MAM
IPL season 5 sees drop in ratings and TV ad rev
MUMBAI: The drop in IPL ratings and inability to protect advertising rates has put Multi Screen Media (MSM), the broadcast rights holder, under pressure to take stock of the situation.
The sixth edition of the IPL next year might be even more challenging for MSM as the television viewership for Indian Premier League has refused to go up despite several close encounters and record turnout at the stadium. When the IPL season began this year, Max had just six sponsors who had come on board at last year’s rate of Rs 500,000 per 10 second spot with Karbonn Mobiles being the only addition to the roster.
However, the drop in viewership has led advertisers to ask for a cut in rates. Parle had reportedly bought ad spots for its new cookie brand, Happy Happy, at a 25 per cent discount over the premium of Rs 500,000.
Even late joiners have cut deals at rates that are lower than last year‘s, implying that they are not disturbed advertising on the IPL despite a ratings fall. The sponsors who came on board have also benefited as they got a clutter-free exposure.
Says Reliance Communications head marketing and branding Sanjay Behl, “There was no premium on ad rates for the IPL this year. We are happy with the RoI that we have got on our investment, although there has been an 8-10 per cent reduction in ratings. We had discounted ratings by 20 per cent before making our media plan.”
The company had bought spots to promote Google-endorsed Android smartphone which is being distributed exclusively in India by RComm.
The average viewership of the tournament is 3.27 TVR for 68 matches compared to 3.39 TVR last year, as per Tam data for C&S 4+ All India market. The cumulative reach is 159 million for the current season, less than the 160 million last year.
For the first 57 matches, the average viewership stands at 3.3 TVR while the first 46 matches had notched up 3.4 TVR. The expectation was that the ratings would pick up as the tournament progresses but that has not been the case.
“We will sit down once the event is over and analyse why the viewership has fallen. However, the event has more or less held up compared to last year. It has been the 4 pm matches whose ratings got affected,” says MSM president network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta. He, however, refuses to give any details about the ad inventory consumption.
MSM has used a chunk of the ad inventory to promote its sister channels including Sony Six, the newly launched sports entertainment channel. The strategy is not to let the rates fall deep as MSM holds the IPL rights till 2017.
Industry estimates place MSM‘s ad revenue from this season of the IPL at somewhere in the range of Rs 7-7.5 billion. In the previous edition, the IPL had fetched MSM Rs 9 billion from advertising. Gupta did not want to talk about the financials at all.
According to a top level executive at a leading media buying agency, the IPL ad rates decreased by 10-15 per cent over the last year and the spot rates remained flat at Rs 425,000-450,000 per 10 second spot.
Another media buyer estimates the broadcaster to earn upwards of Rs 7 billion as it has managed to sell its inventory as the tournament progressed.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
