MAM
Exclusive: IPL franchise Punjab Kings revenues to grow by 20-25 per cent this season
Mumbai: This season, the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Punjab Kings revenue will grow by 20-25 per cent. This will be a mix of central revenue and local revenue. Speaking to IndianTelevision.com Punjab Kings co-owner Mohit Burman says that revenues are up by 25 per cent and quite a bit of this jump is from local sponsorship revenue on the jersey and centrally one or two sponsors have been added.
“Licensing and merchandising and ticketing will not impact the P&L. The BCCI running ticketing centrally. Licensing and merchandising has never given money because you do not have the regulation to curtail spurious jerseys that are made in your name and sold outside stadiums. You will never end up making big money from this area. It will only be a small amount of money,” he tells.
Only two sponsorship deals open up on the jersey next year. So the franchise will have to wait two years to do new sponsorship deals. Non-jersey sponsorship deals can be done in the digital space but the value is much less. While the franchise has reached just one IPL final back in 2014, he maintains that it has not made a difference in terms of sponsorship revenue of more than 15 per cent.
Sponsors look for brand visibility at the end of the day and also doing activation with the franchise’s players. “It is all measured back to what the viewership is, the number of games and so and so forth,” Burman says, adding that, “The two new franchises that came in Lucknow and Gujarat benefitted when they did sponsorship deals because there was not enough inventory in the market. The other franchises he explains were riding out Covid and so earlier did long-term deals. It is a question of demand and supply. The two new teams commanded a premium rate maybe of 50 per cent. This has nothing to do about whether a team has won or not.”
He further says that this year the franchises sponsors have focused more on digital activation. There have not been many commercial shots by Punjab King’s sponsors. “They are doing digital activities which both the players and consumers love.”
He also notes the growing trend of sponsors like Jio, Amul, Boat doing deals across franchises. The advantage he says is that the brand gets constant exposure regardless of who is playing.
He says that earlier in a normal situation the franchise did not make as much from ticketing compared to other franchises like Mumbai. That is because Punjab is a very price-sensitive market and it was hard to sell more than 20,000 tickets for a match through the stadium capacity might have been 25-28,000.
Most of the franchise’s revenue comes from the central pool and Burman hesitates when asked to what extent central revenue’s contribution could rise with the media rights auction next month. But he does say that the BCCI splitting the media rights into broadcast and digital was needed to fully exploit the potential rights value.
When asked about the fall in TV viewership he says that a lot of it has gone to digital through mobiles but this is not being measured properly because there is no single currency yet to measure digital. “Digital is not officially measured. So you do not get the real numbers. There is no body controlling digital measurement. The fact though remains that there is a huge shift where people are viewing IPL matches on the mobile. People sometimes mirror the IPL on their TV. The digital value and cost of streaming the IPL will both go up,” he shares.
In terms of future sources of revenue, he points out digital streams like NFTs, metaverse. “It is early days in terms of NFTs. Crypto has to get regulated but it is big money. We also have a $3 million offer sitting on the table regarding the digital rights of our players. From this content can be created. The BCCI has to approve of it,” he tells.
In the pure cricketing space academies is something being pursued big time. In terms of academies, he says that it will be in catchments areas which is Punjab, Kashmir, Haryana. A central Academy will be set up in Punjab, to begin with. The concept is to then set up Academies in other parts of the country. “We have a huge catchment area in North America and the UK which we will possibly explore. We will do scouting and find potential boys who can be funneled into the system. We will use the help of the local federation.”
When asked about the franchise changing its name to Punjab Kings he said that the aim was to use the name Punjab first which is what other franchises do apart from Bangalore. “People must immediately attach the franchise to the market. We wanted to attribute ourselves to the State we come from.” He adds that operating in a Covid environment has been difficult but it was a bigger challenge for the BCCI. “The fact is that we have pulled off all three seasons quite well. The challenge for us was staying in the bubble and keeping everyone on their toes and happy.”
He also explains that costs did not go up due to Covid. That is because matches were played only in one or two venues. So air travel and hotel costs were saved. “This season we are playing in Mumbai. Otherwise we would have been travelling to different cities and spending money on transport and logistics. Things have evened out.” Beyond the IPL Burman owns the St. Lucia franchise in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in West Indies. He is happy about how the ownership has turned out and says that the franchise was profitable from the first year.
