MAM
Eventually, IPL 2020 scored big with advertisers, sponsors
NEW DELHI: When IPL 2020 began in September, there was a lot of speculation in the industry about its capability to churn out the spectacular revenues like every year. The sponsorship rates had gone down by as much as 25 per cent, and it was highly uncertain that the advertisers, who were still reeling from the financial disaster that Covid-2019 turned out to be, would be willing to spend the big bucks on advertising. However, broadcast partner Star was pretty positive that it would manage to surpass its previous year’s revenue records and clock sales of more than Rs 2000-crore that it managed to churn in 2019. And as it panned out, it was not just Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma who held the trophy aloft after an easy win against the Delhi Capitals in the finals last evening, but the broadcaster also had some big wins in its kitty.
The Media Ant Co-founder Samir Chaudhary stated that IPL 2020 turned out to be a big property for the broadcaster with viewership numbers attaining new highs in IPL 2020. His expectation is that Star will pocket higher revenues than in the previous season.
Havas Media Group India national head – buying R. Venkatasubramanian agreed, estimating the jump to be around 10-12 per cent (TV + digital) over last year.
“They sold most of the inventory well before the start of the tournament. As per my knowledge, they must have sold only three to five per cent inventory during the tournament and the sticker prices were 10-15 per cent more than what was offered initially,” pointed out Venkatasubramanian.
The initial rates ranged between 10 and 15 lakhs per 10 second, as Indiantelevision.com had reported earlier. There were five co-presenting sponsors for Dream11 IPL 2020 on Star Sports – Dream 11, Phone Pe, Amazon, Vodafone Idea and Byju’s; 13 associate sponsors: Mondelez, ITC Foods, Polycab, Diageo, P&G, Coca-cola, Hero, KP Group, Facebook, Daily Hunt, Samsung, Cred and AMFI. Beyond the live game – Byju’s was the sponsor for the pre-and-post-game live show – Byju’s Cricket Live.
The categories of advertisers included BFSI, edtech, online gaming, online shopping, home décor, mobile handsets, consumer durables, FMCG, auto, apparel amongst others. Internet and digital-based business like fantasy sports, edtech, e-commerce, and online gaming, also got good traction.
As confirmed by a Star Sports spokesperson, IPL 2020 had 18 sponsors and a total of 110 advertisers on board, which is the highest number of partners and advertisers in the history of the IPL, since it began in 2008. Most of the inventory was sold in advance.
IPL 2020 performed exceptionally well in terms of viewership as well. As per BARC data, for television, IPL 2020 has seen an increased engagement and affinity, reflected through the higher number of games watched. IPL 2019 had 326 billion minutes consumption. That mark had been surpassed in this year’s IPL when just 50 out of the 60 games had been played.
Additionally, the season recorded the most games watched by an average viewer for any 60-game IPL season and the highest engagement for any IPL ever on the back of regionalisation with Hindi and southern language feeds (Telugu, Tamil and Kannada).
“The viewership has increased 18-19 per cent compared to last year (till the sixth week of the tournament) and mostly IPL 2020 will finish with 15-18 per cent higher viewership compared to IPL 2019,” Venkatasubramanian highlighted.
That will be more power to the game of cricket. And the love that its fans give it.
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.
