The auctions for the Indian Premier League broadcasting rights for the next five years will take place later this year and as per some reports, Sony Pictures Network India are looking to collaborate with Amazon’s video streaming platform Prime Videos.
“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,” the report in Hindu Business Line quoted a source as saying.
Sony had held the broadcasting rights for ten years from 2008 to 2017 before Star India took over the reign for the 2018-22 period. They did so with a staggering bid of Rs 16,347.50 crores, that raised questions at the time. However, Star made big profits out of the deal and it is expected that the rights might skyrocket over Rs 35,000 crores for the next five-year cycle.
Earlier, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had added two new franchises to the cash-rich league making it a 10-team tournament. The two sides which will be based out of Lucknow and Ahmedabad will be a part of the 2022 edition of the IPL.
While Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG secured the bid for the Lucknow franchise (Rs 7090 crores), CVC Capital will have the ownership of the Ahmedabad team (Rs 5625 crores).
“The new franchises will participate in IPL from 2022 season onwards subject to the bidders completing the post-bid formalities as specified in the ITT document. The IPL 2022 season will comprise ten teams and will have 74 matches, wherein each team will play 7 home and 7 away matches," the BCCI said in a release.