IPL 2023 opening match witnessed a 40% fall in number of TV advertisers

IPL 2023: The inaugural match between GT and CSK had 31 advertisers but last year the opening match between CSK and KKR had 52 advertisers on TV

The opening match of the Indian Premier League 2023 saw a 40 per cent fall in the number of advertisers on TV compared with the last season, data from Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India showed.

The inaugural match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings had 31 advertisers. Last year, the opening match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders had 52 advertisers on TV. The match was broadcast on over 20 Disney Star channels.

Last year, the total number of TV advertisers in the IPL was 100.

According to ANI, there is a notable absence of some big spenders on TV as compared to last year's IPL. These include Byju's, Cred, Muthoot, Netmeds, Swiggy, Flipkart, PhonePe, Meesho, Samsung, OnePlus, Vedantu, Spotify and Havells.

This year, Disney Star has secured Tata Neu, Dream11, Airtel, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Asian Paints, Cadbury, Jindal Panther, Parle Biscuits, Britannia, RuPay, Kamla Pasand and LIC, among others, as broadcast sponsors.

The TV viewership of IPL has been on a decline. From 269 million in 2021, the TV viewership declined to 229 million in 2022. Moreover, this is the first time the TV and digital broadcast rights have gone to two different broadcasters, ViacomI8 for digital and Disney Star for TV.

However, Disney Star announced that the opening match of the season was viewed by 130 million individuals on its channels. With 8.7 billion minutes, the consumption was up 47 per cent as compared to the previous year.

Earlier, Business Standard had reported that Disney Star and Viacom-18 have collectively paid nearly three times more than the last auction held five years ago — Rs 48,390 crore. This means that to break even, they need to rustle up revenues of nearly Rs 10,000 crore every year from advertising and other sources.