On Tuesday, The Indian cricket board said that it had received interest from social media giants Twitter and Facebook for media rights to the popular Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 Cricket Tournament.
Major non-television entities such as Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Reliance Jio were among 18 companies that have bought the Invitation to Tender document for the rights of IPL television and digital rights.
The interested companies would vie for TV rights for the IPL in the Indian subcontinent until 2027, digital rights in the same region until 2022 and media rights for the rest of the world until 2022 as well. The last date for submitting the bid is 25th October 2016.
Currently, the television rights are held by Sony Pictures Network India and expire after the 2017 IPL season. Star India is in possession of the digital rights and the overseas media rights, except in the US and the UK, all of which also expire after IPL 2017.
President of BCCI – Anurag Thakur said that he was pleased with the response. He further added that with the global trends of showcasing content on multiple platforms becoming increasingly important -Mobile, Internet, and TV rights are up for grabs together this time.
The Cricket is the most popular sport in India. The teams in the IPL count Bollywood stars and major millionaires such as Reliance Industries as investors.
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