More than 20 companies have entered the race to bag the lucrative media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they have bought the Invitation To Tender (ITT) for the rights, the submissions for which have now been scheduled for September 1.
The submission was initially scheduled to take place on August 28 but was postponed by 4 days due to matters related to taxation and impending bank holidays. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had informed the bidders about the delay in its first round of clarifications on the ITT on Friday (August 18).
According to a report in Cricbuzz, the list of ITT buyers will be submitted to the Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 22) when the petition submitted by MP Subramanian Swamy comes up for hearing. Swamy has asked for an online auction to ensure transparency and the case will be heard by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
The news outlet further claimed that Star India Pvt Ltd, Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt Ltd, AmazonSeller Services Pvt Ltd and Reliance Jio Digital lead the list of the firms that have bought the ITT. Some other companies in the race are Follow on Interactive Media, Times Internet Ltd, Gulf DTH, SuperSport International, GroupM Media India, Bein IP, Econet Media Group, Sky UK, ESPN Digital Media, BTG Legal Service, BT Sport, Twitter, Facebook, Discovery, Airtel and DAZN Perform Group.
Meanwhile, there are doubts whether the bidding process will be a level-playing field for all the companies. Companies like Amazon and Yahoo, that are market-specific, might lose out as the consolidated bidding will not allow them to take the process enthusiastically. The consolidated bid heavily tilts the balance in the favor of television broadcasters like STAR and SONY from a digital viewpoint.
With the BCCI not willing to explore the digital market, keeping in mind the interest of broadcasters, some experts believe that it does not make much sense.
“A separate bid for digital will force the rights-owner to do a deferred live of matches whereas if one party owns digital and broadcast both, then there’s no restriction. Where’s the logic in this?
Why not have a paywall instead? This is like suppressing a market that hasn’t even woken up yet,” an industry executive was quoted as saying by the news outlet.