Amazon said to pull out of IPL cricket streaming rights bidding

According to a person familiar with the matter, Amazon won't be bidding for the media rights, leaving Disney and Reliance as the likely winners.

The e-commerce giant was one of several tech giants that were preparing to participate in the Sunday auction.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has been told by Amazon that it won't be participating in the bid, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. There were media reports as early as this morning that said a war was about to break out between Reliance and Amazon.

Reliance, which operates the largest retail chain in India and also the largest telecom operator, has been working hard to get the cricket rights. James Murdoch and Uday Shankar's firm Bodhi Tree invested in a TV network backed by the Ambani family. Their bet on Hotstar and cricket streaming made the Indian app a crown jewel in Disneys portfolio.

One of the most popular sports in India is cricket, where 10 teams play off against one another over a long period of time. Disney has set several global streaming records in the past due to the popularity of the Indian cricket team.

Disney and Reliance are expected to go head-to-head for the streaming rights, which could be worth up to $7 billion.

The last five-year rights auction was won by Star India. People familiar with the matter said that the two companies are unlikely to make major bids.

A request for comment was not responded to by Amazon.

Amazon would have been able to draw a lot of viewers to its app if it had won the rights. The company's service, which already airs some cricket matches, is among one of the most popular on-demand video streaming apps in the South Asian market.

The 40 platforms are very competitive in theOTT market in India. Disney Hotstar has the best sports content. The Hotstar subscriber base is 30% of Disney's. Amazon Prime has seen a lot of growth. The Amazon Prime Video subscriber base is over 16 million. Analysts at Bernstein wrote that the Sony Liv/Zee merger has created another strong player.