As defending champions Mumbai Indians take on runner-up Delhi Capitals in the opening match of the Women Premier League (WPL) 48 hours from now, Viacom18 will be hoping for a significant upswing in viewership and ad revenues for the second season of the cricket league. Last year, the streamer-broadcaster had set its sights on Rs 80-90 crore in ad revenues but might have missed that target by a whisker, said reports. This year, experts say, it is eyeing ad revenues of Rs 100-120 crore from the league that was valued at Rs 1,250 crore in its debut edition by valuation services provider D&P Advisory.
“Last year, we didn’t see as much interest from advertisers but things are different this season as the sentiment is more positive and many advertisers are investing in the league proactively,” says Sandeep Goyal, CMD at Rediffusion. He refused to divulge the names of these advertisers. A surge was expected with 2023 being the year of A/B testing in a manner of speaking. “This year, the league’s success will also depend on whether large FMCG firms that are focused on women will spend on the league. WPL needs to become a destination for women-first brands based on the belief that it will draw female viewers,” says Goyal.
Viacom18 is yet to reveal the names of sponsors and advertisers this season; last year, it had roped in 50 advertisers and around 10 sponsors including Tata Motors, Tata Capital, Hero Vida, BoB, MPL Striker, World Gold Council, H&M, JSW Paints, Noise and Apar Industries. As per media agency sources, ad rates this year are between Rs 50,000 and 60,000 per 10 seconds for CTV, and around Rs 70,000 to 80,000 for Sports18 (linear TV) this year. On JioCinema, the ad rates are between Rs 190 and 220 per CPM (or cost per mille/cost per thousand). They are not too different from what they were last year, but sources say that Viacom18 is working towards a 30% mark-up with bundled TV and digital deals.
Crossing the rope
It would be unfair to look at the property purely from an advertising revenue lens, says Karan Taurani, senior vice-president at Elara Capital. “While advertisers may be uncertain about spending on this property, there is definitely a growing interest among audiences when it comes to women’s cricket in recent years,” he says. Taurani has a point. For instance, the total live viewing hours across linear TV and digital platforms for the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup in India went up 57% vis-à-vis the 2020 edition despite India not reaching the final. Overall for that tournament, the most-watched game in India was the Women in Blue’s group stage fixture against Pakistan, which received a combined 32.8 million live viewing hours across the Star Sports network and Disney+ Hotstar.
According to Divya MS, business director at ITW IO, it’s not just start-ups but a number of legacy brands have also evinced interest. The firm was instrumental in getting Sintex on board as an associate partner. She expects Viacom18 to step up efforts to bolster the viewer experience. “We will see a marked improvement, thanks to their learnings from last year. They need to develop programming that focuses on the cricketers’ back stories. This will build resonance with the audience,” she adds.
What will clinch the deal for Viacom18 is effective packaging, say analysts. During season one, the league did well with 86 million unique viewers on TV and 98 million on OTT, as per YouGov. The IPL last year saw 505 million viewers on TV alone.
Some analysts expect the broadcaster to offer advertising packages bundled with the men’s IPL to boost ad spending on WPL. Says Santosh N, managing partner, D&P Advisory, “To bridge the gap between women’s cricket and the IPL, Viacom18 could integrate campaigns that feature WPL highlights during IPL matches, and vice versa. Allocating segments in IPL broadcasts to discuss WPL could also help familiarise fans with women’s cricket.”
Jigar Rambhia, who leads the sports practice at Omnicom Media Group, says increasing exposure will undoubtedly attract more viewers and that will boost the revenues. “The WPL is travelling to Bangalore and Delhi this time around, which presents an opportunity to engage with new audiences,” he adds. The first 11 matches this time around will be played at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru; the remaining nine league matches and two playoff matches will take place at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Two venues across Mumbai were used for the tournament last season.
That said, some experts argue that the Rs 100-crore ad revenue target could still be a challenge, given that most brands spend no more than 2-3% of their annual ad budget on women’s sporting events.