IPL 2021 sponsorship on course for huge rise even as audiences fall

Sponsorship of Indian Premier League cricket is set to see a huge jump compared to last year, when the event was played in the United Arab Emirates, but early signs are that viewing figures are down.

By the numbers

• The Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) expects to collect around Rs 744 crore ($100.5m) from tournament partners and other on-ground sponsors.
• More than half of that will come from Chinese phone brand Vivo, which is paying Rs 484 crore ($65.4m) as title sponsor (more than twice the amount Indian fantasy sports platform Dream11paid in 2020).
• These big rises come as viewership has declined during the initial games of this year’s tournament – attributable in part to the impact of the latest wave of COVID-19.
• Across the first two weeks, BARC data shows an average of 105 million unique viewers watched 17 matches, a dip of 5% compared to the same period in 2020. Viewing minutes per match are down 20%.

The franchise view

“[Sponsors] have gone heavily digital in execution to sidestep the pandemic limitations. All of the brands naturally would have wanted direct interaction with the consumers but in this new stage, virtual events, activations, meets and greets where people interact with their heroes online (and via tech such as AR and VR) have become the norm and are also proving to be very successful” – Vinod Bisht, interim CEO at Delhi Capitals.

Sourced from Exchange4Media, Mint

_{[Image: IPL]}