Amazon has pulled out of the race for IPL media rights, and Google too hasn't submitted the bid leaving Star, Viacom18, Sony, and Zee in a 4-way race for one of the costliest sporting properties in the world.
Yes, Amazon is out of the race. They didn't join the technical bidding process today. As far as Google (YouTube) is concerned, they had picked up the bid document but didn't submit it. As of now, 10 companies (TV and streaming) are in the fray - Senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity
Bezos-funded Amazon was expected to be one of the biggest bidders in digital space but pulled out of the race without revealing the reason. Reliance Industries Limited-owned Viacom18 is considered to be one of the strongest contenders both in the TV and digital space.
The 4 Packages
There are four specific packages in which e-auction will be conducted for 74 games per season for five years from 2023-27 with a provision of increasing the number of matches to 94 in the final two years.
- Package A: Indian sub-continent exclusive TV (broadcast) rights
- Package B: Covers digital rights for the Indian sub-continent.
- Package C: For 18 selected games in each season for digital space
- Package D: All games will be for combined TV and digital rights for overseas markets.
The Current Situation
"Let's make it clear, the Viacom 18 JV (Joint Venture), current rights holder Walt Disney (Star), Zee and Sony are the four contenders for the packages with solid footprints in both TV and digital market," the official said.
Contenders in Digital Space
- Times Internet
- FunAsia
- Dream11
- FanCode
- Sky Sports (UK) and Supersport (South Africa) - overseas TV and digital rights.
The last time, Star India bought rights for both TV and digital with a composite bid of Rs 16,347. 50 crore but this time the composite base price is more than Rs 32,000 crore.
All bidders will have to make separate bids for each package, this time.
As of Friday, some of the big players who are involved with the bidding process, feel that Rs 45,000 crore (USD 5.8 billion approx) is the amount that BCCI could expect which will be a two-and-a-half times increase in valuation.
