In cricket-crazy India, the much-awaited blockbuster media rights auction of the massively popular Indian Premier League (IPL) this month ended with Disney Star and Viacom18 emerging victors, having acquired licences to broadcast the matches for the next five seasons.
While the television rights were awarded to Disney Star for Rs 23,575 crore, the digital rights for the Indian subcontinent were bagged by a Viacom18-led combine for Rs 23,758 crore. Viacom18 and Times Internet Ltd split the rest of the world rights for a total of Rs 1,057 crore.
With these figures, the IPL is currently second only to the NFL in terms of per-match value and, for the first time, the cricket league will be broadcast on television and on digital platforms by a variety of players.
It is also noteworthy that the overall contract for the 2023-27 cycle is 2.96 times or 196% greater than the last IPL rights deal (2018-22), which was for Rs 16,347.5 crore.
Tech transformation
There is no doubt that technology has and will continue to transform businesses across all industries, profoundly altering both the customer experience and the inner workings of firms. The sports business, in particular, is undergoing fast change, with digital technology unleashing previously unimaginable growth prospects.
To fully utilise such potential, fans’ lives are being shaped by technology more than ever before, allowing sports organisations to offer new, inventive consumer experiences.
Nilesh Kulkarni, who is a former Indian cricketer and founder-director at the International Institute of Sports Management (IISM), believes that the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on digitalisation and companies became so innovative with people at home that they were successful in giving consumers an ethereal experience as if they were sitting in stadiums and hooting for their favourite team.
“In the sports industry, digital technology is the platform for never known opportunities for growth. The sports fraternities are adapting to everything going digital— merchandising, gaming, esports, etc,” he added.
Additionally, Kulkarni stated that “till now, from what I have read and researched, I think the next big digital transformation in the world of sports is metaverse. So we should be ready for it”.
According to experts, the popularity of smartphones and tablets may have contributed to a decline in live game attendance as more people switch to live streams, and it has also reduced the dependency on television channels.
In today’s time, the shift towards digital streaming in particular and its growing popularity in India is something that now cannot be overlooked, say observers.
Shashank Mishra, CEO of SportsApp, told News18: “With increasing digital adaptation in India, sports consumption is taking a shift from television/radio to live-streaming solutions.”
While explaining the changing scenario he said that sports fans have been using various platforms for streaming live sports for the past three years, and according to him, if this consumption is taken seriously with passion and convenience, it is a win-win situation for both broadcasters and viewers.
Mishra also highlighted that when TV penetration is compared to mobile penetration in both rural and urban areas, the data clearly shows that digital streaming will be at the forefront for acquisition and trials.
“Digital streaming for cricket has been breaking records with concurrent viewers over the years, but if we take a peek beyond cricket too digital streaming has had a huge boom in the recent past. For example, the Tokyo Olympics and its viewership has opened a pristine opportunity for marketers to reach many untapped markets and regions,” he said
Kowshik Komandur, who has been working with OnMobile Global Limited as AVP, said: “If any proof was required that the future of live cricket-watching is veering towards the digital platform, it came during the bid for media rights for the next five seasons of the IPL, from 2023 to 2027.”
The previous cycle lasted five years and consisted of 60 matches per season. The IPL has announced a changing amount of matches per season for the upcoming five-year cycle, ranging from 74 matches in 2023 and 2024, 84 matches in 2025 and 2026, and a maximum of 94 matches in 2027. More matches mean good news for Indian cricket fans.
Sanjana Nischal, CMO of Digital Kong, an independent digital marketing agency, told News18: “From going to the stadium and enjoying the match with friends to making plans for the live screening of IPL matches, the viewership style in India has changed over the last few years. With 54% internet penetration and 2nd highest online viewership in the world, India has over 700 million mobile internet users. People of all age groups are consuming online content and with AI, IoT and Big Data Analysis being used in cricket, both the spectators as well as the players’ experience has improved drastically.”
