Mahendra Singh Dhoni, wearing a Chennai Super Kings jersey, is about to take strike. The setting is not the Chepauk or the Wankhede stadium. Instead, he is nestled inside a cathode-ray-tube television, reminiscent of the times TVs were yet to be hung on walls.
As the bowler runs in, Dhoni stops him in his tracks and pronounces, “Just get rid of this boring TV, guys. This time, the Tata IPL is on JioCinema. On any screen. And that too free.” If that wasn’t enough, the advertisement ends by announcing: “Streaming free across for Airtel, Vi, BSNL, and Jio users.” After shelling out a staggering $2.9 billion for the digital rights of the Indian Premier League (T20 franchise cricket league) from 2023 to 2027, Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema wants to make the internet IPL’s principal abode. Disney Star, which won the satellite TV rights, paid a tad less (~$2.8 billion) for the same tenure. Satellite TV advertisements have always been the holy grail for advertisers to get their brands noticed. After all, a 10-second ad slot can sell for millions of rupees during the tournament. However, JioCinema’s move to make IPL viewing free on its online platform has rattled advertisers who signed expensive TV-ad deals with Disney Star. With over 500 million people expected to tune into IPL this year, JioCinema’s free offering hopes to attract hordes to its platform. And that makes JioCinema an attractive proposition for companies who want to place digital ads at a fraction of the cost compared to TV. But switching to JioCinema might be a tough call for advertisers. In today’s rewarding story, we tried to delves deep into all facets of this intriguing battle for IPL eyeballs (and ad moolah) between two media behemoths and the predicament it has put advertisers in.
