The merger deal — announced on February 28 and subject to regulatory approvals — will create an $8.5-billion media goliath, with leadership in both TV broadcasting and video streaming segments. “The new consolidated entity will have an adverse impact on the bargaining power of advertisers and tariffs for subscribers, thereby leading to accelerated AVOD and SVOD revenue. While the subscriber tariff may go up, the merged entity will be able to charge premium rates from advertisers,” says Rajesh Sethi, who has helmed Ten Sports and NBA India in his previous stints. Despite committing Rs 47,000 crore in media rights fee over the 2023-27 cycle, Disney Star and Viacom18 are not able to monetise the viewership on TV and digital, because there is oversupply compared to demand from advertisers. “[But] the minute they become a single entity, they will sell together, which will make it that much easier to hold pricing. Currently, there is neither volume growth nor pricing growth. This year they will just scrape through; but from next year, the price increase will give them a better yield. Going forward, their growth will come from yield rather than reach, which has already reached a peak,” said Kurate Digital Consulting senior partner Uday Sodhi. Indeed, the past couple of seasons have been very good for advertisers and marketers. They have been able to secure deals at much lower rates from Star and Viacom18 due to the intense competition from the two agencies, coupled with a depressed ad market. As per the rate cards floated by the two companies, Star Sports was seeking Rs 12.5 lakh for a 10-second spot, while Viacom18-owned JioCinema sought Rs 16 lakh per 10 seconds on mobile and Rs 6.5 lakh per 10 seconds on connected TVs (CTV). On an impression basis, the ad rates were Rs 200 per thousand impressions for mobile and Rs 480 for CTV. Stumped by this lack of demand, Disney Star had to slash its sponsorship outlay by 30-40% to improve the inventory fill rate. Against 3,300 seconds of airtime that are available for commercial exploitation in each IPL game, the official TV broadcaster has managed to sell merely 50% of the inventory on an average for the first 26 matches. Both Disney Star and Viacom18 declined to comment.
![will-the-reliance-disney-merger-change-ipl-advertising?-–-et-brandequity](https://traderstarter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/7720-will-the-reliance-disney-merger-change-ipl-advertising-et-brandequity.jpg)