IPL advertisers will only pay for matches played

Star Sports has told advertisers who bought airtime for Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches to pay only for games played before the league was halted, after the discovery of a number of COVID cases among players and staff.

Last week, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said the IPL season would be suspended indefinitely.

The details

• Star Sports paid Rs 16,348 crore ($2.2 billion) for IPL rights for television and online broadcast between 2018 and 2022 – around Rs 54.5 ($7.4 million) per game. Just 29 games of the 60 matches this season had been played when the suspension was announced. 
• Even if the season is re-started by the BCCI, advertisers will have the option of pulling out of their contracts.
• Star Sports had deals with 18 sponsors in a variety of categories for the 14th IPL season, while Disney+ Hotstar, the OTT platform streaming live matches, had 14 sponsors.

Key takeaway

The IPL is as popular in India as ever. Its suspension came as viewing figures were beating those for the same period in 2020. Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India data said that for the first 26 matches, Star India network had a cumulative reach of 352 million, compared to 349 million in 2020. And almost every third TV-owning household in the country watched the opening match of the season. 

Sourced from The Economic Times

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