Another industry insider, Kavita Shenoy, founder and CEO of Voiro, said that the valuation of digital rights surpassed that of broadcast rights in the IPL bid and this follows the previous five-year auction, in which digital rights were not even auctioned separately, but were bundled with TV.
“Streaming is undoubtedly the future of live sports in India, thanks in large part to its ability to reach a much larger audience than television,” Shenoy added.
Echoing this, Manoj Dawane, founder and CEO at VTION, said that the average viewership for IPL is greater than 30 minutes, making it ideal for digital streaming. Interactivity, such as polls, quizzes, and contests, are also abundant in digital viewing.
He also noted that there is a trend of new users downloading the app during sporting events such as the IPL, with a good percentage of people remaining on the app as a residual.
“Therefore, I believe that sports is the trigger which makes people download and then during the course of the event (say 2 months of IPL), users discover other content as well on the OTT app and start consuming that,” said Dawane.
What numbers say
Last year, the 2021 Sports Video Trends Report by the London-based Grabyo with findings from 2019 showed that 53% of global sports enthusiasts who pay for video services will migrate to streaming solely by 2024.
It was also found that 45% of fans would only pay for streaming services in 2021. However, by 2026, the pay-TV market will only have 28% of global sports enthusiasts as customers.
According to Grabyo data, broadcast TV subscriptions have decreased by 9% among worldwide sports lovers since 2019, but internet streaming subscriptions have surged by 41%.
In the case of India, 94% of fans want to convert to streaming exclusively, with 37% willing to pay up to Rs 499 per month for a streaming platform that includes sports and 21% willing to pay up to Rs 749 per month.
However, as per data from Broadcast Audience Research Council (India), Sony Liv (India) Medialogic (Pakistan), B-Sports (Pakistan) LMRB (Sri Lanka), YouTube & Facebook (Global), the live matches were watched by more than 250 million fans around the world.
Raman Raheja, co-founder and CEO of Legends League Cricket, which is a global league with ex-cricketers playing competitive games, said while citing data from BARC: “The average ratings for the League is almost 300% higher than any other International T20 league. We have had 140 million-plus viewers watching us on TV in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka alone besides 50 million across other parts of the World. Our Digital viewership crossed 60 million across streaming platforms of Sony Liv (India), B-Sports (Pakistan), and Crictracker (Rest of the World).”
While sharing his perspective on the transformation, Komandur told News18: “While television will continue to retain its inherent charm for various reasons, not least by virtue of its traditional pride of place in this spectrum, the fast-paced world of constant motion and the fact that there is greater accessibility to digital platforms is certain to witness a shift in viewership patterns in the not-too-near future. It’s worth pondering a few numbers as if to verify this notion.”
According to the industry expert, until now, the largest broadcast group video streaming platform by advertising revenue was Star India’s Disney+Hotstar and the group raked in an estimated $120 million as video ad revenue last year.
He said that India’s online ad+subscription revenue totalled $1.92 billion, with online ad revenue accounting for $1.2 billion. While citing Omdia’s report, the industry insider also highlighted the fact that the analysis firm has predicted that the overall online advertising market will generate $2.4 billion in revenue by 2025.
Komandur also stated that among those in the 18–29-year age group, a significant proportion, 27%, prefer streaming services. So according to him, “It is inevitable, given how quickly the streaming platforms are making deep inroads into sports markets, that live sport too will monopolise the medium.”
Tusharr Kumar, branded content practice head at OML, believes that digital streaming enables innovation and can open up a plethora of new channels for fans to connect. He told News18 that customers expect more from their live sports viewing experience and digital streaming could address this through premium ad-free experiences, fan interactions via NFT-based communities, and other means.
“The next generation of GenZ sports enthusiasts have been born into the digital age and are embracing sports beyond cricket like soccer. Moving sports like these to streaming just makes sense keeping future audiences in mind,” he added.
However, according to the CEO of Voiro, “What media companies and OTT platforms must now grapple with is how to change their mindsets from selling in a TV world to selling digital. Having paid a premium for digital rights, the next big question is how to monetise them.”
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