Zee and Sony cut above the rest, but faces problem of plenty in IPL media rights bidding war

As several reports suggest, the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) is expecting a bid of over 45,000 crore for acquiring the IPL media rights from the 2023 season onwards. With several media giants supposedly in the fray, the bidding war could even extend to an unimaginable amount.

The latest merger between Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. and Sony Pictures Network India ensures that they may lead the race. However, Viacom 18 and the Walt Disney India are not left much behind with the officials at the organisations suggesting that they have received green signal to go all-out.

While Zee and Sony may hold a lot more money and power than their competitors, the problems are not less. To bag the IPL media rights, they would have to let go of the thought of investing in other leagues and bilateral series, the strategy they adopted after Star was announced as the new home of the cash-rich tournament. 

"So, what did Sony do in 2017-18, after it lost the IPL and BCCI rights. It went shopping world over - bought sub-continent rights for all cricket in Australia and England. That canvas is bigger now and the International Cricket Council (ICC) rights are coming up too. IPL is big but not the end of the world," a leading cricket-industry executive said as quoted by The Times of India.

The buzz was aloud that Amazon is interested in collaborating with Sony. However, Sony opted for the other route and entered into a deal with Zee. While Amazon, reportedly, will no longer bid heavily for the IPL's digital space, Zee can come into the picture and capitalise on the opportunity with their OTT platform Zee5 doing well enough to survive in the market. 

"In that lies the story of how they can build their bid-plan. Amazon is unlikely to be in the picture, so Zee must approach this digital space with a big heart, deep pockets, and extensive planning. If they can do it, especially with the cushion of having a billion dollar-plus loss-fund at their disposal, they have enough to take their chances here," quoted The Times of India.

"Discount Zee-Sony at your own peril," says an industry player. "They can very well surprise," an industry player added.

Arriving at another issue, will Zee and Sony risk going big that comes with a cost of bearing the losses? 

Sony held the media rights for 10 years, paying Rs 8,200 crore to the BCCI. Star India bagged the IPL media rights for Rs 16,347 crore in 2017 at the deal of 60 matches per year. With two new teams added to the tournament and the IPL extending to more matches and days, the amount to acquire the rights of the league will certainly see a sharp rise.

Sony and Zee again will have to do brainstorming, considering these numbers might push them towards the losses. However, with too much money in the bank, they can probably choose to risk it all. While Zee and Sony are a notch above the competitors, they suffer from a problem of plenty.

As all top media giants of the industry hold an interesting tone reflecting upon IPL, the bidding war this year will gain a lot of traction from the fans. The BCCI will sell the media rights for television and digital telecast of the IPL for 2023-27 through an e-auction, which is scheduled in March-end.