Unsuitable match timings and rains have impacted the viewership of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup, which may lead to a fall in ad revenues by around 25%, media agency executives told Fe. While initial estimates had pegged the total ad revenue from the tournament including spots and sponsorships across TV and digital at Rs 2,000 crore, that number has now been revised down to about Rs 1,500 crore in keeping with the current scenario, sector experts said, adding that this is an achievable target.
Sponsors as well as the broadcaster are now counting on the Super 8 stage of the tournament, which began on Wednesday, for a revival in viewership. India along with England, Australia, West Indies, Afghanistan, USA, Bangladesh and South Africa have qualified for the Super 8 league. Each nation will play rival teams thrice before moving to the semi-finals.
Disney Star, which is the official TV and digital broadcaster of the tournament, was not immediately available for comment.
Ahead of the tournament, Disney Star had indicated that it had locked 19 sponsors for the T20 World Cup including names such as Dream11, Maruti, Parle Products, BPCL, Haier, ICICI Bank, Samsung and Castrol. The broadcaster had also said that it was streaming the tournament for free on Disney+ Hotstar.
“Select matches such as the India-Pakistan clash on June 9 did see high viewership. But overall viewer interest has been low for the T20 World Cup so far,” says Sajal Gupta, chief executive officer, Kiaos Marketing, a Gurugram-based media and marketing consultancy. TV viewership numbers for the India-Pakistan match on June 9 have not been released yet by BARC.
But peak digital concurrency on Disney+ Hotstar for the India-Pakistan match (held on June 9) stood at 290 million, according to media industry sources. This compares favourably with the last T20 World Cup in 2022 when India played Pakistan on October 23 in Melbourne, Australia. At that time, the peak concurrency on Disney+ Hotstar was 180 million, according to industry experts.
Anil Solanki, senior director – media lead at Dentsu X, which is part of the Denstu group, said that viewership of the T20 World Cup would improve with its entry into the Super 8 league.
“There will be higher viewer interest now with the T20 World Cup moving into the next stage. While there has been some cricket fatigue because the T20 World Cup began right after the Indian Premier League and some viewers have not liked the format so far, the tournament will get exciting now,” he said.
India matches remain in the 8 pm slot in the evenings during the Super 8 stage, though some other keenly-awaited matches such as the ones between West Indies-England on June 20, Australia-Bangladesh on June 21 and Afghanistan-Australia on June 23 will be held at 6 am in the morning.
