Seems the recently-concluded ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 could not do for Indian telecom companies — Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea — what Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) could. If you are wondering what the comparison is, it is in terms of mobile data consumption.
According to a report in Economic Times (ET), the just-ended cricket World Cup may have boosted mobile data usage by over 4% sequentially in the December quarter for the top three telcos, that will translate only into relatively modest sequential revenue growth — at best 1%.Reason being: consumers invariably have large hunks of unused data, precluding mass upgrades to higher value plans. Also, some of the digital viewing of World Cup action on smartphones was via WiFi and not mobile data.
“The World Cup factor will have pushed up data usage levels north of 4% sequentially in Q3FY24 for the top three telcos, but it’s likely to at best trigger only around 1% revenue upside on-quarter for them as data packs, typically, tend to be under-utilised, which limits the possibility of consumers upgrading to higher value packs,” Prashant Singhal, Emerging Markets, Technology, Media & Telecom leader, EY India, told ET.
The top three telcos collectively reported 3% and 2.4% sequential growth in India mobile revenues in Q1FY24 and Q2FY24 respectively as per company data.
IPL boost for telecom companies
In comparison, IPL 2023 had boosted telcos’ data usage levels in the fiscal first quarter. Reliance Jio and Airtel is said to have reported 8% and 4.2% sequential growth in average monthly data usage per user to 25 GB and 21.1 GB respectively, further helped by the rapid uptake of 5G. “Even without 5G, Vi had reported 3.82% sequential growth in data usage to 16.04 GB in the June quarter as feature phone users had upgraded to 4G devices to catch the IPL action live,” said the report.
But do note that mapping digital viewership trends during the cricket World Cup 2023 with IPL 2023 is not exactly an apple to apple comparison. Data usage during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 jumped in India’s matches, while during IPL it largely remained the same across the entire 2-month-long tournament.
“Digital viewership during the cricket World Cup likely peaked only in the big matches featuring India, in some major matches involving other top teams and the final, unlike during an IPL event where the viewership level was largely consistent throughout the 20-overs competition,” said EY’s Singhal.
Important thing to note
According to experts, this was reflected in the fact that the India-Australia World Cup final set a new digital viewership record with 59 million concurrent viewers on Disney Hotstar on an average. But this wasn’t the case with other World Cup cricket matches not featuring India or the ones involving lesser teams.
According to a report in Economic Times (ET), the just-ended cricket World Cup may have boosted mobile data usage by over 4% sequentially in the December quarter for the top three telcos, that will translate only into relatively modest sequential revenue growth — at best 1%.Reason being: consumers invariably have large hunks of unused data, precluding mass upgrades to higher value plans. Also, some of the digital viewing of World Cup action on smartphones was via WiFi and not mobile data.
“The World Cup factor will have pushed up data usage levels north of 4% sequentially in Q3FY24 for the top three telcos, but it’s likely to at best trigger only around 1% revenue upside on-quarter for them as data packs, typically, tend to be under-utilised, which limits the possibility of consumers upgrading to higher value packs,” Prashant Singhal, Emerging Markets, Technology, Media & Telecom leader, EY India, told ET.
The top three telcos collectively reported 3% and 2.4% sequential growth in India mobile revenues in Q1FY24 and Q2FY24 respectively as per company data.
IPL boost for telecom companies
In comparison, IPL 2023 had boosted telcos’ data usage levels in the fiscal first quarter. Reliance Jio and Airtel is said to have reported 8% and 4.2% sequential growth in average monthly data usage per user to 25 GB and 21.1 GB respectively, further helped by the rapid uptake of 5G. “Even without 5G, Vi had reported 3.82% sequential growth in data usage to 16.04 GB in the June quarter as feature phone users had upgraded to 4G devices to catch the IPL action live,” said the report.
But do note that mapping digital viewership trends during the cricket World Cup 2023 with IPL 2023 is not exactly an apple to apple comparison. Data usage during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 jumped in India’s matches, while during IPL it largely remained the same across the entire 2-month-long tournament.
“Digital viewership during the cricket World Cup likely peaked only in the big matches featuring India, in some major matches involving other top teams and the final, unlike during an IPL event where the viewership level was largely consistent throughout the 20-overs competition,” said EY’s Singhal.
Important thing to note
According to experts, this was reflected in the fact that the India-Australia World Cup final set a new digital viewership record with 59 million concurrent viewers on Disney Hotstar on an average. But this wasn’t the case with other World Cup cricket matches not featuring India or the ones involving lesser teams.