IPL figures suggest TV is not going anywhere just yet | Mumbai news

Sanjog Gupta, head of sports at Disney Star that is currently broadcasting the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket on its TV channels, is pleased with the way the country’s popular tournament is being watched on its network. Data captured by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) shows that more than 40 crore viewers watched the first 29 matches of IPL, recording a 24% increase in television ratings compared to the last edition. The tournament’s viewership among children below 14 also grew by 58%.

Though Disney Star and Viacom18, which hold the television and digital media rights to IPL respectively, have been dueling over viewership shares and advertisers, with BARC reporting increase in IPL’s TV viewership, Disney Star’s Gupta is upbeat. The viewer response to IPL has exceeded the broadcaster’s expectations and he attributes the jump in ratings to several reasons.

For starters, the appetite for IPL grew as it returned to its original window after a full one year, something that was missing when Covid forced the tournament to split, and viewers saw 4 IPLs in 18 months. Though fans were allowed back into stadia in 2022, the venues remained restricted. This year, the bigger buzz is a result of home and away matches being played in 12 cities, generating excitement among fans who are thronging the stadiums to support their home teams.

“This is the first normal IPL after three seasons and there’s a lot of activation that brands, franchises and the entire ecosystem is doing across the country,” says Gupta.

To whet audience appetite for the game, Star Sports launched cricket programming as early as December which garnered almost 200 million viewers. Its high decibel marketing campaign for the tournament drove penetration of Star Sports in almost 90% of pay TV homes, which has been its highest ever, he adds.

Between 2018 and 2022 when Disney Star held both the digital and TV media rights for IPL, it was popularized in southern markets by introducing Kannada, Tamil and Telugu feeds. This year, it directed its energy to expand the Hindi Speaking Market (HSM) by targeting Delhi, UP, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

It also tied up with the Lucknow Super Giants. “We launched a show with them that’s custom-developed for the UP market. Team captain K L Rahul was signed to drive affinity for IPL and the home team specifically via Star Sports,” Gupta says. A similar exercise followed with Hardik Pandya for Gujarat. “HSM has contributed disproportionately to IPL viewership growth,” he says, with more than 27.3 crore viewers from the region tuning into the first 29 matches.

Though BARC data may have lifted Disney Star’s spirits, the larger question remains: Will linear TV grow and allow Star Sports to monetize the pricey property?

The matter has been debated ad nauseam with no clear winners. Streaming services growth rates may have slowed down but they are still growing faster than TV. While TV isn’t a sunrise sector, it is still large enough to attract eyeballs and advertising.

In the last few months, experts have estimated India’s pay TV homes to be between 105 million and 150 million. But in a recent interview to Mint, BARC chairman Shashi Sinha put the speculations to rest indicating there were 175 million pay TV homes. Clearly, linear TV isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Add to that what L V Krishnan, CEO of media data analytics firm TAM India, says. Though Census 2021 is still pending, Krishnan says the total number of households in India is expected to be over 300 million which will also see a rise in TV universe. Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, the government housing scheme for low- and middle-income groups, nearly 20 million houses have already been built and another 10 million will come up soon. “These houses are electricity ready and are likely to have a TV. Who captures these homes – cable, DTH or broadband – will depend on who is the fastest to wire them up and makes the service affordable for them on a monthly basis,” says Krishnan.

Cable industry veteran and media specialist Ashok Mansukhani feels linear TV is safe as long as companies like Disney Star offer live television and Zee and Sony provide Hindi as well as regional entertainment. “The customer has the power of the purse and of the remote. She will decide what to consume,” he says.