Charu Shama will continue to be the IPL auctioneer on Day 2 of the bidding at the mega auction in Bengaluru. - SPORTZPICS
Charu Shama will continue to be the IPL auctioneer on Day 2 of the bidding at the mega auction in Bengaluru. - SPORTZPICS

Reliance Industries Ltd. and its television partner Viacom Inc. are all set to lock horns against Amazon.com Inc., Walt Disney Co., and Sony Group Corp for the telecast rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next 5 years. It’s expected that the deal could be worth $5 billion or more.

It is learned that Reliance is in talks to include James Murdoch-founded Lupa Systems LLC as well as Comcast Corp. in the consortium. Amazon Prime recently entered the field of cricket streaming as they bought the rights of New Zealand cricket, and they are likely to bid for this cash-riched league as well.

IPL Trophy. (BCCI/IPL Photo)
IPL Trophy. (BCCI/IPL Photo)

Star India bagged the IPL media rights for $2.55 billion for 5 years in 2018

The bids will be submitted soon to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which will allocate the rights for the next 5 years from 2023 to 2027. The BCCI will make a final announcement of the winner in the last week of March.

Notable that last time Star India bagged the IPL media rights for 16,347.50 Crores ($2.55 billion) between 2018 and 2022. And it’s likely that they would try their best to retain the deal.

Firstly in 2008, Sony bagged the television rights at $1.03 billion (4048 Cr)for 10 years. Though it was revised next year Sony signed the deal for 8200 Crores Rs. with BCCI for the next 9 years.

It will be interesting to see if the likes of Amazon and Reliance can outbid Disney and Sony.

Disney+ Star also holds the rights of BCCI media rights which will expire in 2023. They will also be eying the next 8 years of ICC media rights whose bidding process might start soon. Star bagged BCCI media rights for Rs 6138.1 crore in 2018.

“Sony will evaluate bidding for both broadcast and digital rights for the upcoming IPL,” said a spokesperson for its Indian unit. Zee declined to comment. Representatives for Reliance, Amazon, and Disney didn’t make any comment on the matter. Reuters reported on Sunday that Reliance and Amazon were among those looking to bid for the broadcast rights.

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