Mumbai : Multi Screen Media, the official broadcaster of the Indian Premier League, has managed to sign up nine sponsors for season eight even as the ongoing Cricket World Cup is giving it stiff competition. The league has signed up Amazon and Vodafone as presenting sponsors this season and advertisers including Hero MotoCorp, Intex Mobiles, Cardekho.com, Pepsi, Vimal Pan Masala and Paytm as associate sponsors, according to Rohit Gupta, president of Multi Screen Media.
“We had eight sponsors last year but this year we might have to increase our sponsorship slots to 12,” said Gupta. Although Gupta declined to comment on the revenues that Multi Screen Media expects to get from IPL 8, industry executives indicated that the broadcaster could make up toRs 950 crore from advertising this year, coming close to its revenue figure in 2013, when the league had 76 games.
With 60 games, IPL made about Rs 800 crore last year. IPL has been riddled with controversies over the past few years, especially the spotfixing and betting scandal that rocked it in 2013. However, Gupta said such controversies do not impact viewership.
“For consumers, it is the best cricket being played and till the cricket is good, viewership won’t drop,” he said.
In 2014, despite the controversies, a watershed election and the first half of IPL being moved to the United Arab Emirates, the tournament saw its viewership grow 7% from that in the previous year, to 192 million from about 175 million.
Ratings for IPL, according to Gupta, have been stable for the past three to four years.
With the IPL coming close on the heels of World Cup, advertisers were cautious initially, Gupta said. “But we were able to convince them because we had ratings to back us.”
Vinit Karnik, national director, sports and live events at GroupM ESP said it was never an either-or situation between the World Cup and IPL for advertisers.
“India has an appetite for both, which is what was proven in 2011 as well,” he said, pointing out that IPL is a seasonal league and people have planned marketing campaigns around it. “It is part of the calendar for marketers now,” he added.
Controversies have, however, impacted the brand value of the league.
According to brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance, IPL’s brand value peaked in 2010 at $4.13 billion but dropped to $2.92 billion in 2012. It picked up again in 2013 to rise to $3.03 billion.
Another brand valuation firm American Appraisal India pegged the value of the IPL at $3.2 billion before the start of the 2014 edition of the tournament.
