IPL 2025: How India unlocked 'untapped potential' with T20 cricket league – bbc.com
When the India Premier league was announced in 2007 the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) bet on the pace of the format and the untapped potential that the marriage of entertainment and cricket had in India.
A summer schedule and games being aired on entertainment networks around prime-time slots outside sports channels, pitched the league as a family-entertainer, altering viewership patterns for the sport in India.
Watching cricket was suddenly a daily activity across ages. With the IPL, cricket had a theatrical allure – packed in a three-hour package.
The league rode on the back of a digital transformation in India, which further amplified viewership and reach.
Affordable internet plans and arrival of streaming facilitated IPL's seamless journey into people's phones, making it easier for people to catch it on the move.
It has evolved into a unique product which sells success stories and narratives for posterity to a country where most kids, at some point, aspire to pursue cricket professionally.
The rags-to-riches stories drive the aspiration of pursuing cricket backed by the kind of money that the IPL can offer young cricketers hailing from lesser-privileged communities.
Experts believe that the IPL's primary merit has been facilitating a gradual transition from an obsession with foreign names to a population proud of its homegrown talents.
Joy Bhattacharya, cricket pundit and former team director of Kolkata Knight Riders, says: "The platform helps them [parents of young children] associate, dream, hope and get closer to the stars – in cricket and entertainment."
With the success, the value of the tournament has soared from a $2 billion valuation in 2008 – its first season – to $12 billion in 2024.
Despite its comparatively short duration – 65 days in 2024 – compared to other major sporting leagues across the world, what makes the IPL such a consistently growing brand?
The 10 franchises, each representing a major Indian city or a state have ventured into other international T20 leagues stretching individual brand identities beyond India and increasing IPL's impact on the global cricketing ecosystem.
In a primarily sponsorship driven market, the IPL's duration promises a definite yet intense stretch for sponsors and strategic partnerships, which drive the major share of IPL's revenue.
Bhattacharya says the IPL is a "singular advertising phenomenon with the national focus completely concentrated on it".
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