Media Spending Fuels India’s Sport Sponsorship Market In 2016

According to a recent report by GroupM’s ESP and SportzPower, total sports sponsorship in India rose 19.3% in 2016 to reach ~US$978m (or 11.5% of all advertising expenditure). And within that, media spend was up 24.6% to US$536.5m – an additional US$106m.

Among the other categories, team sponsorship grew most, up 25.3% to US$106.9m, followed by endorsements, up 14.4% to US$72.8m, and on-ground sponsorship, up 13% to US$178m; franchise fees lagged in growth terms, edging a mere 1.2% to US$83.7m.

Unsurprisingly, cricket dominated the market; as India hosted the ICC World T20 tournament and the IPL continues attracting brands. The latter competition garnered US$155.9m net in ad sales revenues for broadcaster Sony Pictures Network India – a 25% increase from 2015.

However, certain non-cricket sports performed well as India hosted global events such as the Kabaddi World Cup and the Junior Hockey World Cup last year. In fact, Kabaddi has ousted football as the second most lucrative in the Indian sports sponsorship market, gaining a 154% growth, garnering US$18.6m, up from US$7.3m in 2015. Football plummeted by 3.9% in 2016. The report adds that the IMG-Reliance-Star co-owned ISL pulled in 16 central sponsors, but the uncertainty around the union of ISL and I-League is the main reason behind the beautiful game’s poor showing last year. Rio Olympic medal winners PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik also actively contributed to non-cricket endorsements growing by 83.5% to US$11.8m.

Vinit Karnik, business head, ESP Properties, described cricket as “the poster child for sponsorships” but added that there was plenty of scope for brands to “take a leap of faith and traverse new grounds”.

He pointed to the growing sports audience among women and children and the success of league-based events across multiple sports. And he highlighted “the mushrooming of a very defined health and fitness consciousness within the country”.

Thomas Abraham, co-founder, SportzPower, added: “We expect 2017 to only get bigger, not just on the back of growth from the leagues that are now up and running, but also