Coronavirus impact: 2020 looked like a super year for sports. But now, it could be a washout

The outlook for the Indian sports market for 2020 was positive with events like the Olympics and the Indian Premier League (IPL). But the coronavirus outbreak has put a break on the busy sports calendar as many events have been either suspended or postponed.

Olympics 2020 has been delayed by a year and Wimbledon, which was slated for June, has been cancelled for the first time since World War II. UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) postponed all international matches for men and women until end of June. Even NBA (National Basketball Association) suspended its season in March after a player tested positive for coronavirus.

Back home, IPL has been delayed to April 15, but chances are bleak that the league will be played this year.

The IPL is a big money-churner, emerging as the most successful sports league in India last year.

IPL’s TV reach was 1.4 times more than that of the next best league, the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), and almost three times more than that of Indian Super League (ISL) in 2019, according to EY 2020 report.

Social conversations around IPL were nine times higher than that of the ISL.

In addition, IPL search volumes were almost 14 times more than that of PKL last year.

Along with IPL, other cricketing properties including the ICC World Cup gave a strong push to the sports industry that saw a 17 percent growth last year and crossed Rs 10,000-crore mark for the first time.

The IPL and the ICC World Cup gave a push to both on-ground sponsorship and media spends.

The total ground sponsorship revenue across all sporting activities was Rs 2,370 crore, a 25 percent increase over 2018.

Cricket saw a 43 percent growth in ground sponsorship revenue and recorded revenue of Rs 1,520 crore. The sport now comprises 64 percent of on-ground revenues, up from 50 percent in 2017.

Uncertainty in 2020

Ground sponsorship will take a hit as IPL’s fate remains uncertain and even other cricket matches are on hold, like India’s three-match ODI series with South Africa.

After the first match, the remaining two matches that were to be played in Lucknow and Kolkata were called off amid COVID-19 fears.

Before IPL was postponed to April 15, experts had said even if the league remained on schedule, the cricketing property would have seen a dent of five percent to 10 percent in on-ground revenues.

Sports channels' dwindling viewership

Cancellation or delayed sporting events due to corona will impact every aspect of sports business, including TV viewership.

Currently, with no live sports content on TV, viewers are moving on to other channels.  Repeat content is not enough to keep sports enthusiasts hooked.

According to BARC-Nielsen report, between March 14 and 20, impressions on sports channels fell by 69 percent, daily average time spent by viewers decreased by 59 percent and daily average reach dropped by 29 percent.

All this is due to lack of new programming hours.

The scene was entirely different in 2019 when sports programming hours grew seven percent over 2017. Plus, ad volumes on sports broadcast increased 25 percent.

Last year, 17 percent of live sports hours generated 45 percent of advertising volumes.

Also, cricket’s share of viewership increased and reached 81 percent of total sports viewership on television. IPL’s reach on TV was 462 million last year.

Sports content, which was seeing good growth in consumption not only on TV but in stadiums and digital platforms, is now reeling under pressure due to the pandemic.