Disney loses its Indian Premier League streaming rights

() is awash with cash. Capital, a European buy-out firm, paid $750m for the Gujarat Titans, one of the cricket extravaganza’s newest teams. In an auction ahead of this year’s competition, which concluded last month (with the Titans’ victory), the ’s ten sides splurged $71m on 204 players, five times the amount spent five years ago (when there were eight of them). Another auction, held between June 12th and 14th, attracted even more serious dosh. Media heavyweights fought for the right to show matches to cricket-mad Indians for the next five years. Disney, which owns the current package, managed to hold on to the rights by agreeing to part with $3bn. It lost the online-streaming rights to Viacom18, a joint venture between Paramount Global, a fellow American media firm, and the media unit of Reliance, an Indian conglomerate, which will pay $2.6bn for the privilege. For another $500m or so, Viacom18 also scooped up the international rights for Australia and New Zealand, Britain and South Africa, the other big cricket markets, and a smaller domestic package for high-profile games.