Shivaji Dasgupta
When Disney Star sub-licensed the TV broadcast rights of ICC cricket events in India (2024-27) to Zee Entertainment Enterprises for $1.5 billion, it seemed rather perplexing. But on closer scrutiny, it is a technicolour trailer of future sports broadcaster strategies, and indeed consumption patterns of Indian audiences.
Disney Star has smartly held on to the lucrative digital rights (paying about $1.5 billion) for ICC Cricket, while already in possession of the IPL telecast TV rights from 2023-27 (`23,575 crore). In unison they are significant stakeholders across media, capturing current behaviour and future growth, via the two largest properties. While IPL viewership may have dipped a bit in 2022, the franchise based format ensures reasonably consistent audience interest, unlike ICC tournaments which depend heavily on India’s performance. This makes revenues tougher for the TV broadcaster while the flexible digital hemisphere can be more attractive.
But it’s not exactly a dead end for competition, as Zee gets a solid sports broadcasting base, six years after its sectoral comeback, while Viacom 18 can amplify its `23,758 crore digital rights for the IPL (2023-27). This competitive coexistence ensures sustainable equilibrium and not a dangerously monopolistic or chaotic scenario, as multiple investors are hedging their bets. Quite prudently, Disney Star has managed to defray 50% of its giant ICC cheque and erased the disappointment of the IPL digital rights loss.
The broadcast game on the TV front will be fairly status quo (200 million plus TV homes as per BARC), as the technology has plateaued. On digital, with rapid increase in broadband penetration, the 5G influx and the ever-increasing affordability of smartphones, the opportunities are immense. On the supplier side, this is a blank slate with innovative engagement models and thoughtful usage of interactivity hopefully elevating digital content beyond merely live telecast. Brand sponsors have a lot to add, as content strategies must flow seamlessly to cricketing encounters, with influencers playing newer roles.
The actions of Disney Star and Viacom 18 will lay the foundation of digital cricket for the 2030s and beyond, when technology will further multiply and the enormously promising metaverse will attain adulthood. Clearly, the profiling and numerical escalation of digital users will make these rights way more valuable as an overall percentage, not the current 50-50.
In sum, everybody seems to be winning this game of cricket rights, especially the hungry customer. But Disney Star clearly enjoys a special advantage, the IPL TV and ICC digital awards a match-winning combination.
The author is an autonomous brand communication consultant and writer
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