Representative image (Source: Twitter/@IPL, BCCI)
The Indian Premier League (IPL) and the upcoming T20 World Cup are expected to bring in strong ad revenue for digital media.
Last year, IPL alone brought in Rs 450-500 crore in ad revenue for digital media, and this year, there will be additional advertising during the T20 World Cup scheduled from October 17 to November 14. The ongoing IPL is scheduled to end on October 15.
There will be an overall increase in advertising expenditure considering that things have somewhat settled as far as Covid-19 is concerned, said Sahil Chopra, founder of iCubesWire, a digital marketing agency.
More ad revenue thanks to T20 WC
According to analyst Karan Taurani, senior vice-president at Elara Capital, the T20 World Cup will bring Rs 150-200 crore in terms of digital ad revenue.
“About 20 percent of IPL’s revenue comes from digital. The same will be the case with the T20 World Cup, which is likely to bring around Rs 1,000 crore in overall ad revenue,” he said.
Disney+ Hotstar, which has the streaming rights for IPL and the T20 World Cup, made about Rs 800 crore last year. Taurani estimates this figure will go up to Rs 1,000 crore this year.
“On digital, IPL does around Rs 5-6 crore on a per match basis (in terms of ad revenue). As for T20 World Cup, it will be around Rs 3 crore ad revenue on a per match basis for around 45 matches,” he said. Overall, there will be a 3 percent positive impact just by T20 World Cup, Taurani said.
Rishabh Mahendru, AVP, client servicing, at AdLift, a digital marketing agency, estimates that the cost per mille of advertising – the cost of displaying one ad to 1,000 viewers – during the two cricketing tourneys is Rs 200-250 crore.
For IPL 13, Disney+ Hotstar was charging Rs 180 for a 10-second spot, up from Rs 100-110 in 2019.
Sports is special for digital
Siddharth Raman, the chief business officer of Sportz Interactive, a digital media agency, said sports will be the key driver for overall digital ad spends.
“Given how the sports events have been stacked up especially IPL and T20 World Cup, I see sports being a significant contributor to digital. Sports is a key driver because sports fans are majorly online during key sporting events and this is a good opportunity for brands to connect with fans,” he said.
Taurani added that sports have an 18-20 percent share in digital ad revenue while on TV, its share is 10-12 percent.
Shailesh Kapoor, CEO of Ormax Media, a media consulting firm, said the T20 World Cup and IPL had happened back-to-back in 2014 and 2016, too.
“Based on those years, it can be concluded that there is enough room for advertiser interest and viewership for two such big events in the same period. In fact, the second event often benefits from the momentum created by the first event, in terms of viewership. And there are many advertisers keen to associate with big-ticket cricket events such as these two. So there’s never a dearth of demand from their side,” said Kapoor.
Clash chaos
However, Taurani said the problem this time is that the T20 World Cup takes place during the festive period in India.
“While the response from advertisers is good, T20 World Cup that way has not seen a phenomenal response. Largely, the response is below par as they have not seen a humongous demand because, during the festive season, advertisers like to focus on other things as well which have mass appeal… Advertisers are not going all out for T20 World Cup,” he said.
“Had IPL finished during April-May, the T20 World Cup would have seen a huge response.”
Digital is dialing up
While T20 World Cup could have attracted more advertisers if it hadn’t been scheduled after IPL, when it comes to overall digital ad spends, Mahendru expects its share to grow.
“Digital spends were about 30 percent of overall ad spend in 2020. This year, the number will increase to somewhere between 33 percent and 35 percent,” he said.
Sadhvi Dhawan, group media director at Blink Digital, a digital ad agency, noted that the advertising mix will continue to stay lopsided towards digital.
“This sports season coinciding with the festive season could make us witness the maximum growth in digital advertising owing to the biggest properties going online who usually have a huge fanbase like IPL, Big Boss, KBC, T20 World Cup,” she said.
Digital advertising expenditure is expected to grow 20 percent to Rs 18,938 crore by 2021, according to the Digital Advertising in India 2021 report.
Digital advertisements have increased since the lockdown as people get closer to their screens including TV, mobiles, and tablets, said Chopra of iCubesWire.
Raman said digital will continue to be the fastest-growing segment in the overall ad spends.
“TV reaches upwards of 850 million people in India. And digital is reaching around 600-700 million people. So, very soon you will have people having access to the internet pretty much in line with those who tune into TV,” he said.
Sports to bring strong ad dollars for digital on back of IPL, T20 World Cup
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