Amazon pulls from race for IPL media rights for the 2023-27 season

• Amazon has withdrawn from the race to own the IPL’s media rights for the next five years.
• The channel has learned that the global e-commerce giant is not among the final seven bidders
• This time, moreover, the IPL has separated the television and digital rights into separate packages.

Amazon has withdrawn from the race to own the IPL’s media rights for the next five years. The global e-commerce giant is not among the final seven bidders in the e-auction for the rights to broadcast the Big Bash Twenty20 tournament from 2017-18.

Amazon has been a pioneer in acquiring lucrative streaming rights across global sports, and it was expected to make a strong bid for the IPL’s digital rights packages. In 2021, the company agreed to a billion-dollar-a-year (ten-year) deal to broadcast only 15 Thursday night games in the National Football League in the United States. Their departure will be a setback for the IPL.

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It has been learned that Amazon’s top brass in the US made the decision not to pursue the media rights, and that it was communicated to the IPL on Friday – the deadline for bidders to submit their paperwork.

This time, moreover, the IPL has separated the television and digital rights into separate packages. Package A includes Indian subcontinent television rights. Package B is concerned with digital rights in the Indian subcontinent. Package C includes digital rights to a special bouquet of matches for the Indian subcontinent, including the playoffs. And Package D, which includes TV and digital rights for the rest of the world, is divided into two sub-categories: combined ROW or five individual regions.

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Every bidder may compete in more than one category, but must list their price per match. The base price per match for Package A is INR 49 crore (USD 6.3 million approx.).

Even so, the IPL has made one change to the e-auction. The winner of Package A may compete with the winner of Package B by offering 5% more than the top bid. while this contest was supposed to have bid increments of at least 5%, it has now devolved into a straight fight. To determine the winners of Packages C and D, the same procedure would be followed.