Media Rights in India: Valuation and Disputes
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July 03, 2026
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Republished with permission from Global Arbitration Review (GAR). The entire article is available at The Asia-Pacific Arbitration Review 2027 where it was first published on 14 May 2026.
India’s media and entertainment industry is one of the fastest-growing in the world, projected to reach US$73.6 billion by 2027. This growth has driven a surge in media rights transactions, higher valuations, and the potential for more disputes. In this article, FTI Consulting experts examine the landscape of media rights in India, the key drivers of their value, and the expert issues that arise when quantifying economic damages in related disputes.
What Are Media Rights?
Media rights are the legal permissions that govern how audio, visual, or audiovisual content (such as sports programming, films, television shows, and music) may be used, distributed, and monetised. Rights can be exclusive or non-exclusive, platform-specific, or structured as sub-licences, and are typically transferred from a licensor (the content owner) to a licensee under defined contractual terms covering platform, territory, and duration. Revenues flow primarily through subscription fees and advertising, though sub-licensing and merchandising also play a role.
Globally, sports rights represent the largest category at US$62.6 billion in 2024, followed by music at US$45.5 billion and film at US$33.2 billion. In India specifically, the shift toward digital consumption has fundamentally reshaped how rights are priced and structured, with digital media overtaking the traditional TV market in 2024.
What Drives the Value of Media Rights?
The value of any media right is shaped by several interconnected factors: the category and popularity of the underlying content; the scope of the rights (platform, territory, exclusivity); the duration of the licence; the availability of substitute content; and external factors such as regulatory changes and competitive bidding. The near-tripling of IPL broadcasting rights values between the 2018–2022 and 2023–2027 cycles illustrates just how dramatically these drivers can move valuations.
The Disputes Landscape
India has seen its fair share of high-profile media rights disputes across sports broadcasting and film and music distribution. These include the billion-dollar arbitration between JioStar and Zee Entertainment over ICC cricket telecast rights, the IPL broadcasting rights dispute involving World Sport Group and MSM Satellite, and a series of music royalty cases – including the Indian Performing Right Society’s successful claim against Vodafone and the landmark Tips Industries v Wynk ruling on digital streaming. These cases highlight the complexity of contractual relationships between content producers, broadcasters, distributors, and rights holders, and the significant sums at stake.
Expert Issues in Quantifying Damages
There are methodological challenges that quantum experts face when assessing damages in media rights disputes. The appropriate damages framework – whether Loss of Profits, Wasted Costs, or Account of Profits – depends on the legal basis of the claim and the specific facts. The relevant loss period must be carefully determined by reference to contractual terms, the practical exploitation window of the rights, or the duration of any infringing activity. This means that quantum assessment, and the legal arguments are necessarily inter-linked, and must be developed together, with full view of the other.
Valuation draws on three principal approaches: the income-based approach (using discounted cash flow or relief-from-royalty methods), the market-based approach (benchmarking against comparable transactions), and the cost-based approach (though this is generally unsuitable for commercially active rights). Each approach carries its own methodological challenges – from forecasting viewership trends and advertising demand to identifying truly comparable market transactions and isolating strategic value from market value.
Why This Matters
As India’s regulatory framework continues to evolve alongside rapid market growth, the frequency and complexity of (as well as the sums at stake in) media rights disputes is only likely to increase. Understanding the economic and valuation dimensions of these disputes is essential for rights holders, broadcasters, distributors, and their legal advisors. To read the full article, including detailed case analysis and a comprehensive discussion of valuation methodologies, please follow the link above.
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July 03, 2026
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