Cricket likely to play spoilsport in Walt Disney-Reliance merger

Will the creation of India's largest media firm help fight the tech-media majors or simply birth a new monopoly?

Disney-Star has the digital and TV rights to all men’s and women’s events played under the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2024-2027. It also owns the broadcasting rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) from 2023-2028. It paid close to $6 billion (Rs 49,200 crore) for both.

The Reliance Industries and Bodhi Tree Systems owned Viacom18 owns the streaming rights to the IPL. It paid close to Rs 24,000 crore or just under $3 billion for these. Add it all up. That is $9 billion (Rs 73,800 crore) for a sport that reaches anywhere between 500-600 million