's enormous trust and credibility. Meanwhile, David Blitzer and the Bolt team had been keen on and looking at the IPL for a while. And, in that process, our paths crossed. Blackstone was very much looking at the process, and we had spoken to them pre-bid, post-bid, very early in the process and then as it went on. For them to make their first sports investment in partnership with us is really humbling but also a testament to the opportunity.
Q. So, all of you were involved in conversations, but when did you decide to bid for the same team?
In different ways, we were all looking at both Rajasthan Royals and RCB. When it became clear that there was an opportunity for RCB on terms that we thought made sense, it was maybe a week before we finally closed that we all stitched together a quick partnership idea between us all.
Q. What were the points of consensus that brought the four of you together?
The core point of consensus is we all believed in the IPL. You have different views and pros and cons of each team in the IPL. But we all knew RCB was the crown jewel asset. It was very rare that something of that nature could be available. When we felt like there was something that we could do at a price that we thought made sense, we all jumped at it.
Q. How did you arrive at that value that won you RCB?
Usually, you have an upper threshold and you see if you can get it done within that. The valuations in all of this… there's not a lot of great science there. There's some science, but it's a mix of science and art because you're dealing with both the underlying fundamental value of the asset and the fact that there's a scarcity premium that kicks in. And the reality is that both of those will be the case when this asset gets sold in 20 years, or if it gets sold whenever it does, those same factors should still kick in. So, you have to assume that you pay a premium to some degree on the way in and, hopefully, you receive a premium as and when you exit.
I think there's a lot of math and projections as to what we think happens in subsequent media right cycles and what we think we can do in terms of driving revenues at the team level. But there's also an underlying belief that sports assets are very resilient—they continue to grow well.
Word on the street is that at $1.78 billion, you've landed a superb bargain, considering you've got the champion IPL team, the champion Women’s Premier League team. And when you consider that Rajasthan Royals, which is a lower profile team, went for about $1.63 billion.
Look, everyone does what makes sense to them. I don't think we got a steal. I think Diageo is happy with the outcome, we are happy with the outcome. And that's the nature of a good deal. You can look at it on a relative value basis to the other franchise. That's one perspective. The other is that this is a very high multiple of revenue and Ebitda for both franchises. So, anybody who's doing this has to have a very high conviction on the future growth potential, including us.
Q. What growth assumptions are being priced into this value?
The largest driver of growth will come from the media rights cycles. We all understand that the media rights will face uncertainty in the next cycle because of consolidation in the broadcast world. That's going to be one of the uncertainties that everyone deals with. That being said, media rights are a function of two things: One is supply-demand, which may get affected. And then the other is the underlying asset resilience, and the reality is this asset is incredibly strong. We just saw in the first few games of the season, new records getting broken on viewership and engagement. When the IPL is on, it captures all consumer attention. Supply-demand dynamics will ebb and flow, maybe in the next cycle, it'll be different. We'll all wait to see. But if you take a medium- to a longer-term horizon view of this, the asset is extremely resilient, and pricing will ultimately reflect that.
Q. About 25 percent of revenues for an IPL team are generated at the team level. What are your plans to increase franchise-level revenues?
That's the real work that we'll get to do. We don't want to put the cart before the horse—our priority today is to close the transaction. That being said, RCB has been one of the most successful teams to date in building a true brand, fan affinity and community. And all credit goes to the current management and ownership groups. Without jumping the gun, our goal will broadly be to support that continued momentum and energy. And then to think about more ways to continue to engage fans both during the season and outside of it. We believe RCB has the potential to be one of those global iconic brands.
Q. Any plans on AI and tech-led measures to increase fan engagement, given the robust fanbase that RCB has?
One of the most attractive elements of this asset and of sports assets in general is that, in some sense, they're a little bit AI proof. The world of media may change, we may get more personalised content, and everyone will read their own news story, and everyone will watch their own TV shows. But we will all watch those last five overs together at the same time, live, synchronously with the same content, on the edge of our seats. Sports is one of the last bastions of really continued, shared experiences that the consumer media world will have.
Q. How does decision-making take place in a consortium? How have you split the roles between the four of you?
Ultimately, the work is done through the management team. The board made up of the consortium members oversee management and management drives the day-to-day of the operations. So, none of us, in some sense, take operating decisions.
At the board, Aryaman [Birla] is the chairman. As and when there's an interfacing with the BCCI or critical decisions [to be taken], they will roll up to him. But all of us view our roles as common as board members, but our capabilities as unique in terms of the experiences we bring to the table.
I will bring a bit more on the media consumer side and maybe some of the other cricket aspects that we have some depth in. Aryaman and the Birla group will obviously bring enormous heft as one of the largest industrial houses in the country. Bolt will definitely bring a lot of best practices from global outlooks and teach us from what the best teams and the best franchises and the best leagues are doing globally. And Blackstone will make sure that we're a strong performing financial asset.
Q. David Blitzer of Bolt Ventures has five sports franchises in the US, including the very lucrative Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA. What are some of the practices of the global leagues that you can bring in here, especially in terms of monetisation?
The IPL has been phenomenally strong at being innovative and a leader in terms of bringing best-in-class global sports practices to a franchise. So, let's start from there. That being said, I do believe that global franchises have more success on game-day experience revenue—so tickets, merchandise, experiences around the venue, local revenue development measures… Look, the IPL is 20 years old. The leagues we're talking about elsewhere are 50/60/70 years old, or even more. So, there's a different scale of experience and maturity that they'll bring.
I think the IPL has probably more room to grow in terms of the local fan-based revenue and fan community development. The 12th Man Army is an amazing asset, but I think it can do more. Our job will be to use some of those learnings and bring that here.
Q. One thing that RCB hasn't had is a global portfolio. Is that something this new management team is going to look at?
It's a question for our board to discuss, to what degree do we think of making RCB a global franchise. Obviously, the core and the largest and strongest fan base is in India and RCB's position there is pretty unparalleled. But first, we have to close the transaction. Assuming that we're able to close it and become owners of the franchise, it'll be a very important question for our board to deliberate on to what degree we want to expand the brand.
Q. What sort of return on investment are you expecting?
One of the best things about the way this consortium came together is that every partner, including Blackstone, has a long-time horizon around this. Blackstone invested through an instrument called the Blackstone Perpetual Equities Fund. And so, whether it's the Birlas, the Times Group, Bolt or Blackstone, none of us are financial investors who have an ‘X years after return capital’ type of mentality. We've all believed that the short run will have some uncertainty around how the economics will play out. But the long-term resilience and strength of the asset is pretty hard to doubt.
Q. What makes IPL such a lucrative property for global companies? A lion’s share of the two consortium members are global stakeholders.
If you look at the people who are coming in from other markets, most of them have prior sports investing backgrounds and expertise. Anybody who's been a premier sports investor over the last 10 to 15 years has actually done extremely well financially on the back of that. So, if you've made money and built confidence that sports assets will deliver value, and then you say where are the growth avenues for sports globally, probably the most attractive growth sports asset in the world is the IPL. So, it kind of is a natural extension.
First Published: Apr 01, 2026, 10:57
Subscribe Now