Why Viacom18’s Rs 951 cr bet on women’s IPL is a win-win for the network and advertisers

After spending a staggering Rs 23,758 crore for the five-year digital rights of the IPL last year, Reliance-owned Viacom18, has struck another deal. This time, it’s the Women’s IPL (WIPL), which is slated to begin from 2023. The Ambani-owned network has paid Rs 951 crore to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to acquire the five-year rights of the inaugural event. This includes both broadcasting as well as streaming rights, pegging the cost per match at Rs 7.09 crore. 

While the amount is not a patch on the astronomical figures involving the men’s IPL, with each match costing a whopping Rs 58 crore, this deal makes the women’s IPL the second-costliest league in women’s sports globally. It will rank only behind the US Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) league, according to data analytics firm Ampere Analysis.

“It’s a fair price, and in line with our expectations,” Karan Taurani, SVP, Elara Securities, told Business Today. “On a like-to-like basis, the women’s IPL has one-third the number of matches in the men’s IPL. So, it comes to about Rs 190 crore per season. In terms of synergy too, this is good because Viacom18 does not need to invest separately in sales teams and marketing efforts as it would already do that for IPL. Plus there is a strong recall,” he explains.

It’s amply clear that Mukesh Ambani is betting big on sports. Not just the two IPLs, but over the last 12 months, Viacom18 has also paid top dollar for global cricket leagues like the South Africa Twenty20 as well as showpiece events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. While the FIFA WC was streamed for free on the JioCinema app, and if reports are to be believed IPL 2023 could also go that way, it is imperative for Viacom18 to think of ways of recovering its massive input costs. 

Experts reckon this is a part of Reliance’s strategy to boost content consumption across its media and telecom networks, and also to tap into a new set of advertisers. If the matches stream for free, advertising revenue becomes critical for the platform. “It’s a win-win for the network and for the advertisers who want to target women, and make the most out of this property,” Taurani says. 

While ads during the men’s IPL are dominated by finance, crypto, auto, and gaming companies, the women’s IPL is likely to garner interest from FMCG, home, personal care and beauty brands too. Given the growing popularity of the women’s sport, and the rising social media influence of women cricketers, advertisers won’t be far away from a revenue-generating vehicle. 

The other aspect of Viacom18’s increasing dominance in India’s sports ecosystem is that it is slowly but steadily breaking the STAR-Sony duopoly that defined the last 15 years of sports broadcasting in India.  While STAR (now owned by Disney) continues to own significant sports properties, including the TV rights to the men’s IPL, the pecking order might change eventually.