Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd, Amazon.com Inc., and Walt Disney Co. are among those that have signaled an intention to bid for the broadcast rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the upcoming auction.
Besides these, Sony Group Corp., Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., and fantasy-sports platform Dream11 have also purchased the bid-related documents from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Bloomberg has reported.
The BCCI will arrange an e-auction for the new bidders and the result will be announced after the upcoming IPL 2022 season.
The auction will allow the winner to globally telecast IPL matches between 2023 and 2027 via live streaming and TV broadcast.
That said, more companies may join the race, which is expected to draw bids worth Rs 45,000 crore or more, to acquire the media rights for the sporting event.
Last year’s edition of the IPL brought in 380 million viewers, and whichever broadcaster wins the rights will likely secure millions of new subscribers in a highly competitive market.
Currently, Disney Plus Hostar is the only Live Streaming Platform of the IPL in India.
To maximize revenue, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to unbundle the media rights this time; meaning, sell digital and TV rights separately since it’s a hot property.
Early this year, the Tata group replaced Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Vivo as the title sponsor of the IPL for 2022 and 2023 seasons.
It is likely to pay Rs 300 crore per year, about 60% of what Vivo would have paid as the title sponsor of IPL for the next two seasons.
Vivo had to "pause" the Rs 2,190-crore deal for the 2018-2022 cycle for the 13th edition of IPL in 2020 amid the backlash against Chinese brands in the country following the India-China military clash in Ladakh's Galwan Valley in June 2020.
