New Delhi: Despite waning interest from businesses that had previously fiercely competed for the wildly successful Indian Premier League, India's cricket governing body is attempting to entice global behemoths Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. to bid in a media rights auction of its team's games.

As the Board of Control for Cricket in India contacts more businesses to generate interest in the property, the proposed starting date of the auction process for the media rights of the so-called bilateral series played by the Indian team against other nations for the following five years has been postponed by at least two weeks.

The lackluster response from media companies prior to the auction emphasizes the difficulty in making money from advertising revenues, with the shorter-format IPL being the top cricket property over the years in terms of viewership.

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According to a timeline provided by its adviser, Ernst & Young, auctions should have been finished by the end of August, but the sale process is currently two weeks behind schedule.

The people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private, said that EY expects the sale of rights to 102 matches to generate at least $750 million (Rs 6193 crore), or nearly the same price as when it was sold five years ago.

The rights to IPL, on the other hand, had increased nearly threefold since the previous auction last year.

The IPL continues to be one of the most watched sporting events in the world and continues to dominate the cricket calendar. When the media rights to the IPL were auctioned off last year, the BCCI raised record sums of money as Viacom 18 Media Ltd., owned by Mukesh Ambani, a billionaire, and Walt Disney Co. outbid competitors like Sony Group Corp.

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However, Ambani's JioCinema offered the 2023 IPL season for free online, and Disney had trouble turning a profit because of sluggish ad sales. Viacom 18 will make a competitive bid for the digital media rights to the bilateral series, whereas Disney, which is undergoing a round of cost-cutting measures globally, may adopt a cautious approach, according to the sources.

Disney, EY, and BCCI representatives all declined to comment. Emails requesting comment from Viacom 18, Amazon, and Alphabet spokespeople went unanswered.

The rights for the bilateral series were purchased by Star India, a Disney subsidiary since 2019, five years ago for 61 billion rupees ($741 million).

Since then, the asset has lost about 10 billion rupees, according to the sources. They added that a decision has not yet been made regarding conducting an online auction and dividing up the media rights into digital and linear this time.

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