MUMBAI: Just ahead of the Indian Premier League 2020 kick-off in the UAE, Gautam Thakar, CEO of IPL host broadcaster Star Sports has offered a detailed update on how India’s lead sportscaster will be presenting this year’s edition of world cricket’s richest annual event.
In an interview to exchange4media, Thakar also confirmed that 95% of advertising inventory had already been booked and 18 sponsors have come on board for the show so far.
“This is the highest number of sponsors we have ever had. Brands had allotted spends for IPL, Asia Cup and T20 World Cup, and now with Dream11 IPL being the only cricket property for 2020 plus it being a festive season, it has become the obvious choice for brands to make,” Thakar said.
Thakar speak key points:
*Brands had allotted spends for IPL, Asia Cup and T20 World Cup. With IPL being the only cricket property for 2020, plus it being the festive season, IPL has become the obvious choice for brands to make.
*There has been a lot more interest this year than in the past from the FMCG category. P&G, Unilever, ITC, Mondelez, RB and Nestle are brands that don’t necessarily advertise on IPL and sports but this year they are all advertising.
*Early start at 7:30pm will increase audience availability by 20%.
*There are fewer double headers and this should translate to higher ratings as there is a pent-up demand as people are confined at home.
*Advertising inventory is sold only nationally for IPL. From an advertising perspective, the value proposition of IPL is that it is the largest aggregator.
*No better vehicle than the IPL on Star to achieve reach goals. So, Star doesn’t see any value in separately selling IPL on regional channels.
*The idea of launching regional channels was not to have regional advertising but to give consumers an experience in the language they are most comfortable with and to maximize total reach.
*Besides Hindi and English, there will also be independent dedicated language channel broadcast in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali.
