Top American firms vying for IPL's digital rights

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the television rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has triggered a sort of string digital competition with major players vying for a share in the league. The market reaction has been prompt and ‘encouraging’ as many a firm has shown interest in the properties.

It has been learnt that the overseas response to the advertisement has been overwhelming with many companies asking queries about the procedure, especially for the digital rights.

According to the BCCI, six firms have bought the ITT document for the television rights. Giants like Zee Television of Essel Group, Star group and Sony. The rest are from overseas.

The Zee’s interest is a surprise development considering that the group divested its sports portfolio by selling the Ten Network to Sony recently. But Zee officials say they are working on the value of the league. The BCCI has barred news networks from bidding but Zee claims that it also has an entertainment wing that is separately registered as Zee Entertainment.

Zee interest notwithstanding, the fight for the television rights is likely to be between the Big Two – Sony and Star – and the estimated value for the India rights could go as high as $4 billion.

There was a talk that Neo Sports, the official broadcaster of Indian cricket not too long ago, could join the race but the BCCI officials say the company won’t be permitted to participate in the bidding because of its litigation with the board over the termination of its rights in 2011.

In an another interesting development. It is said that American online and social media giants like Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and even Google are keen on securing its digital rights. One of them has already purchased and others are believed to have shown interest although Google, which was previously associated with the league, refused to comment.

“We do not comment on speculation and rumours,” said a spokesman for Google India but the BCCI sources have confirmed to this paper that many foreign companies, particularly from the US, have been approaching the board with an interest in the digital platforms. Officials of Twitter India and FB India did not respond to queries from this paper.

The BCCI has put up the digital rights for sale for only five years and whoever bags the rights, the board could end up making more than Rs 500 crore. That is going only by the current rate as the BCCI’s earnings from this property have been staggeringly high in the last three years.

The sale of ITT is no indication that the firms will bid for the rights but those in the know say the digital rights are sure to see some fierce bidding, whether or not Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and Google eventually join the race.