WPL 2023: Advertiser interest may be muted, ad rates comparable to fiction shows, say experts

The inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is just 48 hours away. On Wednesday, tickets went on sale on BookMyShow, sparking excitement among fans. The BCCI also unveiled the WPL anthem to much fanfare (online). 

While the buzz around the first-ever women’s T20 league in India is palpable, with scores of fans trending #WPL2023 on Twitter, media analysts are on a wait-and-watch mode. They say the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) ploy of doling out tickets at zero charges (for women) and nominal charges (for men) is to ensure that the 22-match tournament doesn’t fall flat in its very first year. “This is a strategy that will make sure that this content reaches the masses in a big way. BCCI can do this [free tickets] instead of spending crores of money on promotions,” said an analyst. 

But free tickets may not be a bad strategy after all, pointed out Karan Taurani, SVP at Elara Capital, who has been tracking this space. “Close to 80-90 per cent of franchise revenues come from media rights. Ticketing revenue contribution is less than 20 per cent. So, ticketing being free will not make a big dent in my view. But it can build awareness in the minds of people, and gather crowds in the stadium,” he told Business Today.

Even without ticket prices, there are ways in which the BCCI can make money in the stadium. “You have F&B, in-stadia ads, and other tie-ups. So, free tickets are an innovative strategy by the BCCI, but how it plays out needs to be watched,” Taurani said.

All matches of WPL 2023 are scheduled to be held in Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium and Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium, thus leaving out India’s other cities from participating in what is being dubbed as a historic moment in women’s cricket. This could be because the BCCI wants to avoid a logistics problem just ahead of the IPL (which starts on March 31). But will WPL command the same level of advertiser interest as the IPL does?

While the amount (Rs 951 crore) that Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 paid for WPL rights is not a patch on the astronomical cheque (Rs 23,758 crore) it handed the BCCI for IPL, the broadcaster needs to monetise the event nonetheless. And that could be a challenge, especially in the current environment.  

First up, Viacom18 has made WPL free for streaming on JioCinema. This, essentially, means that it has to recover costs through advertising only. However, given the tough macro-economic environment — with traditional advertisers slashing budgets or stopping ads altogether — and the men’ IPL beginning shortly, WPL may be left high and dry. 

“The ad environment is tough. New-age companies and startups are cutting spends even in the men’s IPL. Pricing stands to be corrected severely this year. And the allocation towards WPL will be even lesser because its reach would just be a fraction of IPL’s. If WPL had happened 18 months ago, it would have gotten a stream of advertisers, especially beauty brands like Nykaa, Mamaearth and others,” Taurani explained. 

WPL could potentially fetch Rs 60,000-70,000 for a 10-second ad slot, compared to “high-impact” IPL’s Rs 14-16 lakh rates. “This pricing is comparable to a fiction show’s ad slots,” Taurani reveals. And that could turn out to be WPL’s biggest competitor in future. “Women watch fiction shows [on general entertainment channels] and it could be hard to get them off it to watch WPL matches around the same time,” he said.

But, it’s too early to make any absolute predictions. Even the IPL, which began in 2008, took some to become the irresistible money magnet that it is today. It’s just Day One for WPL.

Taurani sums up by saying, “Star players drive eyeballs and eventually, ad spends. Even if a handful of women cricketers become stars, WPL will be a success, and will see incremental ad growth every year.”
 

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