The much-anticipated duel between Jeff Bezos and Mukesh Ambani over the acquisition of one of the world’s most expensive sports properties will no longer materialize as OTT giant Amazon pulled out on Friday IPL Media rights bidding is scheduled to begin on Sunday.
Viacom18, owned by Reliance Industries Limited, is considered one of the strongest contenders in both the TV and digital space. Bezos-funded Amazon was expected to be one of the biggest bidders in the digital space, but dropped out of the race without giving a reason.
“Yeah, Amazon is out of the race. They didn’t participate in the technical bidding process today. As far as Google (YouTube) is concerned, they did take the bidding document but didn’t submit it. So far, 10 companies ( TV and streaming) are in the fray,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
an all-out fight
There are four specific packages in which e-auctions will be conducted for 74 games per season for a period of five years from 2023 to 2027, with a provision to increase the number of matches to 94 in the final two years.
Package A contains the exclusive TV (broadcast) rights of the Indian subcontinent while Package B contains the digital rights of the Indian subcontinent.
Package C is for 18 selected games each season for the digital space while Package D (all games) will be for combined TV and digital rights for overseas markets.
“Let it be clear that Viacom18 JV (JV), current rights holder Walt Disney (Star), Zee and Sony are the four contenders for the package with a solid footprint in both the TV and digital markets,” the official said.
Some other contenders, primarily for the digital space, are Times Internet, FunAsia, Dream11 and Fancode, while Sky Play (UK) and SuperSport (South Africa) will be competing for overseas TV and digital rights.
last time star India Bought the rights for both TV and digital with an overall bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore but this time the overall base price is over Rs 32,000 crore. This time all the bidders will have to bid separately for each package.
As of Friday, some of the big players who are involved in the bidding process feel that Rs 45,000 crore (about USD 5.8 billion) is the amount BCCI can expect which will be a two and a half times increase in valuation. ,
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