Goafest 2023: Who among TV and digital won the IPL game? Here's what BARC India chairman says

BARC India chairman Shashi Sinha on Thursday said that Indian Premier League is the biggest entertainment property of India. At Goafest 2023, while talking to BT TV, Sinha said that it will be very difficult for any show to break the record of IPL.

“IPL is like the Super Bowl and this property has done extremely well now,” Sinha said in an interview with BT TV.

He also expressed his concerns related to the TV and digital rights being separately distributed by the Indian cricket body BCCI. He said that he has always been a big believer of collaborations but currently the TV and digital are fighting for being the mainstreaming viewing platform.

“It's not a zero-sum game. It's not a ‘win or lose’. Someone saying that it is the dark end of the television you know, someone else saying digital has small numbers, so both are running down each other, but that's not the spirit of the property (IPL) that is so big and I hope for the next season better things prevails,” Sinha said.

“I mean, if you look at future, what will happen, World Cup, Disney will be selling TV and digital together. IPL has separate rights. They must sell together; they must be integrated. Brand will see value and it will unlock the value,” he added. “In the past, they've sold it separately. So, my appeal to everyone, especially the broadcasters concerned in this, is you must start packaging it together. And the very interesting ways. Digital is all about, the return path about tracking who the customer is, tracking his habits, all kinds of things. So, you can use TV at the top of the funnel and the part of the funnel be digital, which give client integrated offering. The client will believe a lot more. Because finally, advertisers are advertising not because they like advertising, but because they want results for themselves.”

He also said that whether two companies are competitors or not, they must unlock value.

When asked, who won the battle between TV and digital for viewership and ratings, he said he believed that no one might have won. He said that world moves forward with collaborations and not revolution. “All over the world competitors are coming together and collaborating. So why can't in this ecosystem, why should we run down each other? And I think one example of that would be, the World Cup. There's no tension. because World Cup is a combo player,” he added.

Siddharth Zarabi, the Managing Editor of Business Today TV, also asked him that how will the companies monetise IPL, who have spent nearly Rs 48,000 crore for the broadcasting rights.

Sinha said, “This is the first year, but if you see Rs 48,000 crore divided by five, it's almost about Rs 10,000 crore or so per year, and chances are they'll be in the Rs 4,000-5,000 crore range this year. So, there is a gap. They have to sell the power of IPL collectively. Every advertiser in the country has to come into IPL. Now, there could be many ways, small advertisers fragmented, maybe through digital, maybe small chunks of TV, large advertisers, big properties, you know. So, I think the collective strength has to be sold.

Watch the full interview -

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