IPL 2022: Amazon, Reliance Digital fight over streaming rights

Amazon’s rivalry in India with Reliance Industries on Oil is set to turn into a cricket field, where they are likely to fight the media giants for the broadcast rights of the Indian Premier League.

Amazon and Reliance are expected to take over the India units of Sony Group Corp and Walt Disney Co for five years of TV and digital broadcast rights exclusively for the matches of the two-month series, which will cost Rs500 billion ($6.7 billion)

BCCI is looking forward to selling the broadcast rights for more than Rs 30,000 crore. If Reliance gets a sale, matches will be broadcast on Viacom 18 channels and Geo TV. If both Amazon TV and Digital are claimed, they have to contract with some companies to broadcast matches on TV.

The much-awaited 15th edition of the Indian Premier League is set to begin in the last week of March, and this time the BCCI plans to host the full IPL tour in India. As part of this, the BCCI is reportedly planning to hold the playoffs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the world’s largest cricket stadium.

Star had bought the media rights in 2018 for Rs 16,347 crore. At the same time, its rights were with Sony Pictures Network earlier. He had purchased the broadcasting rights for around Rs 8,200 crore. Sony had the rights to broadcast the IPL for 10 years (2008-2017).

“Cricket is the second-biggest sport in the world with two-and-a-half billion fans, and IPL is like its Super Bowl,” said Anton Rublievskyi, head of Parimatch, a betting company that advertised at the IPL last year.

He added-

“If you’re not there, you do not exist.”

Reliance is also in talks with foreign investors to raise $1.6 billion for Viacom 18.

“Winning this bid is critical to Reliance’s long-term plans for its Jio platform and its digital expansion,” said a source with direct knowledge of the company’s strategy.

“Everything that has happened at Viacom18 in the last few months, like buying rights to the Spanish La Liga and setting up a sports channel, has been building up to this,” the source said.

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