ICC World Test Championship Final: Star Sports onboards 15 sponsors, Disney+ Hotstar gets 13

Disney Star, the official broadcaster of the ICC World Test Championship Final between India and Australia, has onboarded 28 sponsors for the ongoing event set to end on June 11. While Star Sports has onboarded 15 sponsors including Bajaj Allianz, LAYER'R SHOT, Pokerbaazi, MRF, Samco Securities, Jindal Panther Steel, UltraTech Cement, DBS Bank, Atomberg Technologies, Maruti Suzuki, Charged By Thums Up, Hero MotoCorp, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Livguard Energy Technologies, Allied Blenders and Distilleries. Star Sports has also onboarded 40 advertisers and over 45 brands.

Disney+ Hotstar, too, has roped in 13 sponsors across categories and brands like Bajaj Allianz, Scaler, Policy Bazaar, Paisa Bazaar, Club Mahindra, Coca Cola, HSBC, Maruti Suzuki, Uber, L’Oreal and Castrol have also been signed as associate sponsors. Baazi Games is the co-presenting sponsor and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund is the co-power sponsor on Disney+ Hotstar.

According to Ajit Varghese, Head of Network (Ad Sales), Disney Star, the increasing curiosity surrounding the ICC World Test Championship Final between two cricket heavyweights is sure to generate excitement in the country. “We have collaborated with advertisers from various domains, across Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar to help them achieve their desired business objectives through this marquee event,” he said.

The battle between Jio Cinema and Disney Star is getting all the more intense. To compete with Jio Cinema in the digital video advertising segment, Disney + Hotstar has decided to offer the upcoming Asia Cup and the Cricket World Cup free to mobile-only subscribers. Experts say that this could be a cause for concern for digital advertising. “It is cyclical in nature with higher dependence on internet & commerce companies, and has no third-party measurement mechanism for video content, which limits potential scale for video advertisements. Given the high content cost and fragmented OTT market, we believe it is beneficial to have a steady and sticky revenue base in the form of subscription even if ARPU (average revenue per user) is lower, as there is potential to hike ARPU in the medium to long term once the market consolidates,” Karan Taurani, Vice President, Elara Capital said.

The move by Disney+ Hotstar to offer cricket content free to mobile subscribers, if continued over the medium term, may result in higher losses for the OTT platform. Experts believe that offering cricket free may also lead to a bigger fall in Disney + Hotstar paid subscriber base (already down 14 per cent over the last 6 months due to IPL moving away), if continued over the medium term.