Airtel, Yahoo join race for IPL broadcast rights

The Indian Premier League (IPL) completed ten seasons in May this year which also brought an end to the broadcasting rights of Sony Pictures Network India, who held them since 2008. The BCCI has brought down the broadcasting rights from 10 to 5 years and currently, big companies are buying the bid documents including telecommunications major Airtel and web service provider Yahoo.

24 companies in the fray

The tender process started from July 17 and 24 companies have already shown interest including Discovery, Yupp TV, BAMTech and DAZN/Perform Group. The tender process was opened by the BCCI last year in September before it was stalled due to the ongoing feud between the Board and the Lodha Committee. The 18 companies that applied last year – Star India, Amazon Seller Services, Follow-on Interactive Media, Taj TV India, Sony Pictures Networks, Times Internet, Supersport International, Reliance Jio Digital, Gulf DTH FZ LLC, GroupM Media, beIN, Econet Media, SKY UK, ESPN Digital Media, BTG Legal Services, BT PLC, Twitter, Facebook Inc – are eligible to take part in the process this year.

“Yes, Airtel and Yahoo have bought bid documents. Along with them the other two new companies are BAMTech and DAZN/ Perform Group, who also have bought documents. Both BamTech and DAZN/Perform group are working in the digital space,” a BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

The broadcasting rights are divided into three categories – TV, mobile and internet. Sony Pictures Network, who held the broadcast rights for the first 10 years, will face tough competition from Star India. Including all three categories, the estimated value the BCCI is expected to fetch is a whopping Rs 20,000 crores. The deadline for the submission of sealed bids is September 4.

Swamy questioned the auctioning process, SC mum

Earlier, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had appealed to the Supreme Court that the bidding process must be transparent as a huge sum of money is at stake. He suggested that the BCCI must carry the bidding process through e-auctioning rather than conducting it opaquely. The Supreme court did not pay much heed to Swamy’s plea and the process wont be carried through an e-auction this year.