Star Sports has roped in 25 brands, including three co-presenting partners and ten sponsors, for the Indian Premier League 2020 broadcast.
A market source has confirmed to SportzFront that the IPL host broadcaster has already closed deals for over 50% of total inventory. The majority of the brands which had committed for the March-May schedule have stayed on board. The list also includes some new players.
Digital payment brand PhonePe and Amazon will be joining IPL title sponsor Dream11 as the co-presenting partners for the league’s LIVE broadcast.
The other large spenders will include MRF Tires, food delivery app Swiggy, Hyundai and Maruti. According to a media source, Kamla Pasand mouth freshener is among the major brands like Muthoot Finance, Adani Group, UB and Cadbury Mondelez.
Financial services, ed-tech, online gaming, fantasy sports and OTT sectors are the major buyers for the IPL inventory.
There is also a significant demand for “Aston band” and logo placements where a single slot is priced at around ₹ 2.5 lakh, whereas the ten-second commercial spot during the league broadcast will cost between ₹ 11.5 lakhs and ₹ 12.5 lakhs, the media buyer has confirmed.
“The Diwali factor and the rescheduling of the match timings from 7:30 pm have to a major extent made up for the damage feared due to the COVID-19 impact on business and economy,” said the media buyer. “Let us accept the fact that brands are also getting a major marketing opportunity after four months. If there was no business, marketing and advertising reserves are also unused.
“For big players, IPL is among the wisest investments for brand building. Having said it, if there were no coronavirus, an IPL during Diwali season with the evening matches starting at 7:30 pm would have hit the jackpot for Star. I won’t say it’s bad even now.”
The Chennai Super Kings matches are in more demands than the Mumbai Indians or Royal Challengers Bangalore games. The high demand for the CSK is attributed to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s charisma and CSK’s strong fan.
In yet another significant development, Star India has increased the inventory for the pre-match shows from traditional 16 minutes to 19 minutes.
Star Sports will continue to broadcast one of its most precious properties on the network’s all sports channels.
The league opener between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, a repeat of last year’s final, will also be aired on key GEC and movie channels like Star Gold as well as regional entertainment channels.
As reported by SportzFront earlier, the Walt Disney Company-owned media network has decided to LIVE stream the IPL games on Disney+ Hotstar Premium.
Also Read: IPL 2020 to be streamed on Disney+ Hotstar Premium