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IPL 2025 ad rates spike 25-30% following JioStar merger

IPL 2025 ad rates spike 25-30% following JioStar merger


Advertising rates for the Indian Premier League (IPL), 2025 have gone up 25-30 per cent from last year based on first-ask prices said industry experts attributing the price increase directly to the JioStar merger last year that has changed market dynamics. JioStar has the television and digital streaming rights for the cricketing extravaganza from 2023 to 2028, originally bagged by Viacom 18 Pvt Ltd prior to the merger.

For a 10 second ad on television (SD+HD), the prices have gone up 9-15 per cent to ₹18-19 lakhs. Last year, the price for the same ad slot was ₹16.4 lakhs. For Smart TV, prices went up by 23-38 percent to ₹8-9 lakhs from ₹6.5 lakhs last year. These trends are higher than the annual advertising inflation of 10-12 per cent.

Regarding the rates hike, Lloyd Mathias, Marketer & Business Strategist, said the JioStar merger was the biggest reason for the price increase.

“In the first 17 years of IPL, there was competition between TV and digital platforms appealing to a similar set of advertisers. Now with the merger there is just one common control. Another reason for the spike in ad rates is also that last year IPL came before the general elections, So, advertisers were holding back in 2024. In 2025, IPL will be a big seller,” he said, adding that the BCCI will have to decide whether it will moderate bidding rights for the long term. businessline also reached out to JioStar regarding the merged platform, but the company declined to talk.

Meanwhile, Hema Malik, Chief Investment Officer at IPG Mediabrands advertising, said there was a noticeable change in the IPL ad rates since the merger.

“Typically, IPL is a sought-after property. The price they take out in the beginning is always very ambitious and whatever becomes the operating price for that respective year, is at a premium than the previous year. This year, the ask is higher than the regular ad rates inflation that is expected year on year. This may be because, in the last couple of years, they’ve been picking against each other from a platform perspective and had to keep the pricing very competitive. Now, they see it as an opportunity to ask for a price hike,” said Malik.

Regarding the overall market, Malik talked of a downward trend with the last two quarters of last calendar year showing a “not so great” performance. For this reason, she said advertisers may not take the price hikes positively and so the demand may not meet this year’s expectations.

Nonetheless, Malik remained optimistic by saying, “There will be opportunities eventually in having the entire broadcast rights with one partner. There is a brilliant opportunity to have screen-agnostic deals, integrated deals and look for opportunities. So even if there is a price to pay, I think there are opportunities to bundle it up nicely to justify your return on investments .”

While industry experts talked about the growing ad rates inflation, Ajimon Francis, Managing Director at Brand Finance, said it is still too early to talk about any changes in ad rates.

Jio traditionally is very smart in pricing. It splits the pricing regionally and offer prices accordingly. So for advertisers, there is continuous review of pricing as season goes on. It’s not a static method. Disney also tried this last year but it went down. So, we’re keeping a close eye on the merged entity but right now it is too early to see a spike in ad rates. We see 2025 as a safe space as far as ad rates are concerned,” he said.





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