IPL 2023: Disney Star says initial IPL TV viewership prompted it to rope in more sponsors

Disney Star, which has been given the linear broadcast rights for the ongoing Tata IPL 2023, has said that buoyed by the initial viewership of the T20 league on its television platform, despite the stiff competition from JioCinema, it is signing up more advertisers for the ongoing sports extravaganza.  

The company has so far roped in 13 brands, including Dream11, Asian Paints, Thums Up, Airtel, Cadbury, Mountain Dew, Parle Biscuits, Kamla Pasand, Rupay, Britannia, Tata Neu, Jindal Panther TMT Rebars and LIC. Disney Star bagged the TV rights of IPL 2023 for the Indian subcontinent by paying Rs 23,575 crore. 

This year, Viacom is offering free streaming of IPL 2023 on its OTT JioCinema, after Reliance picked a big chunk of IPL broadcasting rights (for 2023-2027) for a total of Rs 23,758 crore.

In a recent interaction with PTI, Sanjog Gupta, Disney Star Head – Sports, said the broadcaster clocked a total of 8.7 billion minutes of consumption on TV for the opening match, which is 47 per cent more in comparison to the last year, as per BARC India data. 

"The interest in IPL continues to be high in multiple categories. IPL is unavoidable," Gupta said. 

He said that various brands with seasonal categories have been roped in, who are from different sectors, like fantasy gaming, beverages makers, telecom, FMCG, fintech, insurance, auto and ancillaries, online delivery, consumer durables, paints and construction and travel.   

 "It's a strong list of sponsors, a combination of new sponsors, who have come on board for the first time and some who have returned because their association with IPL had delivered significant value," Gupta said. 

He further added that the television platform delivers "undistracted and uninterrupted attention", while on the smaller screens, the viewers are "distracted" due to multitasking. 

On revenue growth this season, Gupta said advertisers are still making a beeline and it would be difficult for him to comment at this early stage of the IPL season. 

"Only 6 of the 74 matches have been played. We are still signing up advertisers. So it's a bit too early, we typically talk about these things at the end of the tournament," he said. 

On the competition for eyeballs with Reliance-owned JioCinema, which has the digital streaming rights for IPL, he said it is "unavoidable". 

Gupta added: ”We do not see it as a zero-sum game. Rather, we see this as an opportunity to serve fans differently. We have always taken immense pride in putting the fan first.," he said. 

Reliance-owned JioCinema, had claimed a peak concurrency of 1.6 crore and 6 crore viewers overall for the initial match of IPL. 

JioCinema said it had a record-breaking opening weekend, and claimed to have achieved 147 crore video views across the first three days.  

During the season's opening match between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans, the platform had a peak concurrency of 1.6 crore viewers. Besides, it recorded more than 2.5 crore app downloads in a single day, with new viewership for the opening weekend standing at 10 crore and new app downloads surpassing 5 crore. 

(With PTI inputs)

Also read: IPL 2023: Disney Star sees 47% growth on the opening day

Also read: IPL 2023: JioCinema clocks 147 crore views and 5 crore new app downloads in first weekend

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