Twitter is the latest to pick up the tender document in an effort to bag the Indian Premier League (IPL) digital media rights from the 2018 edition of the cricket league, according to the Economic Times. The length of the contract is five years. It was earlier revealed that Indian telecom operator Reliance Jio and American e-commerce giants Amazon are also in the fray for the digital rights.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), last month, announced the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the IPL media rights. The deadline to submit the bids is October 25.
"Cricket fans watch the IPL with Twitter and love tweeting about it. Globally, there were more than 10.6 million tweets related to the IPL in 2016, a 56 per cent increase over 2015 and nine out of ten Twitter users in India are fans of cricket," said Aneesh Madani, a representative from Twitter India, to ET.
"At Twitter, we see this interest growing and are excited to continue working with long standing partners like the IPL to build a global, mobile fan base for cricket in the years to come."
The social media company enjoys a fruitful partnership with the famed National Football League (NFL), where fans can watch American football live for free on Thursdays and also participate in open forums and discussions.
Huge advantage for Star India and Sony Pictures?
Meanwhile, another report has stated that the companies fighting for the IPL broadcast rights in India have an advantage over the digital platforms as well as the international TV and digital broadcasters, when it comes to the bidding war. Currently, the front runners and the favourites -- Star India and Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) -- can land with all the three IPL media rights at once.
According to sources, the BCCI is willing to accept a "consolidated bid" from the TV broadcasters for all the media rights, where they need to put forward a one-bid figure for all three rights packages.
"The TV rights alone could fetch more than Rs 20,000 crore, but those bids will now become consolidated bids instead of TV-only bids, meaning BCCI will end up giving the digital and international rights as a free value add to the TV broadcast rights," a bidder, on condition of anonymity, told the Times of India on Monday. "Anyone bidding for digital and international only now is unlikely to stand a chance of winning."
The TV rights are for 10 IPL seasons -- from 2018 to 2027, while the digital rights are for five years each.
