The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in India usually contested by eight teams representing eight different cities or states in India. The league was founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007 and is the most-attended cricket league in the world, ranked sixth by average attendance among all sports leagues in 2014.
In 2010 IPL also became the first sporting event in the world to be broadcast live on YouTube. Given the huge viewership in terms of audience and streaming platform viewers, the IPL is the golden opportunity for several companies and brands to advertise their products in order to expand reach and sales.
Star Sports and Disney Hotstar
Star India acquired the global media rights to the IPL in 2017 under a five-year contract beginning in 2018. The most expensive broadcast rights deal in the history of cricket, it was valued at ₹163.475 billion and included packages for domestic television, domestic digital, and international rights. The IPL is a very powerful property and can help advertisers and media channels to expand their reach far and wide and their reach only grows more and more.
Star broadcasts IPL matches live online in India via its over-the-top video streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar. In 2019, international streaming viewership on Disney+ Hotstar saw records, exceeding 10 million concurrent viewers multiple times. The 2019 final broke these records, peaking at 18.6 million concurrent streaming viewers.
Advertisement Rates IPL 2020
During the pandemic, with people being stuck at home, IPL 2020 turned out to be a huge success. People were looking for escapes from their mundane lives at home and since they could not attend the matches live, streaming platforms became the next big thing. As per BARC India, it surpassed the 2019 edition in terms of viewership.
Cumulative reach grew by 11% while viewing minutes have increased by 28% y-o-y. This was optimised by several companies who bidded huge amounts to get a few seconds on the broadcast to advertise their products.
Star Sports has hiked advertising rates for the last four matches of the tournament by about 15-20%. The individual ad rates for the IPL had been set at Rs 12-13 lakh for each 10 seconds. The broadcasters knew there would be higher viewership than normal so that did not reduce ad rates in 2020.
According to media buyers, about 85-90% of the inventory was sold at the start of IPL and 10-15% has been set aside for last minute sales. Star also hiked ad rates for Disney+ Hotstar from Rs 120 CPM per 10 seconds in 2019 to Rs 180-200 CPM/10 seconds.
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In 2010 IPL became the first sporting event in the world to be broadcast live on YouTube. Given the huge viewership, it is the golden opportunity for companies to advertise their products.
Ad Rates in 2021 and what is in it for companies looking to advertise?
The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League starts April 9,2021 and Star Sports has raised ad rates for the IPL by 15-20 per cent this year, compared to last year. The buzz around the league has already started and the viewership and live streams are expected to only increase. IPL 2020 was a massive success, and the official broadcaster, Disney+ Hotstar, is thinking to soar that up. As per the reports, Disney Star India Network is already prepared to increase ad-rates by almost 25% for the IPL 2021.
The Ad-Rates for the upcoming IPL 2021 are expected to soar up to 14 to 15 Lakhs for just 10 Seconds. IPL 2020 witnessed an impressive viewership growth of 24 percent among women and 20 percent among children respectively and ad volumes soared by 4%. Thus, IPL is upping the stakes for advertisers to book their slots for advertisements.
