The Indian Premier League (IPL) Season 18 is in full swing, and with every edition drawing more eyeballs than the previous one, the T20 cricket league has become one of the most-watched cricket leagues in India. However, the IPL also affects the entertainment industry, especially TV shows, as it reduces watch time, thereby lowering TRPs.
Producer Abhigyan Jha, who created shows like Movers & Shakers, Jay Hind!, Qubool Hai 2.0, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, and Janani – AI Ki Kahani, among others. He has also written films like Krishna Cottage, Phir Zindagi agrees with this trend and feels that it’s partly due to the fact that today most households have smart TVs.
Abhigyan Jha said, “Earlier, people watched IPL on their phones, and others could watch TV as usual. But in the last few years, that has changed. As more and more people get smart TVs, they watch IPL on their TV screens. And unless your house has multiple TVs, there is no way to watch a TV show at the same time. So, this problem will always persist during IPL, and TRPs will fall.”
Abhigyan Jha added, “However, I feel this depends on each season. I don’t think last year’s IPL caused much damage to TRPs. I had two shows on air last year during IPL, and I don’t think it made any difference. Channels like Dangal don’t suffer much; Star won’t suffer because Star’s audience supports it a lot. But this year we will have to see, because this is the first time that the merger has happened between Star and Colors, which means a very big chunk of people are now getting to watch the IPL.”
Abhigyan Jha also mentioned that even with IPL running, shows and channels can achieve good TRPs with effective marketing strategies. “If you know how to click, you should be able to get ratings during IPL as well, because the viewers for IPL are totally different. And I can understand that if Colors and Star are hosting IPL themselves, they will deliberately not want to prioritise TV shows because they will want more people to watch IPL.”
“The Ad rates they get for IPL are much higher than the ad rates they get for a daily show. They need to recover a lot of money they’ve paid to the BCCI. But for Zee TV, Sony Entertainment Channel, or any other channel to take that attitude is very wrong.”
Abhigyan Jha believes that to survive and excel in the entertainment industry, one must always challenge the leaders. “If you want to do well in the market, you always need to challenge the leaders. If you don’t attack the leaders, you won’t get anywhere. You will keep losing market share,” he concluded.
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