March 20, 2024
Mumbai/New Delhi: Sports sponsorships soared to ₹15,000 crore in 2023, up 10.95% from ₹14,209 crore a year ago, according to a report by GroupM ESP, the entertainment, esports and sports division of GroupM India.
This expenditure includes ground, team, and franchise fees, athlete endorsements, and media spending. Notably, cricket dominated with ₹13,701 crore, growing 13% year-on-year, and accounting for 87% of the total spending.
The report titled, Sporting Nation—Building a Legacy, highlighted the significant growth in digital ad revenues, accounting for 40% of overall ad spending. This surge was fuelled by the availability of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches and ICC Men's Cricket World Cup matches for free on OTT platforms, in contrast to the previous season, when the matches were behind a paywall.
The IPL's April 2023 decision to split the rights for the first time into digital and TV packages for the 2023-27 cycle, involving media giants Viacom18 and Star Sports, might have led to flat growth amid a slowdown in advertising spending. However, the ICC Men's World Cup provided a year-end boost to spending.
Overall, sports ad spending in 2023 remained steady, with less than 1% growth over 2022, despite the transition from TV to digital.
