It has become a fad to give great valuations for every new business and then discount it for every small reason. Even IPL was Valued at $ 4.13 Billion in 2010 and post Modi’s exit, its valuation has dipped by 11% to $ 3.67 Billion in 2011. Now the 6 Months old Film Stars Cricket League, which calls itself “Celebrity Cricket League” is valued at $ 110 Million. CCL has just completed its Season 1 with 4 Teams and 7 Matches. The Star Presence is decent but the most surprising aspect is the quality of Cricket that these stars displayed. All the matches have scores more than 150 runs in 20 overs and this definitely has brought in good excitement to the viewers. With the Season 1 just getting over a month and a half back, the promoters have already announced Season 2 with 2 additional teams. The only doubt that lingers in our mind is whether it is justified to valuate the newborn CCL (Celebrity Cricket League) at $ 110 Million?
IPL has sustained revenues $ 1.9 from Sony for broadcast rights over the next 10 years where as CCL hasn’t sold its Broadcast rights to a particular channel till now. Though CCL has done decently well in Season 1 with TV viewership of 0.75 TVR compared to 3.75 TVR of IPL, it has long way to go. The key for CCL is Film Stars playing Cricket, With out big stars CCL can turn out to be one more ICL and if CCL can get at least 4 big stars in each team, it can reach at least half of IPL.
Coming to serious business, “Repucom” (the international brand analyst) has analysed the brand exposure of all the sponsors of CCL and has reported that the 100% Media Exposure of all brands together in CCL has delivered over $ 23.5 Million. Considering that exposure in the first season is with just 4 Teams and 7 Matches, the exposure is definitely bound to grow exponentially with 6 Teams and 18 Matches in Second season. If the media exposure is projected to be 2.0 times of what it was in season one compared to 18 matches over the 7 matches earlier, analysists assume that the Media Exposure would be $ 47 Million for Season 2. With that kind of Projected Media Exposure in Season 2, the discounted Revenue Projection for Season 2 is considered to be $ 10 Million.
IPL with annual revenues of $ 300 is valued at $ 3.6 Billion, which is 12 Multiple of its revenue. The valuation of CCL with $10 Million is justified at $ 110 Million, but only time can tell whether it’s just a bubble or a new Gig in the making.
If rumours are to be believed, Times Of India is benefited the most with CCL's $ 110 Million valuation as it has picked up 10% equity in CCL at much lesser valuation before Season 1. When contacted to promoters of CCL, they accepted that TOI is a share holder of the company but did not want to comment on the valuation saying that they dont like to comment on market speculation.
