India’s biggest media property is staring at multiple headwinds as the rights holders seek to monetise the property, including a decline in advertising investment from new-age advertisers, a cautious attitude from corporate advertisers, and a surplus of cricket advertising inventory caused by consecutive India matches.
Furthermore, Jio Cinema’s decision to offer the IPL free to all users will be the biggest disruption that the league has faced in recent years.
This will test the broadcaster Disney Star’s ability to retain viewers and ad revenue.
It is worth noting that TV viewership for IPL 2022 has already decreased by over 30%.
Advertisers have also not shown significant interest in recent bilateral matches featuring India, including the current home series against Sri Lanka.
This further exacerbates the issue for the broadcaster.
For the three T20 matches, Disney sold slightly more than 700 seconds of free commercial time per match, compared to the available inventory of 3,000 seconds per match, said a source on condition of anonymity.
Krishnarao Buddha, senior category head marketing, Parle Products, said the performance of impact properties, such as cricket and reality shows, has not met expectations in recent years.
“Impact properties have been declining in deliveries, especially post-Covid-19. While the cost of associating with cricket is very high, the returns are not keeping pace with the rising costs,” he said.
According to Buddha, Jio Cinema’s free offering will be a game-changer, as the cost is lower on digital platforms. “Advertisers can do sharper targeting with limited outlays on digital. It gives me a better return on investment,” he said.
Rajiv Dubey, head of media, Dabur India, said while overall ad expenditure has increased in 2022, advertising demand was low in November and December due to overall macroeconomic challenges.
“Corporate advertisers were cautious in spending money on advertising while ad spends from tech startups totally vanished,” he said.
Disney Star head of network advertising sales Ajit Varghese said that IPL as a property will attract good traction from advertisers because it has the potential to positively impact the top line of brands. “There is no better window than IPL in the next 3-4 months to ensure that they get brand visibility,” he said.
The Disney Star executive said that the company is cognizant of the challenges faced by different categories of advertisers and will create packages of different sizes that deliver value to clients.
