The rates of Zee’s prime-time advertisement packages range from ₹16 crore to ₹35 crore, according to Ashish Sehgal, the company’s chief growth officer, ad sales. In comparison, rival Disney Star’s IPL packages are priced between ₹83 crore and ₹167 crore. Disney Star is also looking to broaden its IPL advertiser base by offering customised packages.
Sehgal said the company has multiple advertisement packages for the IPL period for the varied marketing objectives of advertisers. Sehgal said the company has devised an eight-week plan for brands that wish to outshout their competitors during the IPL. It has shorter duration four- and six-week plans.
“Due to the high cost of IPL on TV, marketers have reduced ticket sizes on the property and spread thin across genres. IPL’s impact will be minimal in Q4 and Q1 FY25,” he said.
Advertisers, Sehgal said, have realised that they must have sustained presence throughout the year for brand imagery. Live sporting events like the IPL and ICC World Cup impact entertainment channels’ viewership and revenue from advertisements. For the quarter ended December 2023, Zee’s network TV viewership share had dropped to 16.5% due to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in October-November 2023.
Disney Star’s revenue from the sports business had surged by 71% to $399 million for the quarter ended December 31 on the back of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, severely impacting the general entertainment category.Zee is eyeing double-digit growth in advertising revenue in the next few quarters on the back of strong performance in regional and movie channel categories.The network hopes to increase the yield of its advertisement inventory, particularly in under-indexed markets like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
“TV viewing, both in terms of reach and time spent, is on the rise, while digital video viewing has reached stagnancy,” he said.
