FanCode, the Indian sport-focused platform owned by Dream Sports, has won exclusive domestic rights to the delayed Indian Super League (ISL) 2025-26 season, which is due to start later this month.
The service beat six other bidders, including previous rightsholder JioStar, for domestic linear and digital rights for the 2025-26 season, while Kaleidoscope Production Services (KPS Studios) has been awarded the production rights for the competition’s world feed.
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FanCode co-founder Yannick Colaco said: “With the league’s strong and loyal fan following, we see a big opportunity to elevate how fans experience ISL through reliable, high-quality broadcast and a product designed around modern football audiences. This is in line with Dream Sports group’s overall vision of making sports better.”
AIFF deputy secretary general M Satyanarayan added: “We are pleased to have concluded the ISL media rights process and to partner with FanCode, one of India’s leading sports platforms.
“FanCode’s focus on accessibility and fan experience aligns with our objective of expanding the league’s footprint and engaging more football fans across the country.”
The platform reportedly bid 8.62 crore rupees ($939,000) for the season, which is significantly less than the 275 crore rupees ($29.98 million) per season paid by media heavyweight Jiostar over the last two seasons, due to the ongoing operational issues suffered by the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) governing body.
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By GlobalDataThe AIFF was forced to launch a new tender earlier last month after failing to secure a master rights holder to run the league for the 2025-26 campaign, delaying its start to February 14.
The governing body launched its first tender to find a new operator for the ISL with a 15-year mandate last October, covering media rights, sponsorship, merchandising, digital, and more, but that tender failed to attract a single bidder.
Since then, the body has been guided by the country’s supreme court on the next steps and took it upon itself to run the RFP for the first time in league history.
The ISL has been suspended since July, when Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), the operator and commercial partner of the competition, stepped back from its role.
Under that agreement, FSDL paid 50 crore rupees ($5.8 million) per year for the total commercial and operations rights for the competition, as well as the Indian national team.
Investors have divested from the league in recent months as the lack of financial stability has grown ever more concerning.
City Football Group, the multi-club ownership organization that controls English giants Manchester City, among others, divested from its investment in the Mumbai City FC club back in December, citing “ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of the ISL.”
While the ISL’s 14 constituent clubs have approved the plans for the shortened season, and those plans have been approved by the continent’s Asian Football Confederation governing body, that same body has said that direct entry into the continental AFC Champions League 2 tournament will no longer be possible.
Indeed, the plans, which include 13 ISL games and three Indian Super Cup games per team, making it 16 in all, mean that teams will not have completed a mandatory minimum for direct qualification of 24 games, and instead will have to navigate qualifying rounds, which will likely prove difficult for teams now lacking a year of football.
