IPL impacting viewership of flagship channels of broadcasters

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 is reaching the end of the season, with only eight games remaining. Meanwhile, the IPL 2022 final, which will take place on May 29 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, will now begin at 8 pm instead of the previously scheduled 7.30 pm. As a result of the change, the toss for the summit clash will be held at 7.30 pm instead of 7 pm. The conduct of the closing ceremony, which begins at 6.30 pm, has been mentioned as the reason for the timetable modification.

Due to Covid, there was no opening or closing ceremonies for the last two IPL seasons. The IPL administration, on the other hand, wants to stage the closing ceremony this year, with music master AR Rehman and actor Ranveer Singh due to play. BCCI has reported invited former Team India leaders to the final match.

Karan Taurani, senior analyst, Elara Capital commented on Zee's loss of viewership due to IPL, "The Zee Group’s performance was below par in April, primarily due to IPL, as flagship GEC – Zee TV lost its spot among the Top 10 channels (pan-India); Zee Kannada is the only channel in the group that managed stay with a viewership share of 5.5%. Zee TV flagship channel also failed to feature in the Top 5 rankings within mega cities (urban GEC) category. Within the regional portfolio, Zee has reported healthy gains in the Kannada and Malayalam genres MoM. Zee retains its third spot in the Tamil genre with a 13.9% viewership share despite a decline of 15bp MoM. Zee Telugu maintains its viewership of 22.2%, gaining 15bp MoM, after remaining flat in March; the channel remains in the second spot in the AP-Telangana region. In Karnataka, Zee Kannada, continues to dominate with a 37.6% viewership, up 285bp MoM. In the Delhi region, Zee TV lost its share by 32bp to 13.3% share whereas Zee Keralam reported viewership growth of 350bp MoM toward 9.2% and remains at the fifth rank. Zee Marathi in the Maharashtra-Goa region attracted 14.8% viewership share with a decline of 200bp MoM, after slipping to the third spot from second after Star Utsav; overall performance of the Zee Group was subdued in April, primarily due to the ongoing IPL." 

"Among other geographies, UP & Uttarakhand (Zee Anmol lost 135bp MoM), West Bengal (Zee Bangla lost 50bp MoM) and Assam, the Northeast & Sikkim region (Zee Bangla declined 55bp) managed to retain its top spot while Zee Sarthak from Odisha maintained its levels at 35.2%, gaining 80bp," he added.

Further on SunTV's good gains in Tamil; other genres and stable MoM, he said, "SunTV, the flagship channel, maintains its top spot among the Top 10 channels pan-India, with a gain of 160bp MoM to a 13.6% viewership share. In mega cities and the southern region, Sun TV has a viewership share of 24.2% and 21.2%, with a gain of 165bp MoM and a decline of 410bp MoM, respectively. It trades at 14x FY24E P/E. In the Tamil Nadu-Puducherry market (Tamil genre), it has breached 40%+ levels and gained a viewership share of 40.8%, which is higher by 270bp MoM."

In the Karnataka region (Kannada genre), Udaya TV and Udaya Movies witnessed a decline of 20bp MoM and gain of 10bp MoM, respectively, to maintain group share within the region. It also continues to outperform STAR Suvarna. In Andhra Pradesh-Telangana (Telugu genre), Gemini TV remains in the fourth spot, with a 75bp gain MoM viewership share of 12.6%. In Kerela (Malayalam genre), Surya TV maintains its fourth rank as viewership share grew by a mere 20bp MoM to 10.1%

Adding more on valuation and TP/Rating on Broadcasters, he said, "We recommend Buy on Zee Entertainment Enterprises with a TP of INR 450 based on 20x one-year forward P/E. We recommend Accumulate on Sun TV with a TP of INR 675 based on 16x one-year forward P/E. We recommend Buy on TV Today Network with a TP of lNR 610 based on 10x one-year forward P/E."

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment

More in Media