All eyes are on the buoyant Indian side when they take on Sri Lanka in the opening match of the ICC women’s cricket World Cup on September 30. With the Women’s Premier League (WPL) reaching upwards of 130 million viewers and generating close to `110-120 crore in ad revenues, advertiser interest and sponsorship rates are at an all-time high.
Industry sources say that sponsorship rates have seen a 40-50% jump over the 2022 edition. Title sponsorship is valued around 25-35 crore, while co-sponsorship deals are valued at 10-15 crore. TV ad rates are at 1.5-2 lakh per 10 seconds, going up to 3-3.5 lakh for India matches. On OTT, the ad rates are `400-500 CPM (cost per thousand impressions).
While there are no official data on the ad revenues from the 2022 season of the ICC women’s cricket World Cup, experts anticipate a 70% surge in ad revenues this season buoyed to an extent by the rationalisation of GST slabs.
Given that this is the festive season, advertisers from categories such as paints, home décor, FMCG, jewellery and e-commerce are upbeat. Sajal Gupta, CEO of Kiaos Marketing, notes that around 70-75% of the inventory has been sold out for the India games and that some inventory will be held back to be sold at a premium depending on how India progresses during the tournament. For India-Pakistan matches TV ad inventory is selling at a 25-35% mark-up, while CTV ad OTT rates are up 30-40%.
The Indian cricket team’s recent performances have added to the excitement. After all, it was just a few days ago when Smriti Mandhana made headlines with her century against Australia, which broke Virat Kohli’s record for the fastest one-day international hundred by an Indian player.
Although broadcaster JioStar has not yet announced names of the sponsors and advertisers for the tournament, a spokesperson says that there is significant interest from premium consumer brands and traditional festive spenders. “The scale and depth of conversations with advertisers are well ahead of where we were at the same stage in previous editions,” he says.
Widening reach
The broadcaster adds that last year’s T20 women’s World Cup delivered twice the reach of competing content genres in the same period. JioStar is optimistic about this year’s World Cup with 97% of its matches scheduled at prime time and with India’s key group-stage clashes against Australia, Pakistan and England slotted for Sundays. The fact that India is hosting an international women’s cricket event after 12 years coupled with the WPL’s rising momentum could see OTT viewership rise as much as 80% over the 2022 edition, says N Santosh, managing partner at D&P Advisory.
While the outlook is largely positive, some factors could play spoilsport. Observers express concern regarding the India-Pakistan fixtures in the wake of the tensions between the two countries and following the boycott calls during the recent Asia Cup. The Pakistan games for the tournament will be hosted by Sri Lanka.
Lesser buzz
Despite this hybrid arrangement, Santosh expects that while there may be lesser buzz, there will be no major dent in viewership and advertiser response for the India-Pakistan clashes.
“That said, some of the other challenges that could affect the tournament are online gaming ad restrictions that may cap revenues, and sustaining interest in the non-India games,” adds Santosh, suggesting that the organisers and broadcaster should boost engagement throughout the World Cup via influencer tie-ups and social media campaigns.
JioStar says it is creating more immersive viewing experiences with multilingual broadcasts, storytelling around players and enhanced digital experiences.