According to industry experts, the official broadcaster has made a revenue of around Rs 250 crore from Hotstar

The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League is estimated to have crossed revenues of Rs 2,600 crore for the official broadcaster Disney-Star India. According to industry estimates, the broadcaster has clocked around Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,400 crore of advertising revenue from TV and Rs 250 crore from Hotstar.

Despite the pandemic impacting advertising revenues, the broadcaster has managed to cross last year’s figures that were close to Rs 2000 to Rs 2100 crore.

“In terms of viewership, IPL 13 has done well as compared to the previous year, registering a growth of over 20%. In terms of advertising revenue too, Star had managed to rope in a good number of advertisers and sponsors for this season. Even though they have limited inventory for IPL since it can’t be increased or decreased, the ad rates were increased around 20% this year as compared to last year. The broadcaster did gain from IPL as it was the only big cricketing event this year,” said a senior media planner on the condition of anonymity.

Another media expert was of the opinion that on TV IPL 2020 was a big hit in terms of viewership but not so much the case with Hotstar. “IPL has always been a big impact not just for the broadcaster but for the entire industry, especially during these tough times. IPL has brought back some sort of normalcy in the industry. As far as Hotstar’s viewership is concerned, there is no specific data available in terms of a concurrent viewing. This year they put the matches behind a paywall. I have learnt there was a decline in viewership on the platform.”

Stating similar thoughts, another media analyst shared, “There has been a positive growth both in terms of viewership and revenue. While the viewership has increased in double digits, the revenue number has gone up in single digits. It has been above expectations.”

As per the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India data, IPL 13 registered 7.0 billion viewing minutes for the first 41 matches aired across 21 channels in the last five weeks (Week 38 -42), which is 28% higher as compared to IPL 12 that garnered 5.5 billion viewing minutes for 44 matches aired across 24 channels.

The data reveals that the performance per match of IPL 13 is higher than the last season. The cume reach of IPL 13 for 41 matches was 108 million, 11% higher than IPL 12. The previous season registered 98 million of cume reach.

This year, Star roped in 18 sponsors before the start of the tournament and also signed up 117 advertisers. Among the associate sponsors were Dream11, PhonePe, BYJU’S, VI and Amazon, while the co-presenting sponsors were Mondelez, ITC Foods, Polycab, Diageo, P&G, Coca Cola, Hero, Facebook, KP Group, Daily Hunt, Samsung, Cred and AMFI.

As per recent data provided by TAM on IPL 13 for the first 52 matches, the count of advertisers and brands grew by 12% and 2% respectively when compared to the previous season. Meanwhile, the total count of advertisers and brands stood at 115 and 237 respectively in IPL 13 as compared to 103 and 232 for IPL 12. However, the total category count (89) for IPL 13 has been less than the last season’s 91.

exchange4media reached out to Disney-Star India for an official confirmation on the estimated figures but did not get a response till the filing of the story.