Digital video entertainment has seen a massive growth over the years due to various factors. Besides the plethora of choice, affordable high speed internet, smartphones and smart TVs have added to the digital viewership base.
Viacom18 is looking to cash in on this growth offering free viewing of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Jio Cinema after acquiring the digital rights for Rs.23,758 crore for a five-year period starting 2023. The free streaming decision has created a few ripples in the industry and among fans.
Jio Cinema has already experimented with the free streaming model with the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It claims to have garnered 110 million viewers. In IPL 2023, the target is to reach 500 million viewers, across multiple languages.
Here are a few findings indicating the direction of the digital trend.
According to the recently released Pitch Madison Advertising Report (PMAR) 2023, digital advertising spends has risen 11-fold from Rs.3,050 crore in 2013 to Rs.34,405 crore in 2022, with corresponding increase in share from 9pc to 38pc – overtaking TV to become the medium with largest ad revenue.
Digital advertising grew 35pc in 2022 on top of 50pc growth in 2021. In the last two years, digital advertising spend doubled from Rs.16,974 crore to Rs.34,405 crore in 2022.
The report projected that the share of digital will further rise to 41pc of the total advertising spends. Though the projected growth rate in 2023 is a little lower at 25pc, in absolute terms, digital advertising will add Rs.8,600 crore and is likely to end the year at Rs.43,000 crore.
Axis My India, a consumer data intelligence company, reported that the average time spent on digital is 105 minutes and TV is 66 minutes as per its June 2022 findings. September 2022 findings on media consumption revealed that 61pc watch online video content either on their mobiles or connected TV.
According to FICCI’s report on online consumption, Indians spent 4.7 hours a day on their phones in 2021; fifth in the world, for the most amount of time spent on phone apps in 2021, a 27pc growth since 2019. Consumers spent 699 billion hours on mobile in 2021, from 655 billion hours in 2020.
With the various developments happening in the digital space, we asked experts to weigh in on the impact of free streaming of IPL 2023. Will it lead to a spurt in OTT viewership and rise in time spent?
‘Users will end up spending more time consuming content online’
IPL this year is going to be the biggest sporting extravaganza which this country has ever witnessed. To make it larger than life, Jio has removed the biggest hurdle of subscription and made it AVOD which will give them unwarranted scale. To drive deeper connect, it will be in 12 languages and to drive engagement will have curated a feed of over five categories which will make it all more special for advertisers.
With IPL going AVOD, industry is thrilled and is eagerly looking forward to the upcoming season of IPL. Jio has been a disruptor and is claiming an aggressive reach target of 500 mn users.
With affordable data at their disposal, consumers are starved for quality content. Average Indian consumer consumes over 12GB of data/month. Cricket is a religion in this country and has a strong pull across socio-economic users. With free streaming we believe users will end spending more time consuming content online.
– Amit Lall, Principal Partner, Mindshare
“Will help increase time spent on Jio Cinema”
IPL is one of the most awaited sports events of 2023. It is possible that the free streaming of IPL 2023 could result in a spurt in JIO Cinema’s viewership. IPL has a large and dedicated fan base in India and around the world and by offering free streaming of the matches, it will attract more viewers who may not be die-hard cricket fans but who are interested in watching high-quality sports content. This could help to increase the overall incremental viewership of JIO Cinema.
It is possible that the time spent on Jio Cinema could increase with the free streaming of IPL. Jio Cinema is a popular OTT platform in India that offers a wide variety of movies, TV shows, and other video content. By offering free streaming of IPL matches, Jio Cinema could attract a significant number of viewers who are interested in watching the cricket tournament but may not have subscribed to the platform before. Free streaming of IPL along with a high-quality viewing experience will help to increase the time spent on JIO Cinema by both the existing and new users.
– Sapna Sharma, Co-Founder and COO, Efficacy Worldwide
‘Time spent on IPL to jump more than 20pc this season’
IPL has been getting ever-increasing traction from OTT over the seasons. During the last two seasons there is a jump of almost 15pc in unique viewers.
Free streaming had always been thought of as a very risky strategy and no media network dared to touch it. This will break the limits for this IPL as mobile screen has been turning into first screen with each passing day. The viewership jump is expected to be exponential. Other reasons that fuel this expectation is that Jio is the largest telecom operator in India, also it is one of the fastest growing broadband networks. Jio apps are an integral part of the Jio services. Now add Voot to this. While Hotstar has been a paid app to be additionally installed. Jio’s user base stands tall at 750 mn, which is at least double of any other sports streaming OTT. This IPL is expected to have a jump of 150pc in one or the other form of digital engagement.
Free streaming will have multi-dimensional impact on digital engagement of this season of IPL. Many sports and gaming sites customise content to attract the IPL fanbase. Accessibility of free digital content would make this 360-degree experience even more dense. This has a mutual advantage because it builds enhanced engagement and at the end it promotes the cause of IPL. Also, this season is expected to witness a buoyant Connected TV (CTV) viewing. With its vast spread of fibre network and products like media devices, Jio is going to have a fun time encashing CTV viewing. Time spent on OTT has been increasing at a pace of 10pc but these additional factors are expected to make time spent on IPL to jump more than 20pc this season.
– Vaibhav Ratnaparkhe, Sr. Director – Media Buying, Starcom
‘It is a given’
Free streaming had always attracted viewers. Given that India is a giant market for cricket and the loyalty within fans is sky high, it is expected that the viewership of IPL is to be at an all-time high. It is a trend in OTT viewers that there is always a surge in viewership when channels launch a free streaming service.
An average viewer in India spends about 70 mins a day streaming OTT content, as per the latest figures. Given the fan following and popularity of the content this time can fluctuate within the users. Reiterating what’s been said earlier, Cricket in India is almost sacred, with cricketers being more popular in the country than even some big celebrities. It is a given that with IPL being streamed for free there is a high chance that viewers might spend some extra time on the channel exploring and looking for more content that aligns with their preferences.
– Divya Dixit, Business Strategy & Growth Consultant
‘What will increase viewership time is engagement’
We believe that this has the potential to unlock the next quarter of a billion viewers still outside this loop. Clearly Viacom18 wants to ensure that there are no barriers for India’s 750 million smartphone users to stream the WPL and IPL on their devices. The fact that the IPL will be free to stream and available in multiple languages will definitely be a contributing factor to growing the viewership numbers and perhaps draw away viewers from linear TV. With Jio setting its goal at 500 million viewers they have a big task ahead but one that they seem prepared for after learnings gained from their FIFA broadcast. Just recently, Jio Cinema managed to reach 110 million viewers with a similar strategy during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The chances of surpassing these numbers with the IPL are very high. The IPL is hugely popular in the country and across the world, during the 2022 IPL, with a subscription-based streaming model, Disney+ Hotstar reportedly onboarded over 10 million peak concurrency; we can expect Jio to go past this with the planned initiatives.
While free streaming is likely to bring in the viewers what will increase viewership time is engagement, To this effect Jio has already announced that it will be telecasting the IPL in 4K as well as a slew of engagement measures like multi language commentary in around 16 to 17 languages like Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Odia among others.
Another new feature that is being added is & “appointment viewing.” This feature allows the viewer to check the scoreboard and any other graphic whenever they want, rather than having to wait for the broadcaster to show them. These measures are going to have a more tangible effect on time spent.
– Karthik MB, Head – Media & Communication, ITW Consulting
(Think Through features may be initiated and funded by stakeholders.)