“We got the franchise at the right price and we did central deals even before we picked up the franchise. We will probably make money on the jersey also. The local government supports our team and we also have a big sponsor. Our revenue split between central and local revenue is almost equitable.” He is also interested in the upcoming league from Cricket South Africa (CSA) but notes that it is in its formative stage.. Right now the Big Bash League in Australia does not allow for outsiders to own a franchise. “Otherwise we would definitely explore it due to viewership and there is a lot of interest in India on the Big Bash League.”
He adds that he is not interested in non-cricket leagues. Years ago Burman had exited the now-defunct Hockey India League because the math was not adding up. “We have to be sure that we will get a return on investment. We do not get into any league if we know that there is no money to make. Ideally, we would like to make money in the first year itself which is what we did in the CPL. We look at leagues where the cricket board is involved as there will be accountability,” he concludes.
Brands
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen to step down after 18 years in role
Board begins CEO search as Narayen prepares to move to chair role
SAN JOSE: After nearly two decades at the helm, Adobe’s long-serving chief executive Shantanu Narayen is preparing to pass the baton.
The company announced that Narayen will transition from his role as chief executive officer once a successor is appointed, ending an 18-year run that reshaped Adobe from a boxed software seller into a global cloud and AI powerhouse. He will remain chair of the board following the leadership transition.
Adobe’s board has formed a special committee to oversee the succession process, led by lead independent director Frank Calderoni. The committee will evaluate both internal and external candidates.
“Shantanu’s leadership has been instrumental in Adobe’s transformation and in positioning the company for the AI-driven era,” Calderoni said in a statement. “As we begin the next phase of succession planning, our focus is on identifying the right leader for the company’s next chapter while ensuring a smooth transition.”
In a note to employees, Narayen described the moment not as a farewell but as a pause for reflection after a long journey with the company.
“I love Adobe and the privilege of leading it has been the greatest honour of my career,” he wrote, adding that he will continue to work closely with the board over the coming months to ensure a seamless leadership change.
Tributes from the technology industry quickly followed the announcement. Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella congratulated Narayen on what he described as a “legendary run” at Adobe.
“Congrats Shantanu, on a legendary run at Adobe! You’ve built one of the most important software companies in the world, and expanded what’s possible for creators, entrepreneurs, and brands everywhere,” Nadella wrote on LinkedIn.
“What has always stood out to me is the empathy you’ve brought to the creative process and the example you’ve set as a leader. Grateful for your friendship, mentorship, and for all you’ve done for Adobe and for our industry.”
Narayen’s career at Adobe spans nearly three decades. He joined the company in 1998 as vice president and rose steadily through the ranks before becoming chief executive officer in December 2007.
During that time, he orchestrated one of the most significant reinventions in the software industry. In 2013, Adobe made the bold decision to abandon traditional boxed software sales and move its flagship creative tools such as Photoshop to a subscription-based Creative Cloud model. The shift initially rattled investors but ultimately transformed Adobe into a predictable recurring revenue business and a case study in digital reinvention.
Narayen also pushed Adobe beyond creative tools into the world of marketing technology and data-driven customer experience, spearheading acquisitions such as Omniture and Marketo. Those moves helped build Adobe’s digital experience division and broaden its reach far beyond designers and photographers.
The numbers tell the story of that transformation. When Narayen took over in 2007, Adobe generated roughly $3 billion in annual revenue. Today the company reports more than $25 billion. Over the same period, its workforce expanded from around 3,000 employees to more than 30,000.
In recent years, Narayen has steered Adobe into the generative AI era with the launch of Adobe Firefly, aiming to keep the company ahead in a rapidly evolving creative technology landscape.
Born in Hyderabad in 1963, Narayen studied electronics and communication engineering at Osmania University before moving to the United States for a master’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University. He later earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Widely regarded as one of Silicon Valley’s most steady and effective leaders, Narayen has earned multiple honours during his career, including India’s Padma Shri in 2019.
For Adobe, the upcoming leadership change marks the end of a defining chapter. For Narayen, however, the story is far from finished. As he told employees, the company’s next era of creativity, powered by AI and new digital workflows, is only just beginning.
