Broadcaster Star-Disney is pulling out all stops to ensure that the IPL 2021 is bigger, better, and more successful than the previous edition. Having set new milestones in 2020, the broadcaster has put in place a well-rounded business strategy spanning advertising, distribution, programming, and marketing.
In order to expand the viewership base, the broadcaster has launched an aggressive marketing campaign titled ‘India Ka Apna Mantra’. Sanjog Gupta, Star and Disney India head – sports says, “IPL would not need marketing if we were satisfied with where the IPL was. Our ambition for IPL is to grow it and which is why we invest significantly in marketing the property. It is not to get those viewers back who watched the IPL and may come back in any case. It is to get those viewers who perhaps didn’t watch it last year due to one reason or the other or get viewers who have not made the choice to actively watch IPL year after year.
Most of our marketing efforts are towards that ambition – to grow the viewership of IPL and expand its viewership base. Our marketing strategy for IPL begins with the identification of audience segments that are currently not watching IPL or are not watching IPL as much as other audience segments are and going after them to get them to come and watch the IPL and then building a compelling experience to keep them engaged with the IPL.”
One must remember that IPL 2020 was an astounding success with close to 405 million plus viewers on TV alone (as per BARC), it is thus a great platform to build a brand across SD, HD, Multi-channel, with geographical focus and through a digital lens with specific targeting options. 48% of the TV viewing audience was glued to their screens during the live telecast of IPL matches out of which 43% were women. As an uplifting force in a year of doom, IPL 13 on TV and Digital showcased the power of cricket and how it attracts viewers like no other genre or medium.
Sunil Rayan, President and Head, Disney + Hotstar says, “Cricket is generally male-skewed but we are also surprised that we have a healthy mix of female audiences. I would say around 20% of our female audiences enjoy watching cricket as well. I feel we do have a healthy mix of female audiences given our growing entertainment portfolio. As far as the urban-rural divide is concerned we have a big push towards taking IPL to go more rural or what we call ‘Rurban’. Our mission is to provide access to all of India as far as possible. Are we there yet? No. We still have a lot of work to do to make it more accessible. That’s one of the things we have tried. We have made it very affordable with our pricing with the primary objective of wanting to provide access to as many people as possible. For example, we are now doing a Marathi feed based on feedback on how to get to more Tier 2 and 3 cities. Anything that gets adopted in urban areas then slowly goes to Rurban and then rural. We don’t want to segment who gets access to this. Our goal is to maximise adoption as much as possible.”
In this year, having tasted success with a multi-lingual strategy, IPL 14 will continue to have multiple language feeds across languages like English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali among others. As is the norm, Star Disney has managed to rope in a diverse set of sponsors for the IPL broadcast. Demand from advertisers for IPL continues to be high even as over 90% of ad inventory has been sold out. It has also embarked on a campaign to encourage the adoption of high definition (HD) set-top boxes (STBs).
With the COVID-19 pandemic far from over, the broadcaster has created bio-bubbles to ensure a seamless broadcast operation. It has also put in place a contingency plan to deal with COVID-19 related challenges. With the first match being played this week and the closest gap between two IPL seasons ever, we are to find out to what extent it can take forward its 2020 success story.
Why IPL going back to its usual calendar dates will help the property
April-May is usually the vacation period in many parts of the country. Therefore the viewership base that is available for engagement is pretty high.
This is also a period when a lot of categories particularly beverages spend a lot of their marketing budget. IPL being the biggest media property walks with a lion’s share of ad budgets.
Also, BCCI had planned the IPL window in such a way that very few bilateral tournaments are played during this period. This helps in attracting the best cricketers for IPL since they don’t have other commitments. It also ensures that the focus remains on IPL in the cricketing world. IPL gets decent viewership in many cricket playing nations
‘Star’s association with IPL has unlocked value for advertisers that did not exist before’
Sanjog Gupta, Head – Sports, Star and Disney India is tasked with the responsibility of building innovative programming and marketing strategy for IPL besides ensuring smooth on-air production. Gupta spoke to Javed Farooqui about the safety measures mounted by Star-Disney for the IPL, the content strategy, and the growth of the property under Star.
Q] The IPL 2021 is happening at a time when COVID cases are on the rise. What are the safety measures being taken by Star Disney India to ensure the safety of the cast and crew?
We institutionalised the concept of a bio-secure bubble last year. In my opinion, it is one of the most secure bio-bubbles put together anywhere in the world for any sporting event or tournament of any kind. As of now, there are three bio-secure bubbles in Mumbai as the first leg of IPL starts in Mumbai and one in Chennai. There is one bio-secure bubble in Mumbai and one in Chennai that cater specifically to the on-site operations at the ground.
There are two other permanent bio-secure bubbles in Mumbai, which are catering to the production and broadcasting requirements that we have. The bio-secure bubble at our production centre in Mumbai is the largest of them. It houses more than 400 crew members. Across these four bio-secure bubbles, we have more than 700 staffers which is a combination of employees, freelance crews and commentators/talent. Obviously, because the IPL will move from one set of cities to the next, we will move the bio-secure bubbles as well. The fifth bio-secure bubble will come up in the new venue. The next set of venues - Ahmedabad and Delhi - will also have bio-secure bubbles. When we conclude the league in Kolkata and Bengaluru, they will have two more bio-secure bubbles. Finally, the Play-Offs return to Ahmedabad in the same bio-secure bubble.
