Ever since the media rights of Indian Premier League (IPL) were split between Disney Star and Viacom18 Sports, the debate over TV vs Digital has heated up. As we get closer to the game, which will kick start next month, everyone is curious to know who is offering what to their audience.

At the unveiling of the Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2023, Ajit Varghese, Head of Network – Ad Sales, Disney Star, and Anil Jayaraj CEO, Sports, Viacom18, spoke on ‘IPL: How should brands decide – TV or Digital? The discussion was moderated by Nikhil Naz, Consulting Editor, Sports, India Today.

The conversation began with Naz asking Jayaraj about managing P&L since Viacom18 Sports has decided to stream the IPL for free.

Jayaraj replied saying subscription money is notoriously difficult to come by. "The paid TV has gone down dramatically and the ability to charge households is also limited because there is an NTO in place which says that you can't make additional money. So the inelastic side of it is the obvious choices about advertising, especially if you can provide value to advertisers, because India has such a fast-growing economy."

"Whether it's TV or digital, I can assure you that advertisers see genuine value in participating in something like IPL," he added.

“It should be a viable proposition. Our opinion is that there is a lot more money to be made from advertising dollars, especially if you can increase the number of viewers and provide that value," said Jayaraj further.

Speaking on the subscription front, Varghese shared that internationally, people pay for what they watch. “But here we see three Indias in India-- the top 100-150 million, followed by 200-300 million in the mid-level, and then there are almost 400 million at the lower funnel.”

“The top 100-150 million can pay, and they're paying across mediums and hence affordability is not a question. But it is the mid- level where the digital versus TV comparisons start playing a bigger role. Earlier, it was mostly PGC, but now, with access to internet or internet penetration going up, there is a lot of UGC which is coming into the ecosystem. But here we are talking about a PGC hero content that cuts across masses and age group,” explained Varghese.

He shared that the bottom funnel is where the free model works but that's where the hidden cost starts coming in.

Speaking about the inventory on digital, Jayaraj said the conversation on inventory was not material. “You can have as much inventory as possible, but what matters is who you are targeting and what you can sell. So there might be streams which might not be interesting for advertisers at all. But there will be streams where you will have 100 sell through.”

“We are pretty confident of the numbers. Otherwise, it would have been easy for us to get onto a subscription platform. The proposition on digital is certainly attractive to a much larger base of advertisers,” he said.

During the discussion, Varghese highlighted that the IPL is an appointment viewing and it is going to witness family and community viewing. “You will not want to take that away from the hero content. I'm happy that we can bifurcate. We also have Hotstar which holds many cricket series but you can’t overdo that too much. This is a community viewing game.”

Talking about taking initiatives to expand their reach, Jayaraj shared they plan to go massive on outdoors. “We are now present in over 20,000 universities and 35000 HoReCa outlets. So in all of those places, people will be able to enjoy the JioCinema features,” he mentioned.

When asked with the IPL media rights getting split between two players is causing difficulties in dealing with advertisers and negotiators, Varghese said not a single client has checked on the effectiveness of TV or sport on TV.

“Everybody wants to negotiate, but more importantly people have negotiated more because of the macro environment trend that's in India rather than trying to stay comparable.”

He further added, “Yes, connected TV will grow and HDTV is growing. TV still has headroom to grow. There are enough people in India who still want it real free rather than being said or shown as free. There is room for everybody. I am hoping with this conversation, there is an increased interest for the game on both the mediums. And it helps both of us grow.”

Advertisers are excited about IPL, whether it is on TV or digital, he said.

Adding to that Jayaraj said, “I don’t think IPL will have a constraint in terms of number of advertisers. People are quite excited about IPL coming up.”

He concluded, “The key around IPL and advertising is if there is a way to increase the base of advertisers, as TV typically has about 100 and digital last year had 200-250. Is there a way to make this much bigger, because all said and done IPL, whether it's on TV or digital, is a property that delivers really well for audiences. And that is the reason it's actually a natural choice that should help the industry grow.”