Disney’s IPL loss is Reliance’s gain

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Editor's note: It has taken three long days for the auction to conclude. The media rights—television and streaming—to the Indian Premier League, the most popular of cricketing tournaments, were up for grabs for five years from 2023. And these past three days have seen the giants of Indian media come and indulge in a bidding war to the finish.  First, the highlights. The numbers are expectedly huge. The total value of the media rights to the IPL now stands at Rs 48,390 crore, or about $6.2 billion. That is more than a billion dollars a year. That is also almost three times more than what it was five years ago, Rs 16,346 crore. It gets far more impressive if we look at the break-up.  The television rights to IPL were retained by Disney-owned Star India for Rs 23,575 crore.The streaming rights were won by Reliance Industries’s Viacom18 for a total of Rs 23,758 crore. Times Internet made a cameo in the auction and won the IPL rights for the US, the Middle East and North Africa. And with that, in what can only …