Sony Pictures India is interested in sharing its broadcasting rights with Amazon Prime, one of the leading streaming giants, to jointly bid for broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next five years. Sony, who had the broadcasting rights for IPL, lost it to the Star network in 2017. Moreover, Sony plans to get past the Star Network in the bidding process for the IPL broadcasting rights. Sony has a good linear TV network that could work well with Amazon Prime. Star India secured the broadcasting rights for the 2018-22 IPL seasons and brought an end to Sony’s 10-year reign.
While Sony had reportedly placed a bid of Rs 11,050, Star won the bid that was worth a whopping Rs 16,348. Sony is eagerly looking forward to bringing back one of the most popular cricket leagues to its platform. Sony’s interest in merging with Zee Entertainment will further boost its presence in tier-2 and tier-3 broadcasting markets. Amazon has been trying to get the digital rights for IPL for quite some time but has not been successful.
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A source commented on the coalition, saying, “Prime Video has been looking to get into this space for a long time now and Sony wants to win the rights back. It looks like both may join hands for the same.” Prime Video has done previous live streaming for the IPL games between India and New Zealand in 2020. Since then they have shown a keen interest in IPL broadcasting.
The BCCI is expected to hold the auction for the broadcasting rights for the richest cricket league in the world in December 2021. IPL is, undoubtedly, very popular and has a dedicated viewership base as well. According to certain reports and experts, the BCCI can reportedly get at least $5 billion from broadcasting rights.
