'We Will Break Even On IPL This Year Itself'

Sanjay Gupta, MD, Star India says he expects a Rs 2000 crore turnover from IPL 11, and that ad inventories are already running full

- Naziya Alvi Rahman

One question that has been on everyone’s mind since Star India acquired the global media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) at a whopping price of Rs 16,347.5 crore in September 2017 is – when and how will Star India recover the money it paid to buy IPL? According to calculations made post the much-hyped Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) auction in which Star beat big players such as Facebook, Reliance Jio and Sony, Star would have to pay Rs 54.5 crore per match of IPL.

While most experts predicted that the network would take two to three years to break even on IPL, the man sitting at the helm of affairs at Star India is not ready to wait that long. “We will break even this year itself,” declares a confident Sanjay Gupta, Managing Director of Star India. “We will do a turnover of Rs 2000 crore.”

Gupta’s confidence comes from the big jump in ad revenue that Star India claims to have seen, early in the IPL season, having sold TV and Digital inventory together. “Last year, the total turnover was Rs 1200 crore, which included TV and Digital. So we are looking at roughly a 60% growth in advertising revenue in IPL 11,” Gupta says.

On reported steep increase in ad rates this year, Gupta has a ready reply: “Good things come at a good price.” Despite the high price of IPL ad spots, the overall national demand was so much that the network has been running full on ad inventory for the last two weeks with almost no space to take more, claims Gupta. “We have very little inventory unsold for the next few weeks as well,” he adds.