Twitter is bidding for the digital rights for the Indian Premier League, the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s marquee event, "joining a raft of corporate heavyweights from broadcasters to telecom behemoths," according to Gaurav Laghate of the ECONOMIC TIMES. Twitter India Sports Partnerships Head Aneesh Madani said, "We are constantly evaluating opportunities around the world to transform the live sports experiences for fans in partnership with our most valued global sports partners and this IPL tender purchase is representative of that." Twitter currently has a partnership with the NFL, "wherein fans can go to tnf.twitter.com to watch Thursday Night Football live for free this season." Madani: "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 percent increase over 2015 and nine out of ten Twitter users in India are fans of cricket" (ECONOMIC TIMES, 10/17).
CHANGING IT UP: TNN reported there "may not be a level playing field for all bidders for IPL broadcast rights." The BCCI has reportedly "changed the tendering format." From the earlier requirement of separate bids for each rights on offer, it will now allow a "consolidated bid" for all rights, putting TV broadcasters in a likely position to "sweep up all rights." The BCCI is "tendering the rights" to broadcast the IPL on TV in India, digital broadcast of IPL in India, and int'l TV plus digital broadcast of IPL. Earlier, bidders were "required to give a separate value for each of the three rights packages." But after the clarification, bidders can put in one figure for all three rights, "without breaking down individual component values, making it impossible for BCCI to compare consolidated bids against bids for individual rights pieces." This change will "significantly benefit Star India and Sony, and makes it very likely that one of them will win all IPL rights, because the television rights command the largest share of absolute value." By allowing TV broadcasters to put in one bid figure for all three rights packages, the change has "effectively nullified the digital-only or international-only bidders, such as Amazon, GroupM, or ESPN, from being able to bid on a level playing field with the established TV broadcasters" (TNN, 10/17).
