The Virat Kohli-led Team India’s dismal show in the ongoing T20 World Cup has undoubtedly disappointed the Indian fans around the globe.
With the Men in Blue’s early exit from the showpiece event, one question will be surely in everyone’s mind that whether the development have any impact on the ad revenue of the Star India, the official broadcaster of the showpiece event?
As it has been the case a few times before that in such a scenario, whenever India had made an early exit from the ICC events or even any tri-series, not only the fans but also the broadcaster had felt the financial jolts.
Going back to 2007, when India had made a shocking exit from the 50-over World Cup in the West Indies, the commercial revenues for the broadcaster had witnessed a significant drop.
Many companies which had booked slots and were already prepared with their respective campaigns, either demanded return of funds or discount or redrafting of the then agreements.
Notably in the 2007 World Cup, two of the tournament favourites — India and Pakistan — had both made an early exit. At that time, as many as 31 games were still left to be played in the showpiece event and with the two teams packing their bags in advance, the viewership also took a hit which finally resulted in drop of ad revenue of the official broadcaster.
Now coming to the present time, even after India’s early exit from the ongoing T20 World Cup, there aren’t many games left in the tournament.
Although the viewership in India is undobtedly expected to drop for the remainder of the tournament, industry sources said that Star India wouldn’t suffer loss of advertising revenue.
The reason why it wouldn’t impact Star financially is that the ad inventory for the tournament has been already sold out irrespective of whether India is playing the semi-finals/finals or not.
However, India’s early exits could prove fatal for advertisers because with viewership now set to drop, the advertisers will surely crib.
Meanwhile issuing a statement, Star has said that the high-octane clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan created history by clocking a record reach of 167 million viewers, making it the most viewed T20I match till date.
“The India-Pakistan match has created history by clocking a record reach of 167 million viewers, making it the most viewed T20I match till date. We have continually strived to grow the audience base for marquee Cricket and this record is a testament to our efforts across high-decibel campaigns, enhanced storytelling, dedicated regional programming, and consumer innovations,” said a Star India spokesperson in a statement,
“There’s no doubt that the result of the match and India’s exit from the tournament disappointed fans but the record viewership displays the unique power of Cricket to engage audiences at an unprecedented scale,” he added.
As per the broadcaster’s statement, the India-Pakistan match surpassed the previous peak, which was the 2016 ICC World T20 semi-finals between India and West Indies, which had a reach of 136 million and an AMA (average minute audiences in ‘000) of 60.
Overall, India’s early exit from the ongoing event won’t hamper the official broadcaster financially however, it could not be denied that the Men in Blue’s campaign in any ICC event makes a massive impact.