The Indian Premier League media rights are set to be auctioned on June 12 and 13. Major broadcasting organisations have already been waiting for the time when the auction happens to cash in on one o the most watched tournaments in the world.
Media conglomerates like Sony, Viacom18 and Star are in the hunt for the next five year cycle between 2023-2027 and the prices, if experts are to be believed would be astronomically high.
However, the bidding process might slightly get less heated with Amazon’s owner Jeff Bezos pulling out of the auction in the last minute. Bezos-funded Amazon was expected to be one of the biggest bidders in digital space after having begun the streaming of New Zealand’s home series matches, but pulled out without clarification.
“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 fray,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
Broadcasting giant star picked the rights of the previous cycle at Rs16,347.5 crore, an unimaginable value in 2017. This year it is expected that IPL rights would fetched a price in the north of Rs 40,000 crore despite the decrease in viewership in 2022.
There are four specific packages in which e-auction will be conducted for 74 games per season for a five-year period from 2023-2027 with a provision of increasing the number of matches to 94 in the final two years.
Package A: Rights for Indian sub-continent exclusive TV (broadcast)
Package B: Digital rights for Indian sub-continent
Package C: 18 selected games in each season for digital space
Package D: Combined TV and digital rights for overseas markets (all games)
“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.
All big players have shown interest in the IPL media rights, with Relaince backed Viacom18 being deemed the favourites.