Aiming to make the broadcast of Asia Cup and the ICC World Cup the biggest ever on both TV and Digital, in June Disney Star announced that both events will be free to view on mobile. Industry experts say this move is expected to get the network a reach of over 800 million viewers across TV (GEC+Sports) and Disney+Hotstar in the next three months.
Last week e4m reported that Disney Star had increased ad rates by 30-35% compared to the previous World Cup. According to sources, while last season, the final rates at which the slots were auctioned ranged between Rs 6 and 7 lakh every 10 seconds, the current rate card quotes Rs 10.2 lakh for every 10 seconds.
To share more on the network’s strategy, exchange4media spoke to Ajit Varghese, Head of Network Ad Sales at Disney Star.
Excerpts:
In June, Disney+ Hotstar announced that ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup and Asia Cup tournaments would be made available as free to view to all mobile phone users. What led to this decision?
Our decision to go free on mobile is clearly for being the largest online video player in India. Today, we have an opportunity with not one, but two major events: the Asia Cup and the ICC Men's World Cup. The last three World Cups were held in the host country but this time it's in India and from the scheduling to the timing to the Indian cricket team’s performance, everything is in place for India to win this time. So, we thought this is a great opportunity to become India's largest online video platform.
We're trying to offer advertisers a cost that is affordable and with an impact that is unheard of. We believe this is the first time in Indian cricket’s history that the Asia Cup and the World Cup would be held back-to-back. This will give an unprecedented reach among fans who are forming habits of watching cricket on their mobile devices. Therefore, it's the right time to go free on mobile phones.
What impact will it have on TV viewership and advertising revenue?
In 2019, we experimented with free viewership on mobile but it was along with just one telecom operator. We are now offering it free for all. The fact that when IPL went free on digital, there was no impact on TV gives us more confidence. In reality, television viewership increased by about 29-30%.
We have noticed an astounding 50% increase in viewing time in the last 15 years. So, in my opinion, television reach has increased. We believe that both television and digital have room to expand, which in our view is a positive indicator.
We control almost 70-80% of the sports viewership market. This is the ideal time for us to ensure that we provide advertisers with unparalleled reach while also ensuring that all of these have affordable entry points.
Will it impact ad revenue?
The industry's revenues have been impacted by the headwinds that we are witnessing across start-ups and sectors and this has nothing to do with the streaming of cricket. Categories like FMCG, Consumer Durables and Auto are returning to action. Even e-commerce is making a comeback. The impact of lower advertising budgets or headwinds has nothing to do with the platforms. It was a general trend seen throughout genres, including entertainment, digital, performance marketing, and search marketing.
We have seen a resurgence of some start-ups. A number of clients, who are otherwise not on cricket, suddenly want to be part of it now.
For the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s World Cup, the network is offering multiple packages. Can you share more details?
We are ensuring that we have various packages and feed alternatives - both in TV and digital. We are ensuring that we have tie-ups with interesting partners such as PayU in order to ensure that our data enrichment story is very rich and that targeting is actually doable. We are also experimenting with interest-based targeting in order to reach about 55,000 cohorts on digital. We are making certain that every alternative has been used in order to get more clients to advertise on cricket at a price that is affordable to them.
We have special packages that allow them to get into pricing that they're used to in other user-generated content (UGC) based platforms so that they don't struggle to shift budgets from their present platform to a cricket site. We are reducing the entry points so that they are reasonable and flexible across TV and digital.
Do you think the ad rates for both tournaments are excessively high in comparison to past rates?
This time the ad rates are actually the lowest compared to 2019 because we are offering advertisers multiple packages. We offer a variety of combinations/outlays starting as little as single-digit crores. For instance, the India and Pakistan package may cost advertisers less than a combination of India games or a combination of India + non-India package.
What kind of response are you getting from advertisers and how much inventory has been sold so far?
We are still one-two months ahead of the events and it's not the right stage to share inventory consumption. We are already seeing sponsors from the infrastructure, beverage and a few other categories. Every advertiser is feeling that they can be a part of cricket. We are making sure that everybody gets a chance to enter with affordable pricing and flexible packages. We are making sure that all kinds of packages are available to make sure that we can be part of every media plan.
Now that both events will be free to view for mobile users, are advertisers more interested in Digital or TV?
The choices are different for different brands. We haven't seen any major trend difference in the last year or any shift in the choice of platform. Overall, the trend has remained the same but client choices made a difference. Also, the advertiser list on a digital platform today is higher than on television.
If I look at cricket, the large screen continues to hold on in terms of viewership and the advertisers’ money in terms of the spend. However, many more advertisers will be entering the digital space now. We are encouraging more advertisers to come into cricket with a self-serve platform.