The operation is in three parts. One is the access to the bio-secure bubble. No crew member is allowed to enter the bio-secure without a negative COVID test. When they enter the bio-secure bubble they are expected to isolate themselves in their hotel rooms for a period of seven days and go through another round of testing to ensure that the infection hasn’t manifested in their time inside the hotel. It’s only after they are certified as being ‘COVID free’ by our panel of doctors that they can move out of their rooms and interact with the rest of the crew.
The second part is ensuring that once everyone is inside, the bio-secure bubble is safe and sanctity of the bubble is maintained at all times. We are taking several steps to sanitise the workplace and also ensure that there is masking and social distancing at all times.
The third part is testing and all members of the crew are being tested at a regular frequency to ensure that there is no chance of infection going untested or undetected. There are mitigation measures in place to ensure any infection is isolated and doesn’t spread.
Q] Considering the risks involved, how are you ensuring that the IPL transmission remains seamless?
To ensure seamless transmission we have a business continuity plan which caters to the remote possibility that there may be a contagion which will require us to shift the operation from one section of the premises to the other and a disaster management plan which requires us to completely move out our operation from the premises.
Q] Will you continue to have eight language feeds or is there a plan to add more channels or languages to the mix?
The plan is to continue with the feeds that we believe have the potential to deliver significant growth. Our key priority markets are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh/Telangana. These are our priority markets. We are also focusing a lot on Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi. This really forms the cluster of the market that we are looking to cater to. We believe that the current portfolio of feeds that we have is adequately catering to these regions. We are actively adding a Malayalam feed on certain days and we are also evaluating if there is a need for a Marathi feed specifically on Disney+ Hotstar.
Q] Unlike cricket which is male-skewed, IPL also attracts a diverse set of viewers like females and kids. How did IPL manage to expand its viewership base?
The profile of viewers on Cricket and IPL wasn’t very different until a few years back. In the past couple of years viewership amongst both women and kids has grown by more than 20%. There are three big factors behind this--- making the invitation to IPL as inclusive as possible, and ensuring that it reaches out to as many people as possible instead of just the sports fans.
Secondly, the multiple feeds that we are producing have also played a huge role in widening the audience base for IPL. In fact, 2019 saw the introduction of a feed called Super Funday which was catering to kids. That feed allowed 8-12 year olds to engage with IPL in a way that they had never engaged before. Unfortunately, the COVID situation doesn’t allow us to put that feed together but it will return as soon as it is safe for us to involve kids on the broadcast. Regionalisation and customisation of IPL, by way of multiple feeds, has led to the expansion of IPL audiences. The final factor is to widen the access to IPL as much as possible. So, the opening weekend i.e. the extended weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), we will not just make it available on the sports network but also across the Star network on multiple channels in multiple regions. This is basically to ensure sampling of the IPL by viewers who may not tune in to Star Sports or may not have access to Star Sports. The other thing we are doing is we are boosting access to Star Sports by getting viewers to subscribe. We are now available in more than 80% of all pay-tv homes. In fact, in a state like Tamil Nadu, we are available in more than 90% of all pay-tv homes.
Q] Star Sports penetration numbers are specific to the IPL period?
We have a base line penetration and as the tournament nears, we see the penetration going up. Typically, a week before the event and a week into the event is when we see maximum sign-ups where viewers subscribe to the network. We are currently hovering at around 80% and the idea is to continue pushing that as we will see a massive uptake in the week leading up to the IPL and in the first week of the tournament. In IPL 2020, we had seen 10% increase in penetration from the time IPL started to three months later.
Q] Does the IPL surround programming reflect the diversity in viewership? Also, how different is the regional feed programming for IPL compared to the Hindi feed?
The approach especially for pre-show and surround programming is to be as inclusive as possible. You will see a lot of segments that will cater to non-core audiences and that principal cuts across all feeds. It’s in different measures, so the English feed may choose to cater more to fantasy users who may be more interested in knowing game-related information but the Hindi feed may have a higher dose of entertainment with segments such as Bollywood Presents, which is a segment over the weekend where celebrity Cricket fans from Bollywood join us in the studio. It is pretty much a principle across all feeds to cater to as wide an audience base as possible. Specifically, on the regional front, we actually design those feeds for those regions. There are a lot of cultural nuances that are built into them including the shows. It is not just a language variant of the English or Hindi feeds. The Hindi feed is itself very different from English in terms of programming, in terms of approach, in terms of its presentation strategy, in terms of commentators, and also in terms of its content philosophy. Similarly, the Tamil and Kannada feed will be very different from one another. They will borrow heavily from the culture and language of cricket in that state. The feeds will also borrow heavily from popular culture in that state, say movies or stand-up comedy. For e.g. we will have humour laced programming for a feed that caters to a state where comedy is a fan favorite. Each feed is designed from scratch for viewers of that region. It’s not a translation exercise.
Q] IPL 2021 seems to be doing better than IPL 2020 in terms of advertising. What do you think are the key reasons?
The phenomenal growth in viewership we saw for IPL 2020 compared to IPL 2019 has obviously buoyed the interest of advertisers in the property. The economy is also showing signs of a very strong recovery and advertisers want to cash in on it.
Also, there are spaces that are heating up like fantasy sports, EdTech, and FinTech. There is also interest from legacy brands but these three spaces have really heated up over the last year. Because IPL has returned to its original window, we are also seeing interest from seasonal advertisers like beverages, consumer durables for whom the months of April-May-June see high demand where brands want to outshout each other. We are continuing to see interest from sectors like auto and telecom and some of the
