The day after the Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) finale passed off in Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians cricket groups on March 26, the league’s broadcasting and streaming associate Viacom18 claimed that the match’s inaugural season had delivered the best viewership on any ladies’s occasion globally. Majority owned by Reliance Industries, Viacom18 was referring to WPL’s digital footprint by way of its streaming app JioCinema, which it mentioned, clocked the best watch-time — greater than 50 minutes per match per person.
In an announcement, Viacom18 Sports activities CEO Anil Jayaraj mentioned: “Our imaginative and prescient is to nurture the Tata WPL into the largest ladies’s sporting league on this planet, and it is a massive leap in that course. To see it already on its technique to changing into the most important seen sports activities occasion on this planet within the first season is a outstanding feat and testomony to its potential.”
The corporate claimed the ultimate conflict noticed greater than 10 million ‘new’ viewers tune into JioCinema although it didn’t share additional particulars. The determine couldn’t be independently verified, although rival broadcasters alleged the viewership numbers have been inflated.
Viacom18 didn’t reply to queries on WPL’s efficiency and potential.
Nonetheless, the media trade consultants HT spoke to mentioned that the league that started on March 4 and concluded on March 26, noticed a tv attain of about 65-70 million. Although evaluating the newly launched WPL to the 15-year-old males’s Indian Premier League (IPL) wouldn’t be truthful, in 12 months, the tv attain of males’s IPL for the Disney Star community was about 400 million. In 2022, it dropped to 360 million owing to IPL fatigue and resumption of mobility after two Covid years. When Disney+Hotstar held the digital streaming rights, the height concurrent viewership (these watching the match on the similar time) of IPL on the app was upwards of 20 million.
Vinit Karnik, head of sports activities, esports and leisure at GroupM South Asia, nonetheless, mentioned brand-new WPL can’t be in contrast with a mature league like IPL. “WPL has carried out properly. Something in its first 12 months must be properly obtained and generate optimistic social media chatter, which it did,” he mentioned.
To make certain, the Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI) floated the tender for media rights for the ladies’s cricket league in December 2022. In January, Viacom18 gained each digital and tv media rights for ₹951 crore. Disney Star, the one different contender, made a really low bid for streaming rights. BCCI moved quick and declared 5 successful bids of crew house owners in January itself. The Mumbai franchise was gained by IndiaWin Sports activities Personal Restricted, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries that additionally owns the IPL crew Mumbai Indians. The Bengaluru franchise went to Royal Challengers Sports activities Personal Restricted proudly owning RCB within the IPL whereas the Delhi Capitals franchise, co-owned by JSW and the GMR group, gained the rights to function the ladies’s league Delhi crew. Adani Sportsline, the sports activities arm of the Adani group, purchased the Ahmedabad franchise Gujarat Giants. Capri World Holdings Personal Restricted (CGCL) gained the bid for the Lucknow franchise and known as it UP Warriorz.
The WPL, hurriedly scheduled to be performed in March, was ill-timed, mentioned advert trade consultants and sports activities entrepreneurs. It got here on the finish of the monetary 12 months for a lot of manufacturers that had already exhausted their promoting budgets. It was additionally a interval marked by funding crunch for startups and macro-economic headwinds for companies. Moreover, WPL was slated simply earlier than IPL — a large, confirmed sports activities property for which advertisers set cash apart. It’s hardly stunning then that the ladies’s cricket league generated round ₹150 crore in promoting for its inaugural season, in keeping with individuals monitoring media spends.
The sum could seem underwhelming seen within the context of greater than ₹3,500 crore that IPL generated final 12 months however then the lads’s match has been constructed over a interval of 15 years. Moreover, WPL had fewer groups and matches and the match was over in 22 days with restricted free business time obtainable on TV.
Tuhin Mishra, managing director and founding father of Baseline Ventures, a agency that manages a bevy of sportspersons together with cricketers, mentioned in a rustic that’s used to watching males’s cricket, viewership for ladies’s video games must be constructed. “Males’s cricket is a distinct beast altogether. It was massive even earlier than the IPL. So, we must always rejoice WPL. Earlier BCCI would membership ladies’s cricket with males’s video games in TV offers. It was given extra as a freebie. Now it’s being showcased individually,” he mentioned.
Not simply that. It’s got its personal set of sponsors despite the fact that the sponsorship charges or value of a 10-second advert spot could also be a fraction of that of IPL. Mishra mentioned a number of women-centric manufacturers got here on board this 12 months and extra could observe in future seasons. A few of the crew franchises have been backed by manufacturers reminiscent of Mia (a jewelry model from Tanishq), Pleasure Private Care, Lotus Herbals and Himalaya Face Care.
The league itself had TATA Group because the title sponsor which has signed up for 5 seasons. Others on the checklist embody strategic timeout associate Ceat, pouring associate Amul and fantasy league associate Dream11 — every spending between ₹2.5 crore and ₹6 crore per season for these partnerships.
Dheeraj Sinha, CEO, Leo Burnett, South Asia mentioned the league may have carried out significantly better when it comes to advertiser response. “It simply wanted to have been deliberate and thought by way of higher when it comes to timing. The property will want backing and help for a while,” he added.
That shouldn’t be a problem as cricket stays probably the most sought-after sport for advertisers. In 2022, the Indian sports activities trade, when it comes to sponsorship, crossed ₹14,000 crore of which 85% was contributed by cricket, in keeping with the Sporting Nation Report 2023 by GroupM ESP.
Like Mishra, Karnik believes within the long-term way forward for WPL. For starters, BCCI has taken the accountability to launch it as a definite property and is unlikely to drop the ball on WPL. Secondly, it’s backed by giant corporations the place three out of 5 franchises have expertise in advertising, constructing and operating worthwhile males’s IPL groups. “They’ll guarantee WPL franchises change into revenue centres too,” mentioned Karnik. Lastly, the broadcasting associate Viacom18 has a powerful base and is predicted to make the match, televised on a bunch of channels in its community and streamed free for customers on the JioCinema app, even greater.
Mishra and Karnik level to different upsides of WPL for ladies’s cricket within the nation. Expertise scouting for ladies cricketers was absent to date. Staff franchises will change that. Not simply that, extra ladies will get an opportunity to play. “Once they play the home circuit, they aren’t within the limelight. WPL provides prompt recognition and can fast-track a few of them into the senior crew similar to what IPL did for males,” mentioned Mishra.
What WPL requires is momentum for the subsequent 2-3 years. It’s a scalable and sustainable property, mentioned Karnik, including, “It’s for the viewers to choose it up and make it massive.”