Amazon pulls out; Star, Viacom18, Sony, Zee in 4-way race for IPL rights

The much-anticipated duel between Jeff Bezos and Mukesh Ambani for acquisition of one of world’s costliest sporting properties won’t materialise now as OTT giants Amazon on Friday pulled out of IPL media rights bidding, scheduled to start on Sunday.

Reliance Industries Limited owned Viacom18 is considered to be one of the strongest contenders both in TV and digital space.

Bezos-funded Amazon was expected to be one of the biggest bidders in digital space but pulled out of the race without revealing the reason.

“Yes, Amazon is out of the race. They didn’t join the technical bidding process today. As far as Google (YouTube) is concerned, they had picked up the bid document but didn’t submit it.