IPL 2023 sees drop in TV advertisers; big brands give a miss: BARC data

Image of IPL trophy. The Indian Premier League 2023 has seen a full fledged innings this year with home and away format coming back.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 has seen a sharp drop in the number of advertisers on television.

According to the latest BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) data, the number of advertisers on TV has fallen by 42 percent in the first 29 matches of this season.

The data shows that this year IPL has only attracted 47 advertisers on TV so far compared to 81 advertisers in the last season.

The reduced advertiser interest is also evident in the number of brands and categories that are advertised on TV during this season. According to the BARC report, only 37 categories have been advertised on TV this season, resulting in a 35 percent drop in categories advertised on TV this year. Last year, 57 categories had advertised on TV until the first 19 matches.

Consequently, the number of brands advertising on TV has tumbled to 86 brands this year compared to 136 brands in 2022, leading to a drop of 36 percent. Brands such as CRED, PayTm, Swiggy, Acko, Byjus, who had bet big on TV until last year, are missing this season.

On the other hand, digital has recorded 23 sponsors for the ongoing cricket league. JioCinema, owned by Viacom18, is the digital media rights holder of the Tata IPL 2023.

"In terms of sponsorships and advertisers, JioCinema has been far ahead of TV rights holder for IPL. The streaming app roped in 23 marquee sponsors for the tournament, along with most top brands in the country as advertisers," company officials had said at the start of IPL 2023 adding that this is the highest-ever number of advertisers in the history of the tournament.

Among the JioCinema-exclusive advertisers (Amazon, Samsung, UB, Indeed, TVS, Castrol, Noise, Puma and ABFRL), who were prominent on TV last year, switched their preference from TV to digital in 2023.

Viacom18 – Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj had said at the start of the tournament says that the sponsors and advertisers are assured of delivery and return on investment on JioCinema digital. "They have a sense of security that they are paying only for the actual impressions delivered unlike the legacy services," he added.

He had said that digital advertisement offers greater precision to the brands, along with cost-effectiveness and flexibility compared to TV. He is convinced that they will have more advertisers shifting their focus and budgets towards digital.

JioCinema had broken previous viewership records as the peak concurrency on April 12 touched 2.2 crore when MS Dhoni from Chennai Super Kings (CSK) gave a glimpse of the good old days of thrilling finishes against Rajasthan Royals (RR).

After registering the highest-ever concurrent viewership during the CSK versus RR in Tata IPL 2023, the digital platform breached the record for the second time in five days with 2.4 crore viewers during CSK match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).