India's cricket body woos Amazon, Google for $750M media rights - report
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India's cricket governing agency is attempting to lure Amazon.com (AMZN) and Google's parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) to bid in a media rights auction of the Indian team's games, Bloomberg reported.
The move by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) comes amid diminishing interest from companies who had recently competed in auction for rights to the Indian Premier League, a domestic cricket franchise tournament, the report noted.
The BCCI has postponed the proposed starting date of an auction for the media rights of bilateral series â to be played by the Indian team against other countries â for the next five years by at least two weeks, to potentially reach out to more companies to raise interest in the auction, the report added citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The tepid response from companies shows the struggle to make money amid weak advertising revenues, with the shorter-format IPL being the top cricket product generating higher viewership over the years.
The sale process is two weeks behind a timeline indicated by its adviser Ernst & Young (EY) under which auctions would have been over by August end, according to the report.
EY anticipates that the sale of the rights to 102 matches could bring in at least $750M, almost the same price for what it was sold five years ago, the report noted citing the sources.
On the contrary, IPL rights, which were auctioned last year, had soared about three times from the previous offering. Currently, the five-year media rights for IPL, starting from 2023, are split between Disney Star and Viacom18 Media.
Viacom 18 â owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani â will bid for the digital media rights to the bilateral series, while Walt Disney (DIS) may take a cautious stance, the report added.
Star India, a unit of Disney, had bought rights for the bilateral series in the five years from 2018 for INR 61B (~$741M) and has seen losses of about INR 10B from the asset, the people said, as per the report.
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