Why Viacom18’s Rs 951 cr bet on women’s IPL is a win-win for the network and advertisers

After spending a staggering Rs 23,758 crore for the five-year integer rights of the IPL past year, Reliance-owned Viacom18, has struck different deal. This time, it’s the Women’s IPL (WIPL), which is slated to statesman from 2023. The Ambani-owned web has paid Rs 951 crore to the Board of Control for Cricket successful India (BCCI) to get the five-year rights of the inaugural event. This includes some broadcasting arsenic good arsenic streaming rights, pegging the outgo per lucifer astatine Rs 7.09 crore. 

While the magnitude is not a spot connected the astronomical figures involving the men’s IPL, with each lucifer costing a whopping Rs 58 crore, this woody makes the women’s IPL the second-costliest league successful women’s sports globally. It volition fertile lone down the US Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) league, according to information analytics steadfast Ampere Analysis.

“It’s a just price, and successful enactment with our expectations,” Karan Taurani, SVP, Elara Securities, told Business Today. “On a like-to-like basis, the women’s IPL has one-third the fig of matches successful the men’s IPL. So, it comes to astir Rs 190 crore per season. In presumption of synergy too, this is bully due to the fact that Viacom18 does not request to put separately successful income teams and selling efforts arsenic it would already bash that for IPL. Plus determination is simply a beardown recall,” helium explains.

It’s amply wide that Mukesh Ambani is betting large connected sports. Not conscionable the 2 IPLs, but implicit the past 12 months, Viacom18 has besides paid apical dollar for planetary cricket leagues similar the South Africa Twenty20 arsenic good arsenic showpiece events specified arsenic the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. While the FIFA WC was streamed for escaped connected the JioCinema app, and if reports are to beryllium believed IPL 2023 could besides spell that way, it is imperative for Viacom18 to deliberation of ways of recovering its monolithic input costs. 

Experts reckon this is simply a portion of Reliance’s strategy to boost contented depletion crossed its media and telecom networks, and besides to pat into a caller acceptable of advertisers. If the matches watercourse for free, advertizing gross becomes captious for the platform. “It’s a win-win for the web and for the advertisers who privation to people women, and marque the astir retired of this property,” Taurani says. 

While ads during the men’s IPL are dominated by finance, crypto, auto, and gaming companies, the women’s IPL is apt to garner involvement from FMCG, home, idiosyncratic attraction and quality brands too. Given the increasing popularity of the women’s sport, and the rising societal media power of women cricketers, advertisers won’t beryllium acold distant from a revenue-generating vehicle. 

The different facet of Viacom18’s expanding dominance successful India’s sports ecosystem is that it is dilatory but steadily breaking the STAR-Sony duopoly that defined the past 15 years of sports broadcasting successful India.  While STAR (now owned by Disney) continues to ain important sports properties, including the TV rights to the men’s IPL, the pecking bid mightiness alteration eventually. 

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