The 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) marks the final time two media behemoths - Disney-owned Star India and Reliance Industries' (RIL) Viacom18 - will compete for a slice of the advertising pie. Following the announcement of the $8.5 billion merger in February, RIL's media division and The Walt Disney Company would consolidate their India operations, with the former retaining majority control.

Cricket is India's most popular sport, and IPL broadcast rights are some of the most costly in the world. In 2022, they sold for more than Rs 48,000 crore over a five-year period, a 2.6x increase over the previous auction. Star secured the broadcast rights, while Viacom18 won the internet segment.

According to Balu Nayar, former MD of global sports and entertainment company IMG and a key architect of IPL, JioCinema (RIL’s OTT platform that streams IPL) and Disney competed with the same content (in IPL 2023) and equivalent audience numbers for revenue from the same advertisers. “It was completely a buyer’s market, and advertising rates came down sharply. It may not have affected Reliance very much, but for Disney, having already spent a lot on the acquisition of Star India, it sounded the death knell,” he says. To him, a combined RIL-Disney behemoth will be in a far stronger position with respect to both advertisers and distribution partners since IPL is “traditional, must-have content”.

RIL-Disney will also own the rights to BCCI and ICC events, in addition to the IPL. Nayar believes that advertisers would focus on one watching place for cricket in India.

Importantly, this year's IPL coincides with the Lok Sabha elections, which have a large viewership and benefit everyone in the news industry. "A major portion of our media budget will need to be set aside for that event. If the allocation was 80% for IPL in a non-election year, it might easily drop to 40% this time," says a marketing director at a large FMCG company who declined to be identified.

This year, however, the IPL is expected to face a challenge in terms of advertising revenue.