Rupert Murdoch’s Star India has seen off rival offers from Sony Pictures and Facebook with a record $2.6bn bid to secure the rights to show the Indian Premier League cricket competition around the world for the next five years. Star India, a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, won the auction for the IPL rights on Monday, beating Sony Pictures, which owns the broadcast rights until next year, and Facebook, which had bid $600m for the digital rights. Sony had paid about $1bn for its ten-year contract, meaning the value of the competition has quintupled in a decade.
A total of 24 bidders bought the bid document, including Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Yahoo, Reliance Jio, Star India, Sony Pictures, Discovery, Sky, British Telecom, and ESPN Digital Media, according to a ESPNcricinfo report.