The World Cup has ended but another extravaganza is set to begin. The hugely popular Indian Premier League’s (IPL) eighth season will begin on April 8 and its official broadcaster, Multi Screen Media (MSM), says the ad inventory is is 90% sold out. This, despite the ad inventory selling at 10-15% premium over the previous year. Ad rates for the season are priced at Rs  4.75-5 lakh for 10 seconds, up from 4.25 lakh for 10 seconds in 2014.

Rohit Gupta, president at Multi Screen Media (MSM)  which runs channels such as Sony Six and Set Max, says three new sponsors have stepped in: Parle Products, Raymonds and Magicbricks.com. Other sponsors include e-commerce brands Amazon.com and Cardekho.com, mobile commerce brand Paytm, telecom brand Vodafone, auto maker Hero MotoCorp and handset maker Intex, others. The network hopes to clock in Rs 900-950 crore in ad revenues this year, up from Rs 800 crore last year.

Pepsi is the title sponsor for the tournament, having signed a five-year deal in 2012 worth Rs 397 crore. While the presenting sponsorship on air has gone for Rs 60 crore, associate sponsors have come in for Rs 28-35 crore.

Gupta says, “We don’t have much ad inventory left. Our network will have about 12-13 sponsors on the IPL this year, which is our highest tally yet. We are in discussions with a food-based e-commerce site as well for sponsorship. This should be a great season for the Indian Premier League with renewed interest around cricket and positive advertiser sentiment. We expect to sell the last few matches at Rs 15-20 lakh for 10 seconds”.

Earlier in the year, there was conjecture that marquee cricket property World Cup 2015 could well cannibalise ad revenues for the IPL, but as it turns out, the story could well be the opposite. With resurgence in cricket interest, the World Cup hype and hoopla could considerably augment revenues, as also viewership for rival MSM.  The IPL viewership in sheer numbers went up from 155 million in 2013 to 190 million in 2014.

Media buyers expected the reach to go up to 240 million this year on the back of increased noise and activity on the World Cup.

Navin Khemka, managing partner of Maxus, GroupM India, says there is a lot of positive advertiser sentiment around cricket because of India’s exemplary performance in the World Cup.

“A lot of advertisers who were fence sitters on the World Cup have regretted their decision, in the wake of the event’s popularity among viewers.

A natural consequence is that they don’t want the next big cricket opportunity to pass them by, which is the IPL. This property has a lot of things going for it has consistently performed season after season and cuts across age groups and economic factors”.

Indranil Das Blah, chief operating officer of sports consultancy Kwan, says cricket ad rates have been unprecedented this year. “The IPL will be in a position to command huge premiums for its left over inventory, though I am not sure if the premiums will be in the same league as some of the World Cup matches. The India-Pakistan one for instance had a huge asking rate,” he notes.