Amazon pulls out of ICC media rights race: Reports

As per the latest emerging reports, American company Amazon has skipped the International Cricket Council media rights, leaving only four participants Star, Sony, Viacom and Zee to battle it out in the auction scheduled today (Friday) in Dubai. 

Production room during an ICC event [PC: Twitter]

Notably, the bids for the India media rights are set to be unveiled before the participants as well as lawyers and the independent parties at 5 PM IST today. While the representatives of other participating companies have arrived at the venue, Amazon are yet to mark their presence at the event. 

Although there's some time left for the process to begin and Amazon still can surprise its competitors by arriving on time, it's understood through some sources that they have actually pulled themselves out from the auction. 

This is the second instance when the American company has changed its mind just before the final whistle. Notably, they withdrew themselves from the IPL media rights auction in the last moment a couple of moments ago, raising a million eyebrows in this process.   

The ICC released its television and digital rights tender for the Indian subcontinent, last month. For the first time, ICC is selling its rights region by region and the current tender is only for the Indian Territory. 

The media rights for the next eight-year cycle, which begins in 2024, are up for grabs in the tender. It also features a women’s rights package which has been separately bundled and is only for four years, from 2024 to 2027. 

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