The 16th installment of the Indian Premier League has witnessed more than 60 brands of 35 advertisers advertising across more than 25 categories during the first seven matches held between March 31 and April 4, according to a report on Commercial Advertising on Television by TAM Sports, a division of TAM Media research. However, the report also stated that the number of categories, advertisers and brands dropped in IPL 16 compared to the same number of matches last year (IPL 15). It must be noted that the count of channels during IPL 16 have increased to 25 from 20 during IPL 15.
According to the report, gaming has emerged as the top advertising category for the ongoing season of the tournament. A recent report published by Redseer Strategy Consultants stated that the Fantasy sports segment revenue is cumulatively expected to grow in the range of 30-35% to Rs 2,900-3,100 crore during the ongoing IPL season over the last year.
During the first seven matches, the top five categories’ listed had three categories from ‘F&B’ as compared to four categories from ‘e-commerce’ sector in IPL 15, the report stated. On the other hand, advertisers from edtech, fintech, e-commerce categories were not present in the first seven matches of the ongoing season but were part of IPL 15.
The top five categories together had more than 55% share of Ad Volumes in IPL 16, said the TAM report. Interestingly, two out of five categories were common between IPL 15 and 16. Adding further, the report also highlighted that top five advertisers contributed nearly 40% share of Ad Volumes during seven matches of IPL 16. Sporta Technologies and KP Foods were the only common advertisers among top five during IPL 15 and 16, the report claimed.
Highlighting about the addition of new categories of advertisers, the report mentioned that 11 new categories and 45 new brands advertised in seven matches of IPL 16 compared to the same number of matches in IPL 15. Among the new categories, majority of the e-commerce categories did not advertise in IPL 16 compared to IPL 15, while among the 45 news brands, ‘Airtel 5G Plus’ topped the list followed by ‘Vivo V27 Series’.
While there has been a sharp decline in the television numbers, on the contrary, digital has witnessed a sharp increase in number of brands signing up to advertise on the platforms. JioCinema, the official digital streaming partner of TATA IPL 2023, recorded 23 sponsors signing up for advertising on the platform. The company claims that the number of advertisers and sponsors signed up by JioCinema for the current season is higher than any event on digital streaming in India. Additionally, as per the company, the number of advertisers and the revenue booked on JioCinema, both are higher than last year on digital.