JioCinema, the official streaming partner of Indian Premier League (IPL), last week released its ad rate card for the upcoming season. As per the card, a copy of which is available withexchange4media.com, the platform has not hiked its prices from 2023. As earlier reported by e4m, the platform is seeking ad rates to the tune of Rs 200-250 per 10 seconds for mid-roll ads. It is asking for Rs 250-300 per 10 seconds for pre-roll ads. The only change is an increase of Rs 25 in the pre-roll ad rate which started from Rs 225 last year. The spot rate for advertising on CTV stands at Rs 6.5 lakh per 10 seconds.

Industry experts believe thatJioCinema’s decision to maintain the ad rates of the last year is a good move because it will attract moreadvertisers. They believe that the decision has been taken in wake of the challenges faced by the platform in selling the ad inventory last year.

According to Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki, the Jio rates for thisIPLare not yet fully out. He said that it is being understood, from the market and the company, that the ad rates are going to be in the same range or 2-5% higher than last year.

“It is possible for them to maintain the same rate because unlike TV, Jio has more ad inventory to offer. Jio has pre-roll as well mid-roll ad inventory whereas on TV, it is primarily mid-roll. Further, they have thousands of different feeds and they are selling both CPM buys as well FCT buys. For CPM buys, they have a lot of flexibility to accommodate many more advertisers as they are targeting 650 million reach this year against 449 million last year. Hence, a lot more impressions to offer to advertisers.”

Srivastava feels that such a proposition is great for advertisers as it offers buying flexibility, the advantage of rate as well as better targeting capabilities.

Sharing similar thoughts, Mayank Shah, Senior Category Head, Parle Products, too believes that sticking to the old rates is a good move by JioCinema. He shared that last year, there was quite a bit of stress on selling inventory for both, Disney Star and Jio. In fact, despite the lower ad rates last year, ad inventory was not completely sold out, he said.

“With Disney Star handling the broadcast rights and Jio handling the digital rights, there is some competition for the ad dollars. Both of them would be trying their level best to capture a larger percentage of ad spends, and Jio has played it very well by not increasing the rates.” Parle was one of the sponsors of IPL on JioCinema last year.

According to Shah, total viewing on TV is increasing, but significant number of viewers are shifting to mobile. "It's a positive move and it will accelerate advertising spends. There will be more spends on mobile. I believe Jio's announcement of ad rates similar to last year will go a long way."

JioCinema has IPL digital rights until 2027. In 2023, the Reliance Industries-supported media corporation competed fiercely with Walt Disney-owned Disney Star for a bigger share of the advertising money. It is believed that JioCinema last year generated Rs 1200-1500 crores from IPL. In 2022, Disney+ Hotstar, the official IPL streamer at the time, generated Rs 1500 crore in ad revenue from the IPL.

According to a senior media planner, who wishes to remain anonymous, Jio’s decision to not hike the ad rates is strategic. “The aim is to attract more and more advertisers by offering similar ad rates. Last year, both the platforms faced challenges in selling the inventory. Compared to Disney+Hotstar, Jio didn’t hike the rates last year but still couldn’t sell the entire inventory. Also, I feel closer to the game, they might increase pricing depending on the advertisers’ interest.”

Disney Star is yet to roll out its ad rate card for the upcoming IPL tournament. However, it is believed that now that Jio has sent out its rate card without any hike, Disney Star might have to revise their rates downwards if they really want to corner a good share of ad spends.

“Both the platforms are likely to make more money as compared to previous year but as a singular entity they would not be making what Disney Star was making from both TV and digital rights,” said another media planner on the condition of anonymity.