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It is now virtually certain that Anil Ambani owned ADAGwill not bid for a IPL franchise when the two team auction takesplace. Insiders close to developments revealed to sportzpower thatdespite all the hype about ADAG being one of the frontrunners for thetwo additional franchises, it is highly unlikely that a bid willactually fructify. And the reserve price of $225 million is not thedeterrent. The complexities of running a team and managing its ecosystem is arguably a bigger impediment.
With Reliance Entertainment scaling up its operations, the focus ofthe Group is now on this vertical. The recent success of 3 Idiots andtwo big impending releases - Kites and Ravan - both costing Rs 100crore each have ensured that ADAG does not want any distraction of thekind that IPL presents itself. With Anil Ambani in his personalcommitment pledging serious multi million dollar equity in the StevenSpielberg joint venture Dreamworks, the focus is on entertainment.
With the data room having opened for the sale of beleaguered Hollywoodgiant MGM, Reliance Big Entertainment is one of the bidders along withNews Corp's Fox, Warner Bros, AT & T and Summit the distributionconglomerate. However, MGM's fragmented equity structure with multipleowners - Comcast, Providence, TPG and Sony - may prove to be an issue.
While most analysts have averred that ADAG remains the number onecontender for the Ahmedabad franchise, it is clear that this is not tobe. In any case R-ADAG has a history with IPL. ADAG had annulled the200-crore deal with Indian Premier League (IPL) because TV rights forthe coverage of the tournament were given to its immediate competitor- Airtel. ADAG had then told media, “We have been in talks with IPLfor some time now. We are being offered only the DTH rights while theTV rights are going to others. This is not acceptable to us; hence wehave decided to pull out." The fracas had even reportedly cost thenSony Entertainment CEO Kunal Dasgupta his job
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