Week 12: Everything you need to know about Disney Star Ad inventory sales for IPL and other updates

Star Disney sell 90% of their TV inventory prior to the beginning Indian Premier League 2021

This week’s first update is from Star Disney and IPL

Star Disney India has sold 90% of its TV ad inventory for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 that will take place from April 9 to May 30. Star Sports has confirmed 14 broadcast sponsors so far. Dream11, Just Dial, Byju’s and PhonePe have been confirmed as  co-presenting sponsors.

Vi (Vodafone-Idea), Mondelez, ITC’s Bingo, Kamla Pasand, Parle’s Frooti, Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), Asian Paints, Amazon Prime, Coca-Cola’s Thums-Up, and Groww have all been locked in as associate sponsors.

Star Disney India is estimated to sign on 12-14 brands as associate partners before the opening match of the tournament in April.

How much are ad spots selling for on Star Disney channels?

According to multiple media sources, Star Disney is charging Rs 13.2 lakh per 10 seconds from co-presenting sponsors and Rs 13.6 lakh per 10 seconds from associate sponsors. Spot buyers have to shell out Rs 14.1 to 14.3 lakh for a 10-second spot. As much as 50% of the IPL ad inventory on television will be consumed by sponsors while the remaining half will be utilised by spot buyers. Star Disney India earned TV ad revenue of Rs 2800 crore from IPL 2020, and is expecting a 15-18% growth in revenue this edition.

Star Sports going regional on television and Disney+Hotsar 

The Indian Premier League 2021 will have multi-lingual feeds. This season the  Indian Premier League will be broadcasted in 24 to 25 Disney Star channels in Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, and Marathi language. The possibility of airing matches on Star Disney’s kids’ channels is also being evaluated. The tournament will also be streamed on Disney+ Hotstar in five languages – English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil.

What about Disney+ Hotstar Ad revenue performance ?

Disney+ Hotstar has also had a good start with 10 sponsors coming on-board. Dream11 is the co-presenting sponsor, Upstox and Vimal Elaichi are co-powered by sponsors while PhonePe, Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), Unacademy, Pharmeasy, Livspace, Swiggy, and Parle Agro have signed on as associate sponsors. The platform is estimated to have earned ad revenue of Rs 370-380 crore from IPL 2020. The projected ad revenue for Disney+ Hotstar is higher than 2020 since the streaming platform was not able to fully sell its inventory last year.

Formula E targeting ePrix in India in the next three years

Our second update this week is  from Formula E and talks of a potential eprix in India 

Last November the principal of the Indian formula e racing team Mahindra Racing said  “We (Mahindra Racing) absolutely want to get to a point where there is a race in India, and we’ll continue to support Formula E to realise this ambition. “It’s an important market and a great country and we know that the people would embrace Formula E. It can’t happen soon enough.” 

Cut to March 2021 – Formula E has identified India, Japan, USA and China. An interesting fact is that India and Japan are only countries that have a Formula E team but they don’t host a race!  It is now reported that Formula E and Mahindra Racing are working in conjunction to secure a race in India, although it is not expected to feature on the calendar for at least three years. 

Formula E, CEO, Jamie Reigle, said that India remains on the top of the Formula E priority list as it looks to expand its calendar in the coming years. He added, “We know we must prioritize India as a strategic market. It’s a large market with young consumers who are also mindful of climate change. For most of the youngsters, their first car will probably be an electric car. We want to increase the number of  races in Gen3 and India is high on the priority list though we haven’t drawn up anything concrete yet,”

Formula E is very bullish about India because:

• India has a young urban population and has an internationalists outlook.
• India is an English speaking market.
• The TG in India has the potential to adapt to electric mobility and showcase the future.
• Electric [cars] can transform the quality of lives in that market.

Fans of motorsports should be excited about the prospect of a race in India. After the F1 race went kaput, Indian fans have been longing for an international motorsport race in India and hopefully, this time around the Indian government supports Formula E and their endeavour to impact future mobility in India with the proposed race in India.

Dream Sports raises $400 mn through secondary share sale valuation rises to $5 billion

Our third update comes from TCV’s investment in Dream Sports 

Dream Sports, the parent company of fantasy sports app Dream11, has raised $400 million from TCV, D1 Capital Partners, and Falcon Edge through a secondary share sale by the firm’s early investors. With this new round of funding, Dream Sports is valued at nearly $5 billion.

This is the first India investment of TCV, a long-time backer of Netflix Inc. The new investors bought some of the shares being sold by Dream Sports’ early backers. 

The funding round also had participation from Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, TPG Growth, Steadview Capital, and Footpath Ventures. The company raised $225 million from Tiger Global, TPG, ChrysCapital in September 2020 at a valuation of about $2.5 billion in a mix of primary and secondary investments.

Avendus Capital was the financial advisor to Dream Sports on the transaction. 

It has been reported that the founders of Dream 11 are looking at growing the non-fantasy part of the business. Dream Sports includes other brands such as FanCode, DreamSetGo and DreamX in its portfolio.

Currently, Dream 11 contributes about 90% of the firm’s business in terms of revenue, with other brands in the portfolio expected to start contributing in the next 2-3 years.

After sealing the funding deal with Dream Sports, Gopi Vaddi, General Partner of TCV said that “India is home to the world’s largest and most energetic sports fan base with a dynamic mix that is unique to the subcontinent. Dream Sports is serving this community with a highly innovative product offering. We are inspired by what Harsh, Bhavit, and the Dream Sports team have built, and we look forward to partnering with them”.

In other news:

Games24x7 ropes in Ajinkya Rahane as the brand ambassador of OFS app My11Circle 

• Games24x7 has appointed international cricketer and Indian Test team vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane as a brand ambassador of My11Circle, its popular fantasy sports platform and is known to be amongst the top 5 online sports fantasy gaming app in India.  Aninkya Rahane joins former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, Australian all-rounder Shane Watson, Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, and one of cricket’s greatest batsmen VVS Laxman to engage and entertain 70 Million+ skill-gamers on the platform and other fantasy sports enthusiasts across India. 

ECB could offer BCCI ‘slice of media revenues’ to lure IPL players to The Hundred

• The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering giving Indian Premier League teams a 25 per-cent stake in The Hundred franchises and offering BCCI a share of the competition’s Asian media revenues in order to encourage Indian cricketers to compete in the event. It has been reported that the options could include giving the BCCI a share of Asian broadcast revenues based on the number of Indian players taking part in The Hundred.