After 2-year break, Pro Kabaddi League back with new online advertisers

The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) is back with a vengeance after two years.

The Disney-Star network (Star Sports and Hotstar-Disney), which won the media rights after an auction last year for five years, has onboarded a bevy of sponsors and advertisers.

The new sponsors include edtech platform Byju’s, online doctors and lab test platform Mfine, online rummy game platform A23, online sports news platform Parimatch News, and online health care and finance portal Dhani.

The new advertisers include social gaming platform Winzo and fantasy sports app Myfab 11, apart from traditional players like GSK and battery and electrical company Luminous. Herbalife has become the nutrition partner for seven of the teams.

According to sources, Star Disney has sold 90 per cent of its inventories for the matches. Advertising will go up by 50 per cent from around Rs 250 crore in the last tournament, according to media buyers.

A Star Sports spokesperson said: “We are thrilled to bring in the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League to fans after a two-year hiatus. The excitement of the fans and the advertisers is unprecedented.” The list, say analysts, includes online players focused on reaching the mass audience, which the property attracts.

The seventh edition of the PKL, which started in 2014, has registered a growth rate of 9 per cent in viewership, hitting over 1.2 billion impressions, based on the Broadcast Audience Research Council data.

As many as 328 million viewers tuned in to watch the seventh edition, registering 71 billion minutes.     

The league, which will begin on December 22, has had its share of controversies.

Ronnie Screwvala, one of the franchisees, said: “Kabaddi for me is just something to enjoy on the mat as there is no fun in the sport with Star having hijacked it with a mockery of an auction.”

Last year, he succeeded in pushing for an auction after raising a conflict-of-interest issue because Star India had bought a 74 per cent stake in Mashal Sports, which organises the league with other partners like Anand Mahindra. With Star also controlling the media rights, he had alleged that the “fair value” of these rights was not realised despite the fact that it was the most popular sport asset after the Indian Premier League.

As a result, the franchisees, whose only big revenue came from these rights, 80 per cent of it is distributed equally among the 12 teams, was being compromised.

Mashal backed down and an auction was held last year. However, despite some interest, Star was the sole bidder and it agreed to pay Rs 950 crore, nearly double of what it was forking out previously (Rs 450 crore) for five years.

Yet some franchisees point out that the payment for the media rights has been staggered. It will go up by 40 per cent in the first year and then will increase by 15 per cent approximately each year. “The impact of the increase is felt by team owners only in the last two years of the five-year extension,” said a franchisee.

Neither Mashal, nor did Star-Disney responded to queries on the issue.