IPL Media Rights 2023-27: Amazon mulling pulling out of digital rights amidst big bidding war

The IPL Media Rights for the 2023-27 cycle will be conducted through an E-Auction on Sunday. Meanwhile, Amazon is reportedly pulling out of the digital rights bidding.

Image credit: Instagram

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is undoubtedly the world's most lucrative domestic Twenty20 (T20) cricket league. Starting from the sponsors to match fees and even the media rights, they all fetch big money, while IPL's value keeps soaring with each passing season. The media rights for the 2023-27 cycle will be given out soon, with an E-Auction for the same scheduled to be held on Sunday. While Star Sports had the rights for the last five seasons at a value of ₹163.475 billion, it is expected to double this time. Although most of the big players will be in the fray to bid, digital streaming giant Amazon Prime Video is reportedly pulling out of the digital streaming bidding war.

Image Credit: Getty Images

As per IANS, Amazon has already invested $6 billion in the country and does not feel investing more via the IPL makes excellent business sense. Consequently, this would make the playing field slightly comfortable for other top bidders, like Reliance, Disney and Sony Group Corp. Amazon was initially highly interested in the IPL rights, having invested hugely in Europan football rights to expand the Indian sports market.

Image credit: PTI

Speaking about the upcoming media rights, a BCCI source told ANI, "Yes, the digital media rights for the IPL can go to one of the biggest industrial houses of the country as they are fully active in the entertainment and sports industry and also they are a part of the league for a long time. The current right holder is not interested in renewing their contract, and the reason behind this is not clear."

As for this IPL Media Rights cycle, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has set a base price of ₹32,890 crore for the 2023-27 phase, compared to ₹16,348 crore the last time, which is nearly double. ₹49 crore per match is the base price for television, while for digital, it has been set at ₹33 crore per match. Thus, the windfall is expected to be around ₹100 crore, overtaking the English Premier League (EPL) and Major League Baseball (MLB).