AMBANI'S IMPACT ON IPL VIEWERSHIP 2023

 

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Ambani Impact : 1.7cr cable TVs owners will have to pay extra to watch IPL on Star Sports 🔥🔥

The behind the screen viewership battle is so full of masala!

Let's start with the basics👇

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India has ~14cr cable conected TV screens. And 1.7cr of these are served by 3 cable operators :

🔰 GTPL Hathway Ltd.(80L)

🔰 Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd(47L)

🔰  DEN Networks Limited(40L)

And guess what? Reliance which is the majority shareholder in DEN & Hathway, and has a 28% indirect stake in GTPL Hathway.

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In a nutshell, it's Reliance which is providing cable service to those 1.7cr+ TV screens.

Hence, it also gets to decide what channels will be shown to the subscribers under what package🙌🙌

And that's the trump card has played.

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Disney's 22 Star Sports channels ( English, Hindi, Telugu etc) are set to broadcast IPL pan India this year.

It has promised the advertisers a record TV viewership, despite direct rival JioCinema streaming IPL for free. And if advertising don't see merit in Disney's promises, then they would demand a downward renegotiation of the contacts

And to ensure this happens, Reliance has swung in the 3 cable operators into action!

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The 3 companies have decided to remove Star Sports channels from  their base packages.

GTPL Hathway has also officiated the same that it's Rs 325 base plan will no more include those channels from 1 April.

Thus, if the viewers have to watch IPL on TV, they would have to

🔰 buy a costlier package

🔰 or purchase Star Sports a-la-carte, which is also costly

🔰 or switch to DTh players (Tata Play, DishTV & Airtel DTH), which are way costlier

Meanwhile, all of those users will have the  options to watch IPL on JioCinema free. This will aid its viewership, and improve its ad revenues.

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This move by Reliance is also a masterstroke as it has gotten the Disney leadership busy on addressing these issues just 7 days ahead of IPL.

1. Negotiation with the 3 cable operators if something could be worked out

2. Convncing advertisers that these is no need of renegotiating the ad contacts

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Even if the base packages do end up including Star Sports, it will be

only if Disney improves its agreement with cable operators in their favour.And if Disney offers these 3 operators better terms, other cable operators will also demand the same.

CHECKMATE !!!!!!!!!!!

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All of this is likely a positive for the ones holding the shares of the Reliance backed cable operators and also Viacom18. Cuz, the situation benefits either of the two, one way or another. But just to be clear, this is not a stock buy/sell recommendation.

Meanwhile, where will you be watching IPL this time?