Rama Krishna Sangem
The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) will be still richer by Rs 50,000 crore in next five years with media rights strategy. The board which runs IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket is gearing up for auction of media rights for the five yeas from 2030-27. The auction will be held on June 12 this year. The current 15th edition of IPL will conclude with final on May 29, Sunday. The hiked media rates will kick in from 16th edition, for next years.
Currently, the media rights are owned by Star India (now Disney Star) for Rs 16,347 crore for five years, from 2018-23. Now, the 10 seconds ad spots are sold at Rs 14.50 lakh. This is much higher compared to the previous 10 years’ deal of Sony from 2008-17, at Rs 8,200 crore. Then a 10 second ad spot was sold at Rs 1.6 lakh. If the new auction price of Rs 50,000 crore is realized, the rate of a 10 seconds ad may be sold at around Rs 28-30 lakh.
Will this be within reach of our advertisers? Will it fetch them enough returns or viewership? These are the questions before our leading companies and their brand managers. IPL ads are mostly related to brand building – means image building of major giants, especially the new entrants into the market. This two month long cricket carnival in India is also a major event globally.
IPL is now called Super Bow of East, meaning the equivalent of the American football league – Super Bowl. Hold your breath, the average price of an ad spot during Super Bow matches is 7 million US dollars – equivalent to Rs 54 crore. This may work in the US, but not in India. Here, most of our advertisers look for returns. Most advertising spends are measured in return on investment.
However, leading brand managers of companies that prefer to place ads during IPL matches say that these spends are for brand building, or matter or pride. They should not be seen strictly in terms of probable returns. Brand recall value is something big companies can afford, not all. Another worry of media giants is the decreasing viewership of IPL matches in the last two years, by 25 per cent This may affect the June 12 auction of BCCI.
