Over 20 companies in race for IPL media rights

On July 21, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) invited applicants to bid for media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for a five-year stint from 2018 to 2022. To this, a little more than 20 companies have shown their interest and bought Invitation To Tender (ITI).

The submissions were scheduled on August 28, but have now been shifted four days further due to matters related to taxation and impending bank holidays. The first round of ITI was sent out on Friday and the BCCI had informed all the potential buyers about the same.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will take the final call on whether the media rights for Indian Premier League would be sold through e-auction or BCCI can continue the ongoing tender auction process to attract its bids. MP Subramanian Swamy expressed his views on e-auction and said that they should go ahead with e-auction to ensure transparency and that is expected to come up in the hearing.

Swamy’s petition will be adjudicated by Chief Justice, Dipak Misra, who also hears the matter concerning to BCCI in its tussle with Cricket Association of Bihar.

20 bidders for media rights

There is a similar anticipation for IPL media rights, especially the digital rights. The fray has come into limelight because there are two new deep pocketed players who have joined the race in form of Amazon and Reliance. Thus far, Star TV and Sony Network have been in the pursuit of contention as they have been associated with the game for long.

As per Cricbuzz the other Networks who have shown their interest to bid for media/digital rights are as follows, Times Internet Ltd, Gulf DTH, SuperSport International, GroupM Media India, Bein IP, Econet Media Group, Sky UK, ESPN Digital Media, BTG Legal Service, BT Sport, Twitter, Facebook, Discovery, Airtel and DAZN Perform Group.

While it remains to be a power packed lineup, the BCCI has kept all doors open and have initiated to invite applicants and attract revenue maximization. With many applications coming for both media and digital rights, consolidated bids may not allow market specific bids like Amazon and Yahoo to be in contention of Television rights.

Lastly, an industry executive was quoted by Cricbuzz as saying, “A separate bid for digital will force the rights-owner to do a deferred live of matches whereas if one party owns digital and broadcast booth, then there’s no restriction. Where’s the logic in this? Why not have a paywall instead? This is like suppressing a market that hasn’t even woken up yet.”