Star India to rope in 9 sponsors for the IPL 2019

Mumbai: The Indian cricket board’s announcement that IPL 2019 will be hosted in the country despite the general elections, along with the strong performance by the Indian team in Australia, has helped broadcaster Star India to already rope in nine sponsors for the tourney.

Star India, the broadcast rights holder of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), has secured Rs 700-750 crore worth of advertising from Coca Cola, which would be a co-presenting sponsor, PhonePe, MRF, Maruti Suzuki, Polycab, Parle Products, Future Group, Dream 11 and Cover Fox, people familiar with the development told ET.

“After BCCI announced that IPL will be played in India, it was easier to convince the advertisers,” a highly placed source in the company said on condition of anonymity. “Earlier there was a lot of uncertainty. While we still don’t know the schedule of venues, IPL being such a solid property has received a great response.”


An email query sent to Star India did not elicit any response as of press time Thursday.

Earlier this month, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced that IPL will be played in India and had proposed March 23 as the kick off date for the 12th season of the twenty20 tournament.

Star India, which had earned Rs 1,750 crore in advertising revenues during the last season, has a mammoth and daunting ad sales target, but media agency experts don’t expect more than 10% increase in its ad revenues this season.

“Star already took a major hike last year and this time it will not be a major jump,” said a media executive who requested not to be named. “Our client has signed on a marginal increase over last year.”

Star had picked up rights of IPL for Rs 16,347.5 crore for five years — 2018 to 2022. While in the first year it made a loss of approximately Rs 1,200 crore, its payout for the rights is lower this year.

ET first reported on January 3 that Star has already started its pitch to media agencies. In its presentation (a copy of which is accessed by ET), Star is promising even bigger reach than the 2018 edition.

Overall, Star had clocked a reach of 603 million viewers on TV and 202 million on Hotstar last season, which included live matches, repeat telecast and the wrap-around shows.

This season, Star is targeting a TV reach of 836 million across sports and movie channels.

Like last year, Star will continue to have feeds across seven languages (Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali) on TV and digital video app Hotstar.