No PKL 13 in 2026; Season 13 likely to be held in June–July 2027
The Pro Kabaddi League will not stage Season 13 in 2026 and is expected to be played in a June–July 2027 window, Khel Now reported on November 1, 2026. The delay follows a failure to finalise a new broadcast agreement after the previous five-year deal expired at the end of Season 12 in October 2025.
The league has been without a broadcast partner since its media rights contract with Star India, now JioStar, ended after Season 12 in October 2025, and ongoing negotiations have not yielded a new arrangement. “There has not been much interest in the open market, and the new deal offered by the current broadcaster is half of the previous deal. So all parties have decided that we need more time, and we will not see PKL before June 2027,” a source close to the development told Khel Now. The prior agreement covering Seasons 8 to 12 was worth around ₹905 crore.
PKL team owners have approached the Sports Ministry for guidance, according to Khel Now, a step taken on similar grounds by Indian Super League clubs earlier in 2026. In May, ISL clubs wrote to the All India Football Federation and the Sports Ministry seeking a club-led structure after their commercial arrangement ended, and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya met the clubs in June and asked them and the AIFF to form a task force and return with a commercial plan; the ISL has since started its 2026-27 season under a club-led model.
Mashal Sports ran an open media rights auction in 2021 with a base price of ₹900 crore for five seasons; several companies picked up the tender document, including Sony, Dream11 and Reliance, but Star India was the only bidder and retained the rights for around ₹905 crore. The auction process left several team owners unhappy; they argued there was a conflict of interest because Star India owned a 74 per cent stake in Mashal Sports and that the auction did not establish the rights’ true market value. Mashal Sports rejected those charges as "baseless."
Anand Mahindra and Charu Sharma launched the PKL in 2014, and Star Sports has broadcast the league since the inaugural season. According to Star’s figures cited by Khel Now, the first PKL season drew 435 million viewers, compared with IPL 2014’s 552 million, and Star India subsequently bought a 74 per cent stake in Mashal Sports, becoming the league’s majority owner; PKL is often described as India’s second-most-watched league after the IPL.
The most recent season concluded on October 31, 2025, when Dabang Delhi defeated Puneri Paltan 31-28 in the final at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in New Delhi to lift their second title. There is no update on the player auction for Season 13; the auction typically takes place a few months before a season — last year’s was held on May 31 and June 1 before the campaign began on August 29 — and with only two months remaining in 2026, Khel Now states PKL 13 cannot be staged this year.
Indian men’s and women’s kabaddi teams won gold at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya in September, each beating Iran in their finals, and both teams went on to clinch the inaugural Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship 2026 title in Ahmedabad on October 31. Now, attention is focused on resolving the media rights issue, which will determine where fans can watch the PKL and the commercial terms for the next cycle.
Khel Now reports that, pending a new broadcaster agreement, PKL 13 is likely to be scheduled in the June–July 2027 window and the league currently has no broadcast deal in place.