A three-member team of  Cricket Australia (CA), the cricket administering body Down Under, is in Mumbai to study the market situation in India and explore broadcasting partnership with Reliance Viacom Network.

The meeting is crucial as Reliance-Viacom is likely to launch a sports channel mid-April. According to reports, the Viacom18 executives are meeting CA officials to explore media rights partnership for the next cycle, according to a report by IANS.

Sony Sports Network is currently the rights holder of Cricket Australia’s portfolio but the rights will have to be renegotiated next year and CA’s executives currently are meeting almost every potential bidder in the Indian sports market.

The Aussie team, headed by Nikki Linney, has been meeting the representatives of Viacom18 (majority owned by Reliance Industries’ group company with US’ Viacom having sizable but minority shareholding), Star Network, Amazon Prime as well as digital platforms like Fan Code (Dream 11).

Notably, Reliance has become very serious about the sports broadcast business in recent times. Viacom18 has acquired rights to properties like FIFA World Cup, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue1, NBA, and Abu Dhabi T10 series, which are aired on MTV channel and streamed on VOOT.

The network is expected to be bid aggressively —- along with the likes of Disney-Star, Sony Pictures Network India (along with Zee that is in the process of merging with Sony), Amazon and Meta — for the rights of the IPL as sports broadcasting in India could very well see disruptions over the coming months.

Meanwhile, eyeing a windfall — some observers quote figures of Rs 50,000 crore — the Indian cricket board BCCI on Tuesday floated the media rights tender for the 2023-2027 IPL seasons, PTI reported.

The BCCI  will arrange an e-auction for the new bidders for the first time in the IPL history and it will commence from June 12, the board’s secretary Jay Shah said.

“With two new teams, more matches, more engagement, more venues, we are looking to take #TataIPL to newer and greater heights,” Shah had posted on his Twitter handle.

“I’ve no doubts that with this process there will not only be revenue maximisation but also value maximisation, which will benefit India Cricket immensely,” Shah had added.

Disney+Hostar is the only live streaming platform of the IPL in India, while sibling Star owned the TV rights for the last five years till season 2022.