Hotstar, Star India’s OTT platform, is eyeing big revenue gains from the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and has more than doubled advertising rates for the popular T20 league.
The annual cricket carnival begins from April 5 and the first match will be played between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Sixty matches are going to be played in a span of 47 days, with the opening match and the finals scheduled to take place at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad. The clincher will be played on May 21.
Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar, told "We are reinventing the experience of cricket on a mobile and India is changing the way it watches its favorite sport. We believe that Hotstar will be the primary screen for Vivo IPL 2017 for the 130 million video streamers in the country."
Novi Digital Entertainment, which is fully owned by Star India and which operates Hotstar, garnered advertising revenue of Rs 138.6 crore in FY16. Subscription revenue accounted for Rs 24.2 crore while licensing of content rights stood at Rs 19.2 crore in FY16. The company’s total income stood at Rs 185.7 crore in FY16.
Sanjeev Handa, head of marketing at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, said his company’s approach to the media is customer centric. “More and more of our target groups are now engaging with us on digital mediums. There is a diffusion of purchase cycle within digital since 50% of users start their research online, which makes it imperative for us to be present extensively on these mediums. Hence, our approach is integrating offline and online.”
Whatever be the commercial numbers, the IPL is batting on a stronger wicket, both on television and on the OTT platform. The new season of the IPL is going to fetch peak revenues for Sony and Star India. Sony is looking at ad revenue of Rs 1,300 crore from the TV telecast of IPL 10.
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