Premiere Badminton League Season 5 to begin from January 2020

Badminton Association of India (BAI) and Sportzlive -- the official license holders under the aegis of BAI -- are all set to host the fifth edition of Premiere Badminton League (PBL) from January 2020. The schedule starts from January 20, 2020 and will continue till February 9, and will be hosted this time in four cities -- Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, and Bangalore.

The league offers total prize money of Rs.6 crore, and champion team will take Rs.3 crore, making it one of the most lucrative badminton event in the world.

Star Sports will continue to be the official TV broadcaster and the matches can be streamed online live on Hotstar across all 21 days. In the previous edition, Star streamed all the matches live in regional languages like Kannada, Telugu and Hindi on Star Sports Telugu 1, Star Sports Kannada 1 and in Hindi on Star Utsav.

North-Eastern States were able to watch the feed for the first time. The attempt to spread the PBL via the local language route helped as TV viewership jumped to a record 155 million eyeballs in the 4th season from a decent 42 million viewership the year before. The fact that the league has been well sampled, and with the addition of new channels, it is hoped to reach 200 million households this time.

The organizers are confident that the increasing commercial value of the league will attract players, and participating in the league has also become a status. Last time, it raked sponsorship revenue in the range of Rs 45 crore-Rs 50 crore, with Vodafone as title sponsor. BAI and Sportzlive are expected to release fresh bids for next season, with focus on the digital medium to capture the prime audience, as the broadcast and digital rights expire this year.

The auction date to be announced soon.