Jio vs Star - Who is winning the IPL 2023 battle?

When the Indian Premier League media rights auction was taking place, a senior executive from Sony Sports India Pvt. Ltd found himself under a lot of pressure. He was getting a lot of calls from his international partners and the pressure to bring back the rights was real.

But then he knew it would be one opportunity for them to let go of the expensive property, with the Indian Premier League rights holders still struggling to break even on their investment over the years, and growing their General Entertainment Content (GEC) business with new acquisitions in the regional content space. The Walt Disney India Private Ltd. was a prime example of putting in the money for almost a decade, even before securing the TV rights back in 2018, and then letting go of their pet - Hotstar - to Jio Cinema meant it cost them a big chunk of their entertainment audience. 

But has the story changed since then?

For Star India to move on the from shock of losing Hotstar rights, they needed a savior, and nothing less than a brilliant IPL 2023 would have saved them. Further, it also needed a complete change in marketing strategy, which they backed up with #IPLonStar and #ShorOnGameOn campaigns that asked the audience to turn to their Television sets. They brought in Virat Kohli, the biggest marketable force in the country, Ravindra Jadeja, and Indian skipper Rohit Sharma as the faces of the campaign. 

“The film showcases how among the frenzy and cacophony of these huddles, there are cut-outs of the three players which come to life hearing the massive cheer of their fans, who have gathered around the television sets for what is going to be the start of another grand festival of cricket," Disney Star said in a statement.

Jio Cinema, on the other hand, went ahead with MS Dhoni and Suryakumar Yadav, complemented by actors Shweta Tripathi and Abhishek Banerjee, with a clear focus on ‘freemium’ bit that has made them stand apart like Jio Telecom in 2016. With the match being available in 12 languages alongside Hype-Cam and other state-of-the-art broadcasting techniques on Jio Cinema, it catered to a larger audience, which was understandable from the 2.23-crore peak concurrent audience during the Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals match earlier this season. 

“Consumers are embracing interactivity across lifestyle digital services. Screen gestures like scrolling, swiping, pinching, zooming, and scrubbing have become muscle memory. So why should the IPL still be watched in the old-fashioned, passive way? Our campaign attempts to reboot consumers’ expectations about how they will experience the IPL this season,” said Viacom18’s Creative Head of Marketing, Shagun Seda.

“Through a suite of immersive fan-centric digital offerings, JioCinema will hand over the power to fans and viewers, giving them unprecedented control over how, when, and where they watch their favourite teams and players,” he added. 

Then how have both mediums fared so far? We have a clear judgment to pass on this with BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) and Jio releasing TV and streaming data so far. 

According to BARC, the ongoing IPL saw 29 of 48 matches register peak concurrency of more than three crore audience on TV. The data suggested that the first match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings had the highest viewership, with 5.6 crore, followed by CSK vs RCB garnering 5.2 crore. 

In what has been a staggering development from the 2022 IPL, the cumulative Television reach for the live broadcast of the first 48 matches stood at 451 million unique audiences. According to Exchange4Media report, it's 21% higher as compared to last year's full season's reach and 33% higher than last year's season with the same number of matches. The popularity of the league with a better proposition for the fans ensured that the High Definition reach increased to 86 million, which is 3.4 times higher than the last year's season.

This has prompted Disney Star to increase their ad rates to INR 20-24 lakh for a 10-second ad spot as against INR 15-16 lakh per 10 seconds in the league phase. 

But has Jio stayed far behind? They have been able to converge their rates with multiple offerings. According to audience measurement and advertising research firm TAM Media, the Connected TV (CTV) advertising spots rose to 94 (average ad spots per match) in week 4 of the IPL from 78 spots in week 1, seeing a 20% growth, virtually adding more money to the system, even though Jio are streaming the IPL for free. 

That is further validated by Media Partner Asia (MPA), who predicted that Jio would capture a ~60% share in the estimated advertising revenue of USD 550 million. With Disney having around 13 sponsors for their IPL 2023 coverage, the fact that Jio roped in more than 25 sponsors at higher rates talked about the change in paradigm and the magic of freemium subscription. 

The playoffs will definitely hold the key but right now, a pattern has been set. With Jio and Star going toe to toe in every possible manner, the official from Sony would perhaps be getting more calls than usual now. The genie is out of the bottle now. Who is going to make it count?