Competition for IPL viewership with JioCinema is unavoidable: Sanjog Gupta

For the 2023 edition of the Tata IPL, there is a strong tussle between Disney Star, which has the broadcast rights, and Reliance-owned JioCinema, which has the digital streaming rights. This could be the beginning of a war for IPL viewership and advertiser monies after Disney Star bagged the IPL television rights for the Indian subcontinent for Rs 23,575 crore, while Reliance-backed Viacom18 got digital rights for Rs 20,500 crore for the 2023-27 seasons. The combined media rights bids fetched BCCI a whopping Rs 48,390 crore.

So far, Disney Star has roped in 13 sponsors, including Dream11, Asian Paints, Thums Up, Airtel, Cadbury, Mountain Dew, Parle Biscuits, Kamla Pasand, Rupay, Britannia, Tata Neu, Jindal Panther TMT Rebars and LIC.

In an interaction with PTI, Sanjog Gupta, Head - Sports, Disney Star, affirmed that the interest in IPL continues to be high in multiple categories and that “IPL is unavoidable”. He shared that Disney Star had clocked a total of 8.7 billion minutes of consumption on TV for the opening match of IPL 2023, which is 47 per cent more in comparison to last year as per BARC India data. Gupta further told PTI, that even brands with seasonal categories have also come on board, as well as those belonging to diverse sectors ranging from – fantasy gaming, beverages makers, telecom, FMCG, fintech, insurance, auto and ancillaries, online delivery, consumer durables, paints and construction and travel.

As reported earlier, Star Sports’ build-up programming to Tata IPL 2023 has seen a sharp 62% increase over the previous year, reaching a staggering 205.6 million viewers. The total number of minutes watched have increased by a whopping 142% compared to last year, touching 21.5 billion minutes. In fact, the viewership (in million) and consumption (in billion minutes) of IPL Build-up programming is highest in the last three years.

Disney Star has got a massive response to Tata IPL 2023, with ratings up by 29%. The broadcaster clocked a total of 8.7 billion minutes of consumption on TV for the opening match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings, a massive 47% growth in comparison to last year [BARC, 2+ (Urban + Rural)]. 140 million viewers tuned in for the live broadcast on opening day, which included the Opening Ceremony with 130 million watching the first match involving Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings [BARC, 2+ (Urban + Rural)]. Disney Star has seen a 29% growth in ratings with Tata IPL 2023 [BARC, Male 15+AB (Urban)].

As per a TAM Think Tank Series report, linear TV has helped IPL garner 530 million viewers, 200 advertisers in the last 5 years. According to Chrome DM, Star Sports reported opportunity to see (OTS) of 67.4% across cable and satellite homes. Across HSM markets, Star Sports Hindi 1 calculated its net OTS representing 61.47 million households out of 111.62 million C&S households. Star Sports network also witnessed a relatively higher connectivity in the Southern markets, where the OTS for Tamil, Kannada and Telugu channels come up at 93.4%, 89.8% and 91.0%, respectively.

While stating that the competition for IPL viewership with JioCinema was “unavoidable”, Gupta maintained that the television platform delivers “undistracted and uninterrupted attention”, while on the smaller screens, the viewers are “distracted” due to multitasking. He told PTI, “At the end of the day, advertisers want attention, because if they want their messaging to land with consumers, then they want the consumers to be fully immersed and not be distracted and not to have the viewing experience being interrupted by multiple different elements that may pop up.”

When asked about the revenue growth this season, Gupta said that advertisers are still coming and it would be difficult for him to comment at this early stage of the IPL season. “Only 6 of the 74 matches have been played. We are still signing up advertisers. So, it’s a bit too early, we typically talk about these things at the end of the tournament.”