Why Advertising Rates Have Hit A Record This Cricket World Cup

The television advertisement rates for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 have jumped to their highest, beating what Star India charged for Indian Premier League.

The ad rates for India games range from Rs 15-16 lakh for 10 seconds, two people in media buying agencies said. And for the much-awaited India-Pakistan match on June 16, a slot costs up to Rs 20 lakh for 10 seconds, the people said. That's the highest for a cricket game, according to them, and better than Rs 10-12 lakh charged in the latest edition of IPL.

Star India declined to comment on advertising rates.

The jump is driven by the change in broadcast timing for Indian viewers, according to Vinita Pachisia, senior vice president at Amplify, a media buying agency. The last World Cup was held in Australia and the matches were starting as early as 3:30-6:30 a.m. which impacted viewership in India, he said. This time, the games will start at 3 p.m. and run all the way through the prime time, he said, adding that rates are 2-2.5 times higher than 2015.

The world cup kicks off on Thursday with the match between England and South Africa at The Kennington Oval in London. Australia is the defending champion and India is considered among the favourites. The 46-day tournament in England will witness 48 round-robin matches, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals. The final will be held on July 14.

The Star network will be broadcasting the matches not just on its sports channels in India but across other Star Network channels and its over-the-top platform Hotstar. India contributes the biggest viewership, with more than 630 million people from the country tuning in for the 2015 edition, according to numbers released by Star India. India's semi-final clash with Australia was the most-watched match the last time.

Star India and Star Middle East had bagged the rights to broadcast ICC Cricket World Cup matches in 2019 and 2023 for nearly $2 billion. The 2023 tournament will be held in India.

India's largest sports and entertainment broadcaster already has 24 advertisers on board—including PhonePe, Amazon Pay, Byju's, Association of Mutual Funds in India, Coca-Cola India, Uber, National Stock Exchange, among others, a spokesperson at Star India told BloombergQuint.

This world cup, there would be no groups and all 10 teams will play against each other as the round-robin league format returns after 27 years. That will ensure that big teams are not eliminated early.

It allows Star India to package matches and sell to the sponsors with certainty. The package deal allows buyers to advertise in 25 matches for Rs 7 crore, according to people in the advertising industry aware of these negotiations.

The broadcaster, according to the people cited earlier, has been able to sell nearly 80 percent of the advertising slots for India matches, and 70 percent advertising slots for the tournament where other countries are playing.

For the first World Cup game on May 30 and India's first match with South Africa on June 5, Star India will broadcast the matches on 14 channels which include five vernacular sports channels. Star Gold, Star Select and regional channels like Vijay Super, Maa Movies, Jalsha Movies, Suvarna Plus and Asianet Plus are among the television channels that will telecast the matches. The matches will be broadcast on standard definition and high definition feeds of the channels.