The popularity of Indian Premier League (IPL), which is the most popular cricket league in the world, has only grown since its inception in the 2008. The magnitude of success IPL has achieved cannot be fathomed.
The cash-rich league, which is in its 16th year of existence, is a money-making platform for the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI), cricketers, broadcasters, franchises and more. A total of 80 players sold and Rs 1,67,00,00,000 spent collectively amongst the ten franchises in Kochi in the IPL 2023's auction which held in Kochi last year.
Let's talk more about money as in June 2022, Viacom18 won the IPL’s digital media rights for Rs 23,758 crore, while Star India grabbed India TV rights for 23,575 crore in a five-year deal. The deals combined were sold for a record $6.02 billion, much more than the previous five-year deal of $2.4 billion won by Star India. Viacom18 also won the non-exclusive Package-C for Rs 2,991 crore, while along with Times Internet, Viacom18 also won overseas TV and digital rights for Rs 1,324 crore.
The IPL money matters are truly mind boggling. But do you have any idea how much money one is spending to watch a single game of IPL? Which is more costlier, watching the IPL match on TV or OTT apps? How much data one is consuming to watch a single match of IPL? Here's a complete breakdown and comparison.
The concept of free digital streaming of IPL in India might mere be an illusion if we dig deep into the economics involved in it. There is an additional cost or latent charges involved which makes digital more costlier than TV for the viewers. An essential underlying cost component that has been ignored is the cost of internet data that it takes to stream a live cricket match.
Free is actually expensive
On an average, the duration of an IPL match is 3.5 hours and the date consumed to stream it hover around 3.6 GB for standard definition (SD) to a 10.65 GB for 4k resolution. As per TRAI, the cost per GB is Rs.10 in India, which means a viewer will have to pay anything between Rs.35 to Rs.107 just to stream one match of IPL. And if we take it up to 10 IPL matches, the cost of data soar up to Rs.350-Rs.1000 which is an expensive deal for the viewers. This data cost is exorbitant considering the average consumer today pays merely Rs.170/month for data. This means if a viewer wants to now stream just 10 IPL matches on mobile in the most basic resolution, the cost per month will increase by 3X at the least. Considering that social media and short form video content accounts for most of the monthly data consumption of a user, it is practically impossible to stream more than 15-20 minutes of an IPL match unless users burn a hole in their pockets further.
Indian consumers' limited data consumption
The average data consumption across 2022 averages close to 17-18 GB per month. At best the usage goes up to 22.4 GB on an average, which indicates that streaming of IPL on smartphones will require a 10-15x increase in data consumption and a massive increase in the spending threshold of the average Indian user. Even the top tier of consumers that would account for highest data consumption are consuming only 2 GB data per day. When compared with the data requirements to watch IPL on digital in a higher resolution, the potential shortfall to meet the requirement among the top tier too is significant.
CTV's critical challenge of cost and scale barrier
CTV too faces critical challenges that will deter it from scaling during IPL. As it stands, there are two ways in which consumers can experience CTV viewing during IPL. The first is through CTVs powered by wired broadband and the second is by using the Jio Media Cable, where mobile data will be consumed to stream IPL on TV sets. Out of 31 million wired broadband homes in India, only 13 million homes powered by wired broadband are capable of CTV viewing, as per a Crisil report. Even in terms of cost, fiber broadband plans would cost a household anywhere between Rs.1000-2400 to be capable of streaming IPL. The cost of enabling high-speed wired broadband and the lack of scale it stands at currently are the biggest constraints for the digital streaming of IPL. In terms of the Jio Media Cable, the cost of data to power streaming from smartphones is exorbitantly high compared to already available alternatives. To stream one game of IPL in 4k resolution through the Jio Media Cable, viewers will have to pay Rs.266/match, which is astonishingly 8x the cost of viewing the entire IPL in HD on television. Considering that over 95 per cent CTV homes are also HD homes, it is highly unlikely CTVs to drive scale on IPL viewing.
The TV game
IPL has consistently been a TV phenomenon over the years owing to its high penetration, ease of access as well as low cost of the subscription. The cost of watching the entire IPL in SD or HD is just Rs.38 over 2 months, which is similar to the cost of streaming just one IPL match in standard definition on smartphones. If the viewer wants to watch HD or 4k on smartphones, the cost compared to TV will be 30x-80x higher.
Even in terms of premium audiences, 95 per cent of CTVs in India have HD subscriptions. Therefore, high data costs and the lag-free experience that TV delivers will deter the scaling of CTV viewing for IPL.
The kind of scale TV offers is unparalleled. TV penetration in India stands at 226 million households and consists of 900 million viewers, a scale that is 2x of digital. Even HD homes in India are 70 million strong, 7x of CTV penetration.
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