ISL 2025-26: ABP Group, FanCode among media rights bidders; Sony, SEA out

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has received at least two bids for media rights for the upcoming season of the Indian Super League (ISL), with the deadline for bids ending late on Sunday, February 1.

Kolkata-based conglomerate Anandabazar Patrika (ABP) and Dream Sports-owned FanCode are the confirmed bidders, while ZEE and Sony – two business groups that had earlier shown interest – have opted not to make their bids.

The AIFF had released the Request For Proposal (RFP) for this ISL season’s media rights partner on January 18, and another meeting was scheduled on January 23 for clarifications ahead of the bid.

Sony, ZEE, FanCode and British media group Two Circles attended the meeting and raised several questions about the flexibility of the deadline, the minimum camera setup and a range of packages to choose from should a party decide to take over partial rights.

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One of the parties wanted an extension of the deadlines; clarifications will be moved from January 27 to 29 and for bid submission from February 1 to 4. However, the Federation rejected the requests.

The AIFF has also detailed five media rights packages from ISL 2025-26, which can also be used as combinations:

Package A: Production of the World Feed, broadcast (on linear television) and streaming (on a digital platform)

Package B: Broadcast (on linear television) and streaming (on a digital platform);

Package C: broadcast only (on linear television).

Package D: Streaming only (on a digital platform).

Package E: World Feed production only.

It is clear that the ABP group will probably prefer package D+E, while FanCode at least has package D – streaming – in its offer.

FanCode was previously a regular player in the football broadcasting market, covering both Indian and international football.

It streamed the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations, while the CAFA Nations Cup, where India finished third, was also shown on FanCode.

Additionally, India’s AFC Asian Cup qualifiers against Hong Kong, China (June 10), Singapore (October 9) and Bangladesh (November 18) were all featured on the platform.

This bid submission process will be followed by the opening of technical bids on Monday at 11am, which will then give way to presentations by the bidders before the Bid Evaluation Committee to consider and evaluate their bids.

The current scenario is very different from the previous cycle of RFP submission by AIFF where no bids were submitted despite the extension of the submission deadline.

The upcoming season will start on February 14, as confirmed by Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, while the AIFF preliminary schedule states that Mohun Bagan Super Giant will take on Kerala Blasters in the opening match at the Salt Lake Stadium.

Published on February 1, 2026