The IPL Media Rights auction turned up some staggering numbers. The numbers were so insane that it made IPL the 2nd most valued sporting league in the world, second only to NFL.
Heading into the auction and coming out of it, one thing became very clear. The bet on digital is massive. Viacom18 bagged the rights by shelling out a massive amount of Rs 20,500 cr for package B and also paid Rs 2991 cr for 18 non-exclusive games per season.
The per-match bid for TV stood at Rs 57 cr. For Digital, on the other hand, the number came in at Rs 48 cr. The fact that the bid for digital came as close as it ultimately did to TV is down to a few reasons.
Sports & OTT
According to a report by Ernst & Young, Indians spent the most time on online sports in the world - over 1.5 billion hours. The time spent in India equated to a third of the global time spent on sports apps. The time spent grew by over 52%.
In 2021, 40 million households in India paid for 80 million OTT subscriptions. Sports was a major driver for this push. All these numbers are staggering. But here comes the monstrous one. Digital ad spending in sports grew by over 100% in 2021. It grew from 5.5 billion in 2020, to 11.4 billion in 2021.
OTT - The Numbers Game
As per Statista, revenues from Video Subscriptions are expected to reach 83 billion rupees by 2023, and the value of the Indian Digital market is estimated to reach 424 billion INR by 2023.
The Subscription Video On Demand market is expected to grow by 52% by 2025, as per uscreen. Majority of the revenues for OTT platforms come from advertising. Having property like IPL for 5 years, and all the numbers pointing to a monstrous growth in the segment, the bidding justifies itself.
The scale is massive. And with almost everyone having access to a smartphone, the sky is the limit.
