Star Sports to earn Rs 3,600 – 3,800 crore ad revenue from IPL 14 this year

Star Sports, the sports channel from the house of Walt Disney Company India is expected to earn advertising revenue of Rs 3,600 crore – 3,800 crore from the forthcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). This includes ad revenue earned by Hotstar. Despite a short gap between last year, the T20 tourney has seen a 14-15% increase in ad rates this year. Last year, the IPL was held in the UAE between September 19 – November 10. “VIVO IPL has been the hottest property and over the years we have consistently seen brands deliver their objectives successfully via the platform. It’s the only property that sees traction across demographics and provides the best opportunity for brands who are looking to drive customer acquisition and growth agenda at the start of the financial year. We have witnessed very high demand, and will soon be nearly sold out for almost all the advertising slots, ” Anil Jayaraj, executive vice president, Star Sports, said.

According to industry estimates, Star Sports along with Hotstar had earned about Rs 2,600 crore in ad revenue from the IPL last year. Industry estimates reveal that the broadcaster is charging anywhere between Rs 13 – 14 lakh for a 10-second slot. Meanwhile, Chinese handset manufacturer Vivo has returned as the title sponsor for the tourney. “This year IPL has attracted a lot of emerging categories. These are largely new-age brands which are looking to build a solid recall,” Sujata Dwibedy, group trading director – Amplifi India, Dentsu Aegis Network, said.

As per industry sources the sports broadcaster has rolled out various sponsorship packages starting from Rs 150-170 crore for a co-sponsor slot, the associate sponsor package is worth Rs 40-50 crore. Additionally other packages are also being sold. This includes slots for the last 10 matches / 15 matches and the price ranges between Rs 25-27 crore. As for Disney+ Hotstar, the over-the-top (OTT) platform is believed to be charging Rs 180 CPM (cost per thousand impressions) for a single ad slot. Further, the OTT platform is said to be charging Rs 120- 130 crore for the slot of co-sponsor. The streaming platform recently announced Dream11 as the co-presenting sponsor. For Lloyd Mathias, angel investor and business strategist, online gaming companies see cricket and the IPL as a good fit and the perfect medium to promote their offerings. “Their presence will continue and may not be severely impacted by the fact that the ad rates are back to earlier levels. However given that IPL is back to its April-May period categories like beverages may be back in a big way, “ he added. This year the broadcaster claims to be witnessing significant interest from multiple brand categories including ed tech, fantasy sports, FMCG, beverages, financial services, pay wallets, home décor among others.

As per viewership data released by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India), IPL 2020 saw the highest ever viewership as it clocked 400 billion viewing minutes. With an overall consumption increase of 23% as opposed to the previous year, the television viewership reached 31.57 million average impressions in 2020. Meanwhile, this year, the tourney might see a dip in viewership as offices reopen. However, analysts believe that it will not affect the tournament or the broadcaster in terms of advertisers in any way. “IPL is a very strong franchise which has become a massive economic engine for the world of cricket. Hence, any aberration in viewership will not affect the scale of the tournament in any way,” Jehil Thakkar, partner, Deloitte, stated.

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