India Offers $750 Million Cricket Rights to Amazon and Google, Sources Report
India’s cricket governing body is making efforts to attract global giants Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. to participate in a media rights auction for its team’s games. This comes as there is a decline in interest from companies that had previously engaged in intense competition for the highly successful Indian Premier League.
The proposed start date of the auction process for the media rights for the so-called bilateral series played by the Indian team against other countries for the next five years has been pushed back by at least two weeks as the Board of Control for Cricket in India approaches more companies to drum up interest in the property, according to people familiar with the matter.
The tepid reaction from media companies ahead of the auction underscores efforts to monetize amid weak advertising revenue, with the shorter format IPL the main cricket property that has drawn more viewers over the years. The BCCI invited bids for the media rights on Wednesday and gave companies until August 25 to buy the bid documents, the governing body said on its website.
The sale process is running two weeks behind the timeline suggested by adviser Ernst & Young, which would have concluded the auctions by the end of August, they said, asking not to be named because the information is not public. EC expects the sale of rights to 102 games to raise at least $750 million, roughly the same price it was sold for five years ago, the people said.
Instead, the rights to the IPL auctioned last year had almost tripled from the previous offer. The IPL remains one of the most popular sporting competitions in the world and continues to garner the highest number of views among cricket events.
The BCCI raised a record amount of money by auctioning the media rights of the IPL, when Viacom 18 Media Ltd., controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani. and Walt Disney Co. bid more than rivals including Sony Group Corp. However, Ambani’s JioCinema put up the 2023 edition. IPL online for free and Disney was struggling to turn a profit due to weak advertising revenue.
Viacom 18 is aggressively competing for digital media rights to the bilateral series, while Disney, which is going on a global cost-cutting spree, may take a cautious stance, the people said.
BCCI, Disney and EC representatives declined to comment. Spokespeople for Viacom 18, Amazon and Alphabet did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Star India, a Disney unit since 2019, had bought the rights to the bilateral series over five years starting in 2018 for 61 billion rupees ($741 million) and has taken a hit in assets of about 10 billion rupees, the people said. They said that the decision to split the media rights into digital and linear this time and hold an e-auction is yet to be taken.
