IPL media rights will be up for bids when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) conducts the much-awaited e-auction on Sunday (June 12). While several big names are set to battle it out for the broadcasting rights of the IPL, Online retailer Amazon has pulled out of the bidding race for the Indian Premier League media rights for the 2024-2027 cycle. With Amazon pulling out means now only Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, Disney and Sony Group and others are in the race to win the rights to broadcast the cash-rich league. Earlier when Amazon was in the race it was of huge interest in the market as this would have been the second sector after the Future Retail buyout where the arch-rivals would have gone against each other.
Also Read: BCCI to increase the number of IPL matches in 2024-27 cycle
Reason for Pulling out
The report claims that Amazon has already invested more than 6 billion USD in the country. It is now not looking to spend a huge sum to acquire the IPL streaming rights for the next five years.
The previous sale of media rights for the Indian Premier League happened in September 2017 when Star India had edged out Sony Pictures to secure the League’s media rights for the 2017-2022 cycle with a bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore. With this deal, the cost of an IPL match had become around Rs 55 crore. Before this in 2008, Sony Pictures Network won the IPL media rights for 10 years with a bid of Rs 8200 crore.
The Catalogue to shop from
The IPL media rights have been divided into four packages – A, B, C, and D. While package A will consist of TV rights for the Indian subcontinent only. Package B will have the digital rights for the Indian subcontinent only. Package C will have digital rights for a special set of matches for the Indian subcontinent. While package D will have TV and digital rights for the rest of the world. As per ESPN Cricinfo, the base price of package A is around Rs 18,130 crore (USD 2.33 billion). Package B is around Rs 12,210 crore (USD 1.57 billion). Lastly package D will be INR 1,110 crore (USD 142.8 million) respectively.
