Amazon’s rivalry in India with oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries appears to be like set to go to the cricket subject, the place they’ll seemingly battle media heavyweights for telecast rights to India’s premier cricket league with its a whole bunch of tens of millions of viewers.

Amazon.com Inc and Reliance Industries Ltd are anticipated to tackle Indian items of Sony Group Corp and Walt Disney Co for unique five-year TV and digital broadcast rights to the two-month collection of matches, at a price that would run to a document 500 billion rupees ($6.7bn), sources accustomed to the businesses’ plans stated.

“Cricket is the second-biggest sport on the planet with two-and-a-half billion followers and IPL is like its Tremendous Bowl,” stated Anton Rublievskyi, head of Parimatch, a betting firm that marketed on the Indian Premier League (IPL) final yr.

“For those who’re not there, you don’t exist.”

Disney-owned Star India, which is without doubt one of the prime broadcasters in India together with Sony and its deliberate acquisition Zee Leisure Enterprises Ltd, paid 163.48 billion rupees ($2.2bn) for the digital and tv rights till 2022. The league’s matches reached 350 million viewers in the course of the first half of the 2021 season alone.

However conventional media companies now face stiff competitors from deep-pocketed rivals like Reliance, India’s largest retailer, and Amazon – two billionaire-led behemoths competing for the fast-growing e-commerce market whereas build up their digital platforms.

Amazon and Reliance are already locked in a pitched courtroom battle over the acquisiton of property of Future Group, one other huge India retailer.

Reliance can be in talks with traders, together with foreigners, to lift as much as $1.6bn for its broadcasting three way partnership, Viacom18.

Digital enlargement plans

“Profitable this bid is important to Reliance’s long-term plans for its Jio platform and its digital enlargement,” stated a supply with direct data of the corporate’s technique.

“The whole lot that has occurred at Viacom18 in the previous few months, like shopping for rights to the Spanish La Liga and organising a sports activities channel, has been constructing as much as this,” the supply stated.

Reliance and Viacom18 didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Amazon, whose Prime Video platform lately started live-streaming cricket matches, desires to win the IPL rights to increase the platform’s person base, one other business supply accustomed to the corporate’s pondering stated.

An Amazon India spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The corporate lacks a TV platform and would wish to herald a TV companion or may solely bid for the digital portion. The Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI), which runs the tender, awarded it in 2017 to a consolidated TV and digital bid from Star, which surpassed any of the mixed particular person bids.

Business sources anticipate flexibility from the BCCI given the prospects for document funds by bidders together with a deep-pocketed digital-only participant like Amazon.

BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, in an interview with the Reuters information company, stated the board had studied varied fashions and proposals however he didn’t touch upon particulars or the seemingly greenback worth of the bids.

“We’ll do our greatest to derive the precise worth a event just like the IPL deserves,” he stated.

Among the many media majors, Disney India didn’t reply to a request for remark however Disney CEO Bob Chapek instructed a latest earnings teleconference that the corporate was assured of reaching its subscriber targets in India even with out IPL rights.

Sony’s India leisure unit stated it could consider bids for each broadcast and digital rights.

Some within the business nonetheless, are questioning the sharp rise in the price of the rights and whether or not it’s sustainable.

“The IPL has bought to a stage the place it’s now too huge to fail and subsequently everybody who’s a part of the ecosystem is propping it up,” stated promoting business veteran Meenakshi Menon.