Disney Star likely to rake in Rs 2,000 crore from ICC World Cup ads

The share of digital in the ad revenues may hit 50 per cent, say media planners

Disney Star is expected to earn a minimum of Rs 2,000 crore through advertising, with a 50-50 split between television and its OTT channel, Disney+ Hotstar, say media planners and advertising agencies dealing with the broadcaster for the upcoming ICC World Cup beginning on October 5.

However, the company is also expected to spawn cricket-based advertising around the World Cup of an equal amount on other forms of media -news channels, newspapers, social media, digital, amongst others, making it one amongst the most attractive properties for advertisers.

Disney Star controls both the digital as well as the broadcasting rights for the big-ticket tournament.

The huge shift in advertising money to digital (many say the skew towards digital could go to as much as 55 per cent) has been propelled by the decision of the company to offer the matches free on its OTT channel, Disney+Hotstar, instead of the subscription mode, as it had done in 2019. 

This replicates a similar move by Reliance, which disrupted the market by offering the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, for which it only had streaming rights, free on its OTT channel. 

According to estimates by media planners, the share of digital in Star’s World Cup 2019 advertising was only 16-20 per cent of the total of the Rs 1800 crore that it had made through it.  

A senior executive of a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company reckons that they are already spending 35 per cent of their ad spend in cricket through digital. With the matches available on OTT for free, it should hit 50 per cent.  However, the Star-Disney spokesperson declined to comment on any numbers.  

Says Sandeep Goyal, chairman of Rediffusion, a leading Indian advertising firm, “Star should get about Rs 2000 crore from the tournament on the basis of a back-of-the-envelope calculation. It could even be a little more. But the hype around the tournament could bring in an equal amount to the media such as newspapers, news channels, outdoors, experimental, social, digital, and so on, on cricket-themed advertising. But this would be spread over hundreds of media outlets,” he says.

Goyal also points out that since the  festival season, especially Diwali, is coinciding with the tournament, it will be a double bonanza for advertisers. Brands will want to maximise the opportunity and give many more offers to customers. At the same time, he says, this could make the inventory more expensive and also lead to an extra clutter for the 36 days of the tournament. 

Star has roped in 21 marquee advertisers as of Friday, and have struck deals with each for as much as Rs 150 crore with Phone Pe and Mahindra & Mahindra, say media planners. Some others are also in the pipeline.

Soft drink giant CocaCola had already struck a deal with the company for both the Asia Cup as well as the World Cup. The others in the game include Hindustan Lever, IndusInd Bank and Mondelez.         

Of course, spot rates (a percentage of the inventory is always kept till the end and can command a premium for 10 second spots) for the World Cup, unlike in the IPL, will clearly be determined by the performance of the Indian team. But media planners say that to hedge any risks, only around 10 per cent of the inventory is kept for the later stages of the tournament.   

The Indian team will be playing nine matches, which include the much awaited contest with Pakistan in the round robin system, and its ability to move to the semi-finals and finals will be key to determining the ad rates.

-Disney Star to see major shift in ICC World Cup ad revenue share from TV to digital

-It could also spawn cricket-based advertising across media platforms.

-Many sponsors are paying over Rs 100 crore .

-Only 10 per cent of inventory kept for later stages of the games. 

-The festival season coinciding with the World Cup will be bonanza for advertisers wanting to push products

-It could however lead to advertising clutter and push up ad rates 

-Its success in Asia Cup, where digital viewers hit a record high after the matches were offered free to viewers, encouraged Star to replicate the same strategy for World Cup