JioCinema, the official digital streaming partner of TATA IPL 2023, clocked over 1300 crore video views in the first five weeks of the cricket league. The average time spent per viewer per match touched 60 minutes this season. On April 12, the platform clocked a 2.23 crore peak during the Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals match. Five days later, during the Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings fixture, JioCinema broke the record again with a concurrency of 2.4 crore.
TATA IPL 2023 is breaking digital viewership records and stumps. During a recent interaction with Ajay Gupte we asked the CEO of Wavemaker South Asia for his views on the latest edition of the IPL, its surge in viewership and how it’s impacting media plans.
Excerpts.
All eyes are on IPL at the moment, so how are Wavemaker India’s clients involved in IPL this year? Are their interests skewed towards digital engagements? What are the key trends you are noticing with your clients?
IPL is a nice bump up for viewership. For advertisers, it is a huge playground too. There are a few other vehicles which actually create the kind of attention and consistent viewership that IPL can create. Digital has pushed the growth a bit. There is a significant increase in terms of spends compared to the previous months. It has brought back energy into the system. We have some brands which are investing quite heavily. We’ve got Dream 11, which is our biggest entrant there. We’ve got Mondelez and Haier among many others.
How’s free access to viewing IPL benefiting both consumers and advertisers?
It is certainly beneficial. It will help move people possibly more to digital. It is giving brands a wider platform to reach out to people. It’s definitely helpful from these perspectives.
What according to you are the trends in media buying and advertiser sentiment this IPL versus the last couple of years?
With the increase in the number of matches, the cost of entry has increased. The amount of investment marketers need to be consistent is higher. Therefore, it has been a deterrent for those marketers who invested during the entire IPL season. Some marketers are not looking at IPL as a property but just as another media property. IPL has become a media vehicle in many brands’ regular strategies.