IPL 2021: Night curfews will push up TV & digital viewership, say experts

The absence of spectators in stadiums for the IPL matches will result in teams losing out on ticket sales, which make for 15-20 per cent of their revenue. But there is hope of strong viewership demand.

"Eighty per cent of revenue comes from media rights, central sponsorship and team-level sponsorships," says Karan Taurani, vice-president, research, Elara Capital. "But teams will not suffer when it comes to other sources of income, since the demand for IPL remains high.”

Navin Khemka, CEO, South Asia, MediaCom, agrees: “Localised lockdowns and night curfews will actually push up TV and digital viewership, like it did last year.”

Star India and Disney+ Hotstar have locked 18 sponsors for TV and 14 for digital. And the Board of Control for Cricket in Indian has brought Vivo back as title sponsor. The other IPL partners include Dream11, Tata Motors, Unacademy, Cred and Upstox.

Vivo has agreed to return to the fold this year at its original annual payout of Rs 440 crore, while central sponsors have been brought on board for Rs 120-130 crore for three years. The annual payout works out to Rs 40-50 crore per sponsor.

With a total of 400 billion viewing minutes on TV, IPL 2020 clocked a 23 per cent jump in total consumption over IPL 2019 (326 billion minutes), according to the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India.