While we lost the disappointing finals, a match better erased from the memory and from the archives. Disney Star came out as a winner in this yet another edition of ODI Mens WC in India. In all our discussions with the brands, I had maintained that this is once in a decade media opportunity, 50 over WC “in-India”!. It can't get bigger than this. Every edition of ODI WC has the potential to become the most watched cricket event ever. Mainly because ODI is a 8 hour format and due to the league format, total matches are 48(+warm ups) which results in 384 Hours of LIVE broadcast. Compared to IPL, which is 222 Hours of live broadcast, that means, even if T20 WC number of matches increases, the reach will still not be comparable to an ODI WC, not taking away anything from the T20 WC, it will be equivalent to an IPL season, if not more.
Verdict is out! - Record viewership both on TV and Digital streaming.
Great to see Disney coming up with single communication announcing and celebrating the numbers for both the mediums, instead of seemingly putting one against the other due to ongoing competition with JioCinema and the fact that Disney holds only the TV rights for the IPL, with digital rights ~ Jio.
While we celebrate every time new broadcast rights garner record contracts from the broadcasters, rationality in media rights has to prevail to make a viable business. Sooner than later, either consolidation or otherwise, monopoly or duopoly will lead to the coexistence and rationality and till then consumers are the only winners in this game.
After all, whichever is the platform, no one owns these premium rights till eternity, but must pay for the rights for a fixed period of time and ensure that the return from it is cash positive by the end of it.
Only fair long term valuation will lead to fair and more sustainable ad pricing and thereby fair YOY growth for the corporations. Closer to when that time comes, I also believe that subscriptions will come back and a balanced model of Subscription + Ad Revenue will prevail in the long run.
US NBA Broadcast regular season Ad rates for TV including CTV(10sec) - range 25 to 30L INR(NFL is even higher)
India IPL Ad rates including CTV (10sec) - 22-24L INR
US GDP per capita - 76000 USD(2022)
India GDP per capita - 2301 USD(2022)
US is 33 times of India GDP per capita, while this is not the only relevant indicator but it is one of the few indicators which might indicates the inflated valuations of India cricket broadcast rights.
Historic viewership in India during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023! Thanks, India, for making this journey unforgettable! #Cricket #WorldCup
Technical Program Manager for Subs, Pay, Partnerships, Customer Experience & World Cup T20 2024 @Disney+ Hotstar | Ex-Microsoft
3w"The last 30 bowls of this WC'24, is a story of a comeback of epic proportions" Bumrah bowled 2-0-6-2, Hardik bowled smartly and Arshdeep's second last over where he conceded just 4 & then Sky's catch which will be replayed for ages like Kapil Dev's catch of 83 of Viv Richards. You couldn't have asked for a better Climax & a more thrilling script than this one. What a Final !