IPL broadcasting rights: Amazon plans to pull out of Rs 60,000 cr race

 Amazon’s surprise pullout leaves the field open to Ambani’s Reliance, Disney and Sony Group Corp

Amazon.com Inc. is planning to withdraw from a heated competition for the rights to stream Indian Premier League cricket matches, according to people familiar with the matter, ceding one of the world’s most popular sporting contests to rivals from Walt Disney Co. to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd.

The rights had been estimated to fetch an unprecedented $7.7 billion (nearly Rs 60,000 crore). The US giant is planning to throw in the towel rather than get into a bidding war, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. While Amazon has already invested more than $6 billion in the country, more spending merely for the online streaming rights to the league didn’t make business sense, they said.

Representatives for Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon’s surprise pullout leaves the field open to Ambani’s Reliance, Disney and Sony Group Corp., who’re betting the game will help them dominate an Indian consumer market increasingly going online. Whichever company scores the deal could also bolster their position as a leading media player in a country of 1.4 billion where the English sport enjoys cult-like status.

Walt Disney’s weapon against Netflix and Amazon in India: Hotstar

Hotstar reported 300 million monthly active users last year

When Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ streaming service makes its debut in India on March 29, it will enjoy the luxury of home-court advantage: Hotstar. Disney’s control of Hotstar, which it acquired through the $71 billion purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox in 2019, gives Disney+’s entrance into the Indian market in partnership with Hotstar hundreds of millions of potential subscribers it can attract.

Hotstar reported 300 million monthly active users last year. Most of these are users of the free, advertising-supported service and Disney has said it is aiming to convert many of these users into paying subscribers. Disney could use the help as the streaming video war is waged on the global stage this year against rivals Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc. India is widely viewed as one of the biggest source of new subscribers.

Hotstar’s paid service includes shows from a spectrum of international programmers including AT&T Inc’s HBO, whose offerings include “Game of Thrones” and “Chernobyl” as well as popular live sports content like Premier League soccer. Disney+ Hotstar, will have two tiers of pricing where the premium variant will include its original programming like “Star Wars” TV series “The Mandalorian” and “WandaVision” and “Loki” from Marvel…

IPL 2020 sale: When and where to watch, live spilling subtleties here

Star Sports who has the worldwide privileges of IPL has arranged unequaled survey understanding for fans that incorporates live master responses and examination, including every single live advancement from the bartering room

Cricket News: After an effective and nail-gnawing IPL 2019, the much-anticipated cricketing competition of the year is back with IPL 2020 closeouts planned to occur on December 19 in Kolkata. Star Sports, worldwide rights holder of the IPL has arranged unrivaled survey understanding for fans that incorporates live master responses and investigation, including all the live improvements from the sale room.

Cricket specialists, for example, Dean Jones will be back with Daren Ganga, who is said to make his editorial introduction alongside previous Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor Tom Moody. They will be joined by Gautam Gambhir and Aakash Chopra on the Hindi feed. Sanjay Bangar and Ian Bishop would join the live feed from Kolkata.

Star Sports additionally propelled the third version of IPL Election Se Selection as a lead up to the IPL 2020 players‘ sale. IPL Election Se Selection offers fans a chance to flaunt their IPL aptitude and vote which group will wind up picking from the select 10 players.

When are the place to watch IPL 2020 Live sale

Catch all the activity of the IPL 2020 sales on December 19 from 2:30 pm on Star Sports 1 Hindi/1 HD Hindi, Star Sports First, 1 Tamil, 1 Telugu, 1 Kannada, 1 Bangla; and from 3:20 p.m. on “Select Dugout Auction Special” on Select 1/1 HD and Hotstar.

IPL 2018 grabs 423 million eyeballs in two weeks across the country

In terms of viewership, impressions in million, the tournament has seen a 27 per cent jump over the last year

 

The second week of the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL 2018) saw it reach 423 million viewers across the country on multiple platforms from the Star India stable. The league, currently on air on the Star Sports network on TV and Hotstar on digital, has thus registered 10 per cent growth across platforms over the last year (the first two weeks).

According to BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council of India) data provided by Star India, the IPL registered a cumulative reach — total number of people to have sampled the tournament — of 303 million in the first two weeks in TV homes, and an additional 9.5 million in out-of-home TV viewing (restaurants, bars and pubs). Last year, the IPL registered a reach of 295 million viewers in the first two weeks. This includes only home viewership, not out of home. The tournament’s reach on Hotstar for the first weeks was 110 million. This data is for the all India market, including viewers 

above 2 years old.

Star India MD Sanjay Gupta says, “We set out with the aim of increasing the total reach (TV+digital) of the IPL this year to 700 million and given the trend in the first two weeks, we are on way to achieving it. Since this is the first time that TV and digital rights rest with the same company, it is also now possible to look at TV reach and viewership holistically across platforms. Media is getting fragmented with the emergence of digital and this way, advertisers now have access to total viewership data.”

In terms of viewership, impressions in million, the tournament has seen a 27 per cent jump over the last year at a total viewership across platforms amounting to 289 million in urban markets measuring viewers above 2 years old. Since viewership refers to the number of people watching the IPL at any given point in its telecast, an increase in reach means that the time spent on the tournament is also increasing. Of the 289 million impressions, TV viewing audiences at home contributed 247 million, while out-of-home TV viewing accounted for 5.5 million and 36 million came from Hotstar.

With Star India pushing localisation of the IPL broadcast in the South Indian markets and West Bengal, the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh/Telangana along with West Bengal saw viewership increase 39 per cent to 100 million. Viewership on Hotstar in these states was 12 million, while viewership at home was 87 million.

Read More : IPL Points table 

Amazon Fire TV Stick: All that you need to know

The streaming device market is hotting up with Amazon launching Fire TV Stick in India

 

Watching streaming content has caught on big time in India. Hotstar started streaming IPL two years ago and had a viewership of 41 million which crossed 100 million in 2016 and in the latest edition of the T20 Cricket tournament, Star is targeting a viewership of more than 130 million on its platform, Hotstar.

It is this market that companies are rushing to corner. While Airtel launched its “internet tv” device last week, Google’s Chromecast has been around for longer.

The latest entrant in this field is Amazon with its Fire TV Stick being launched in India today. 

What does Fire TV Stick do?

The Fire Stick TV is a HDMI stick that converts a tv into a smart tv. It plugs into the tv’s HDMI port and allows wireless streaming of content.

What are the tech specs like?

Fire TV stick runs a MediaTek Quad-core processor clocking at 1.3GHz, 1GB RAM and Mali450 graphics. It is a complete media player in itself and does not need a laptop or a phone to play content. Unlike Google Chromecast, it is not just a connectivity device between phones, laptops and tv sets. It runs on Android operating system with Amazon’s custom interface loaded on it.

What content can we get on the Fire TV Stick?

The stick comes preloaded with apps like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube etc. One can play content on these apps using the stick itself.

In India, the stick also carries Voot, NDTV, Hotstar, Sony Liv, Gaana on it.

Amazon Prime subscribers already get complimentary access to Amazon Prime Video. Amazon Prime membership can be purchased for just Rs 499 per annum.| READ MORE..