Indian Super League 2025-26: FanCode selected as official media partner
What's the story
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has announced FanCode as the official media partner for the Indian Super League (ISL) 2025-26 season. The announcement was made on Monday. FanCode, a subsidiary of Dream Sports, had submitted two proposals—one with production and one without—for over ₹8.5 crore each, as per Sportstar. However, it was their second proposal that got accepted by the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC).
Production duties
Production rights awarded to former KPS
Former Kaleidoscope Production and Services (KPS) has been awarded the production rights for the ISL 2025-26 season. The company, which has previously handled I-League, Durand Cup, and Bengal Super League matches, quoted a financial bid of over ₹5.5 crore. This decision was made after AIFF issued its Request For Proposal (RFP) on December 18 last year, inviting media partners for the upcoming season.
Bid evaluation
Seven bids were received for the media rights
The AIFF received seven bids for the media partnership of the upcoming season. These included proposals from FanCode (TV+Digital), Two Circles (TV+Digital+Production), Anandabazar Patrika Digital (Digital + Production), Monarch PR Solutions (Digital + Production), JioStar (Digital only), Kaleidoscope (Production only) and Sportzworks (Production only). The technical bidding opened on February 2, followed by presentations by bidders for BEC in the first half of the day.
Bid outcome
JioStar lost out in financial bidding
After the technical round, Monarch and Two Circles were disqualified. The remaining bidders presented their quotations in the commercial round, which ended around 5:30pm. After deliberations by BEC, FanCode was informed about the committee's decision around 6pm IST. JioStar, ISL's exclusive broadcast partner for the last two seasons and parent company that owned the league for a decade, lost out with a financial bid of around ₹5 crore.
Details
ISL media rights valuation sees a huge drop
The ISL media rights valuation saw a significant drop from the last two seasons when Viacom18 Media Private Limited secured the rights for a total fee of ₹550 crore. T As per Sportstar, the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) between the AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) led to the Indian football eco-system being thrown into disarray. The delayed 2025-26 ISL season is set to begin from February 14 with a total of 91 matches, 72 fewer than the 2024-25 season.