Backed by advertisers and consumer interests alike, the overall value of Indian Premier League as a business has increased to $5.3 billion from $4.2 billion last year.
According to Duff & Phelps, a premier global valuation and corporate finance advisor, the tenth edition of the IPL has been steadily expanding its foothold on the global sporting scene. “This IPL season has garnered attention for all the right reasons. Namely, a relatively controversy-free tournament, increase in social media engagement, strategic and highly successful marketing initiatives — all of which affirmed IPL’s standing as the most valuable cricketing league in the world,” said Duff & Phelps-India MD Varun Gupta.
Duff & Phelps, which brought out the report IPL: The Decade Edition: A Concise Report on Brand Values in the Indian Premier League, also said the brand values of all the franchisees increased on average by 34 per cent compared to last year.
Mukesh Ambani-owned Mumbai Indians (MI) outbeat all other teams to be the most valued team, at $106 million, followed by Shah Rukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders which was valued at $99 million, while Royal Challengers Bangalore stood in third place at $88 million.
Gupta said that increasingly lucrative advertising, broadcasting and sponsorship deals contribute to the rising brand value of the franchisees. Other factors that could help better the value include reduction in franchise fees beginning with the next season, increased viewership across India and increased fan engagement evidenced by the rise in social media activity.
Satellite and digital broadcasting rights are up for renewal later this month and will be keenly watched. The renewed deal is anticipated to be significantly higher than the one signed by Sony nine years ago. The adviroy firm said Sony’s ad revenues crossed ₹1,300 crores this year, while Hotstar’s ad revenues from IPL rose to ₹120 crores, more than double the previous year.
Television viewership also rose to new heights, with nearly 45 per cent of viewership coming from rural India, an evidence of the reach and pull of the IPL.
“The new broadcasting rights auction will be one of the keenly watched developments over the next couple of months. The BCCI is clearly set for a huge windfall. We could be looking at a television broadcasting deal of record proportions.
This deal may follow the precedent set by some of the big-ticket broadcasting deals across the world,” said Santosh N, MD-Valuation Advisory Services, Duff & Phelps. It also noted that digital content is becoming a very strong medium of social media engagement for the sports viewers. Tweets pertaining to the IPL has crossed 8.5 million. As per global media agency Maxus, a total of approximately 6 million mentions on social media were registered in the 10th season, more than twice that of the last season which got approximately 3.1 million mentions.