By Shilpa Jamkhandikar

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – Amazon and Reliance Industries are looking to rival each other in India. They will be competing for telecast rights of India’s top cricket league. This is expected to attract media heavyweights.

Reliance Industries Ltd (NASDAQ:) & Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:), are set to assume India unit of Sony Walt (NYSE:) Group Corp. Disney Co to acquire exclusive 5-year digital and TV broadcast rights for the series of two-month matches. The cost could be as high as 500 billion rupees ($6.7 million), according to sources who are familiar with their plans.

Anton Rublievskyi of Parimatch said that cricket is second in popularity worldwide with over two billion players. “IPL is like the Super Bowl,” he added. Parimatch is a betting company which advertised for the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“If you are not there, then you don’t exist.”

The digital rights to the television and the internet were purchased by Star India (owned by Disney) for 163.48 billion rupees. This is in addition to the planned acquisition Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. The first half of the 2021 season saw 350 million people watch the matches.

However, traditional media businesses now face strong competition from deep-pocketed competitors like Reliance in India, India’s largest retailer, or Amazon. These two giants, both led by billionaires, are competing for India’s fast-growing ecommerce market and building out their digital platforms. [L4N2IB3MD]

Amazon and Reliance have already been locked in an intense courtroom fight over acquisition of Future Group assets, another large Indian retailer.

Reliance Communications is currently in negotiations with foreign investors to raise as much as $1.6 billion to fund Viacom18, its joint broadcasting venture.

A source who is familiar with Reliance’s strategy stated that winning this bid was crucial to the long-term plans of Reliance for Jio and digital expansion.

According to a source, “Everything at Viacom18 over the past few months has been building up, such as buying Spanish La Liga rights and setting up an sports channel,” said the source.

Reliance Communications and Viacom18 didn’t respond to our requests for comment.

Amazon recently launched live-streaming of cricket matches on Prime Video. A source close to the matter said the company wants to be awarded the IPL rights.

A spokesperson for Amazon India did not respond when we asked.

It does not own a television platform, so the company would have to find a TV partner. Or it could bid only for digital. In 2017, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, (BCCI) awarded the tender to Star. This bid was more than any of the individual ones.

Sources in the industry expect the BCCI to be flexible given record bidder payments, which could include a digital-only giant like Amazon.

Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, stated in an interview that the board has studied several models and propositions, but he didn’t comment on the details nor the probable dollar value.

“We will make every effort to provide the best value possible for tournaments like the IPL,” he stated.

Disney India, one of the major media companies, did not reply to a request for comments. But Disney CEO Bob Chapek stated that even though IPL rights were not available, the company could achieve its Indian subscriber targets.

Sony India Entertainment Unit stated that it will evaluate all bids for broadcast and digital rights.

However, some in the industry are questioning whether the steep rise in rights costs is sustainable.

Meenakshi Menon, a veteran in the advertising industry said that “The IPL is now too large to fail” and that everyone is supporting it.