Viacom18 aiming for ad revenues worth Rs 3700 crore from IPL 2023

The company owns the IPL digital rights till 2027.

The Reliance Industries-supported media company is engaged in a fierce competition with Disney Star, owned by Walt Disney, for garnering the biggest chunk of media expenditures by advertisers.

Disney+ Hotstar, which was the official IPL streamer till last year, earned ad revenue of Rs 1500 crore from IPL 2022.

Disney Star is believed to have earned Rs 3500 crore in TV ad revenue from IPL 2022.

“The overall demand for advertising on Disney+ Hotstar during IPL 2022 was more than that, but the platform was not able to accommodate that demand since it already had a sell-through rate (STR) of 95%,” said a source privy to the development.

While refusing to comment on the financials, Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj said the initial response from the advertisers has been positive.“Advertisers love the scale that we are talking about. Also, digital allows better targeting with minimal wastage and is measurable. The budget that one needs to advertise on digital is flexible,” Jayaraj told ET. “IPL 2023 will be accessible to the internet universe free of cost and we will also engage viewers by offering commentary in a language that they understand.”

Sources said that the company’s confidence in setting a huge ad revenue target stems from the fact that Jio Cinema is eyeing an audience reach of 550 million for IPL 2023 since it will be free of cost for all users irrespective of device and platforms.

The company is particularly bullish about the big screen as the Connected TV (CTV) universe is projected to reach 100 million this year.

The company expects Jio Cinema’s audience reach on CTV to be over 75 million.

Secondly, Jio Cinema is looking to onboard advertisers of all scales and sizes by offering flexible packages with different outlays. Overall, the company is hopeful that over 500 advertisers will hop on to Jio Cinema for IPL 2023.

Jio Cinema is seeking ad rates to the tune of Rs 200-250 per 10 seconds for midroll ads. It is asking for Rs 225-300 per 10 seconds for Pre-roll ads. The spot rate for advertising on CTV is Rs 6.5 lakh per 10 seconds.

Viacom18 has also firmed up an aggressive marketing strategy for IPL 2023. The company is looking to spend Rs 400 crore on marketing the property.

The company, sources note, expects average audience reach per match to be 80-85 million and is building Jio Cinema’s tech backend to manage the likely surge in traffic on the platform.

Viacom18 has been offering all its live sports content on Jio Cinema for free to build the platform into a sports-first streaming giant.

The decision to go free for the FIFA World Cup 2022 paid rich dividends for the company as the final match had a peak concurrency of 12.1 million viewers something which only IPL and bilateral matches featuring India have managed.

Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has agreed to produce a 4K feed for IPL. The feed will be produced by BCCI’s production partner Star India.

Viacom18 will have over 15 feeds for IPL on Jio Cinema including 11 language feeds. The platform will have local language commentary for key regional markets where the IPL franchises are based.