IPL 2023 final: Rs 50 cr-Rs 100 cr ad money at stake if rains play spoilsport again 

Advertising revenue to the tune of Rs 50 crore -Rs 100 crore is at stake for broadcasters of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 if the rescheduled final between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans gets disrupted by rains again on Monday. 

The final of the money-spinner tournament was scheduled to be played on May 28, 2023, but got pushed by a day to Monday due to rains in Ahmedabad. If rains continue on Monday during playtime, a five-over-a-side game will be held. If that is not possible either, a super over will decide the winner. If that, too, is not possible, Gujarat Titans will be declared the title winner as they lead the league stages, while Chennai Super Kings is at the second position.  

The advertising revenue from IPL 2023 is estimated to be around Rs 3,500 crore across Disney Star network of channels and Jio Cinema which relay the matches on TV and digital platforms, respectively, according to industry estimates. This is a decline from the roughly Rs 4,500 crore earned last year. With the tournament having 74 matches, it works to about Rs 47 crore of average ad revenue a match across TV and digital platforms.  

But the rates for individual matches vary depending on the popularity of the teams playing and the stage of the tournament, among other factors. Given that the IPL final attracts the most viewership in the entire tournament, it brings in 2-3 times the revenue that other matches in the tournament do. “If advertisers paid Rs 1 crore for other matches, they would have had to shell out Rs 2-3 crore for this match alone,” says Madan Mohapatra, an independent marketing and media consultant. 

This could amount to Rs 50-100 crore of ad revenue just for the final match across TV and digital platforms, estimate industry insiders.  

“The fact that organisers have scheduled the match for another day shows that they have provisions for these exigencies. Despite that if the match doesn’t happen, in an evolved market insurance takes care of such unforeseen events,” says Manas Mishra, MD of media agency Mediant Communications. 

If that is not currently in place, the stakeholders may want to include such scenarios in their contracts so that no one party bears the entire loss, he added.  

With BCCI splitting IPL broadcasting rights into digital and TV packages for the first time from the 2023-27 cycle, a larger TV versus digital contest is playing out in this IPL season. Until last year, TV and digital IPL rights were a bundled deal which was held by Star India (now renamed as Disney Star after the merger of the two media giants) and its streaming app Disney+ Hotstar.  

For the 2023-27 cycle, Disney Star won India TV rights for a bid of Rs 23,575 crore and Reliance-backed Viacom18 (which owns JioCinema app) bagged digital rights for Rs 23,758 crore.  This season of the IPL had 74 matches between 10 teams.  

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