Is IPL BIG because of Bollywood?

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The Correlation Between Sports & Entertainment, FICCI Frames

Moderator:   Sonali Chander, Sports Editor & Anchor, NDTV

Panel:  Kunal Dasgupta, Ajay Jadeja, Rahul Bose, Viren Rasquinha

First I must start off with a kuddoos for Sonali Chander who did a brilliant job moderating the panel.   The session for informative as well as it was fun as it probed into the question:  Is IPL big because of Bollwood?  

The IPL franchise was become the six most valuable franchise in the world.  And that too in a mere three years of existence.  Now the question that comes to mind is that is this due to the Bollywood factor or the cricket players.  And instead of you waiting for till  the end of this blog to find out the answer, I will give you the panels verdict upfront.  YES! YES!  And another resounding YES – that the success of IPL is definitely due to the involvement of the Bollywood Community.   If you measure in terms of TRPs – the data also shows the same – if Bollywood turns up the TRP goes up.

The Bollywood quotient has definitely been an added bonus for IPL since it added a new audience to the sport:  casual watchers of cricket and women.   It has expanded the market by expanding the viewership of the game.   The “two in one “ Concept as described by Dasgupta – is that Cricket was great – but when we added entertainment to it .. the results are there for all to see.  

Not only Bollywood, but there are some other reasons that the IPL has been so successful:

• The 20/20 Format.  In an analysis of 380 games in the 20/20 format, 343 games went to the last over.  This is a whopping 93% of all games.  This keeps the game exciting and the viewers at the edge of their seats.
• The Success of the Indian Cricket Team is directly proportional to the huge support that it gives to IPL.  If the India team was not great in cricket – we would not have seen such an successful IPL.
• The Franchise concept where each owner is responsible for promoting its team.  And it by design that the first set of team owners are all aspirational :  whether it be a Sharukh, an Ambani or a Mallya.   These personalities are all household names and we all aspire to be like them.   The ownership of such names associated with IPL ensures that the most known personalities are themselves promoting the game.
• And Last but not least .. Marketing .. marketing .. and even better marketing.

So as we see T-shirts sporting Khan12 with no mention of the Cricketers, or Shilpa as the lead in her TVC or Priety hogging the limelight – it is only savvy business – as they are key to pulling in the TRPs.   The cricketers are being used merely as props.  Why is this so?   Is it because the cricketers do not gel back there hair.  Or as Sehwag said – Jo Accha Dekhaga, Wo Accha Bekaga …

The most telling question of the day was in KKR who is more important – Sharukh or Gangully.  And the tide is clearly in favor of King Khan ..  since players these days in IPL can be easily replaced.  A sad reality but the truth maybe?