Jeff Bezos’ Amazon and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance have taken their rivalry beyond the eCommerce segment, now into the OTT space. The retail giants will be battling for the telecast rights of one of the most anticipated sports events: India’s premier cricket league, i.e the IPL.
Amazon and Reliance Industries are expected to take on Sony India and Disney India for exclusive five-year TV and digital broadcast rights of the two-month series of matches, at a cost that could run to a record INR 50,000 Cr ($6.7 Bn), Reuters reported.
It is interesting to note that while Reliance owns the Network18 group of channels (Colors, ETV, MTV India) on the TV and JioTV in the OTT space, Amazon will reportedly partner with Sony for the TV space and broadcast on Prime Video in the OTT space, if it wins.
A representative for BCCI and Walt Disney in India declined to comment. Spokespeople for Reliance, Amazon, Sony, Zee, and Dream11 didn’t immediately offer any comments on participating in the auction for IPL’s broadcast rights.
The bidders will be vying to grow their advertising revenues as well as cement their clout in the broadcast sector. The upcoming auctions will be separately selling rights
IPL Media Rights: An asset
IPL is one of the most-watched sporting events in the country. To put this in perspective, as many as 380 Mn people tuned in to watch last year’s edition of the IPL.
With that kind of eyeballs, companies look at the event to advertise their products and offerings. The high-profile event is a mega extravaganza where brands vie to splurge big to have their promotions plastered all over the TVs during ad breaks.
According to media reports, advertisers this year spent almost INR 17 Lakh for a 10-second spot during the matches. In the cricket-crazy nation, IPL has raked up mammoth numbers in the past too, and can only go further up from here.
The last time around in 2017, Disney Star (then called Star India) had shelled out a massive INR 16,348 Cr for a five-year deal to broadcast IPL matches. The number was almost double what Sony paid for the rights in the first 10 years of IPL.
Reliance has jumped into the fray to beef up its broadcast arm. It operates a slew of channels through TV18-Viacom subsidiary Viacom18, including the recently launched sports channel – Sports18. Grabbing the media rights for IPL will be a huge boost for the sports channel. The company recently bought broadcasting rights for the Spanish La Liga.
Reliance is reportedly also in talks with global investors to raise up to $1.6 Bn for Viacom18.
Amazon, on the other hand, is looking at venturing into the arena specifically to cement its position in the online streaming business. The US-based e-commerce giant recently ventured into the sports broadcast domain after it started to live streaming the India-New Zealand women’s cricket series in February this year.
