IPL is not only a cricket event now, it involves so many other things that brands are paying thousands of crores just to make sure that they don’t get ignored in this festival. After the recent Rs 16000 crore deal of Star India buying coverage rights, IPL has become the 3rd most expensive tournament after NBA and English Premier League.
Reasons IPL is full of entertainment
Bollywood
IPL is considered as an event which has so much entertainment for the audience. the reasons for this image of IPL is because of the involvement of Bollywood stars in the teams. Celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty and many others make the non-sports lovers to watch this tournament.
Controversies
From the Sreesanth- Harbhajan case to the Kohli-Gambhir fight, IPL is full of controversies and Indians are fond of such things. The audience gets to know interesting things about players and their personal lives from IPL which makes them stick with screens to watch even the pre and post match shows.
Curiousity
IPL matches are very entertaining, it can be due to the t20 format but the balance of each team is amazing. Also, the mixture of players from different nations makes it a treat for the fans to watch IPL.
Extra benefits
There are so many additional things other than cricket which makes people watch IPL. Fans based awards, cheerleaders, celebrities, glamour and music give additional flavours to the matches.
Also Read: How Brands Are Making The Most Of IPL 2018 With Creative Ads
Factors that show the need for IPL to be a complete sports event for Brands
Brands get less outcome in terms of sales
Some brands want IPL to be seen as a serious sports event because with this, they will get to target the audience in a better way. Right now, it is a complete package where people from all age groups and interests watch IPL and brands get confused on how to target their required audience. Like travel-related apps only want the middle-age audience who earns good but companies face issues in filtering them from the big audience IPL has.
The Star India involment
After Star India taking the rights of IPL, it should be more focused on the cricket part. The viewership of Star Sports Hindi increased 200 percent in the initial days of IPL 2018. Star wants to increase the ‘sports’ value in IPL, and decrease some of its ‘entertainment’ value. With Kabbadi and other sports getting a positive response in India, the company wants to set up itself as the only leader in this segment.
Also Read: Here’s How The IPL Team Owners Make Money
Time period
If we compare IPL with cricket world cup, it is seen that brands pay more during IPL matches. This is due to the fact that IPL continues for a longer time period. Also, the matches without Indian national teams don’t have a large audience and this doesn’t happen in IPL as every game is a blockbuster. World Cup mainly gets focus from cricket lovers when the tournament comes in the final stage.
Conclusion
Coming to the result of this discussion, we believe that it is difficult to separate entertainment from IPL matches and currently, there is overlap between the two.
