440 Cr Deal at Stake! Will BCCI call off the IPL-VIVO deal?

[Jay]

With the anti-China sentiment running high in India following the border clash, the pressure on BCCI is growing to call off the China connect.

The Indian Traders Association has written a letter to the BCCI asking to end the sponsorship deals with Chinese firms and that if BCCI does not end the deal with these firms then traders from across the nation will boycott the IPL and all other international matches at home.

IPL’s title sponsorship deal with VIVO is worth 440 crore per year and is in it’s 3rd year. BCCI has a 2,199 crore, 5 year deal with Chinese handset maker VIVO for the title sponsorship of IPL.

BCCI Official says, ‘If VIVO goes out of IPL, who will give 440 Cr for Title sponsorship”?

Also, it’s just not VIVO but numerous other Chinese firms associated with BCCI and cricket players for sponsorship.

What is your say : Should BCCI call off this IPL-VIVO lucrative deal?

[Parthiv]

Not just Rs. 440 Cr Title Sponsorship is at stake, but more Chinese firms connect is involved.

Chinese advertisers spend big on on-air advertising around IPL and other BCCI events. According to an estimate, on IPL 2019 alone advertisers with Chinese connect spent in a range of 500 Cr with Star India.

– VIVO’S on air advertising and dealer engagements and offers is estimated to be around ₹150 crore during the two-month event.
– OPPO the other Chinese mobile handset player was the Co-Presenting partner with Star on IPL. They are also the ICC sponsor and the next T20 World Cup is scheduled in India.
– Smartphones as category spends 1200-1300 Cr annually on various Cricket tournaments broadcasted in India.
–Byju’s is BCCI’s team sponsor and is backed by one of the biggest Chinese fund – Tencent Holdings. According to estimates their annual spending on cricket is round about 300 Cr
– DreamXI / PayTM – both have Chinese connect. Both are connected with BCCI, both spend above 120-150 Cr on Cricket annually.
PayTM (IPL Associate Sponsor, Title Sponsor of Indian Cricket), DreamXI (Associate Sponsor for both IPL & Indian Cricket) have Chinese investors on board.

So, will all these be stopped to advertising in India? I think the ban should be unanimous and not selective. But yes, it can start with the biggest fish - VIVO deal.

[Yogesh]

We need to be sensible here. It would be shrewd to not to boycott Chinese money, only boycott Chinese products. Let them spend as much as they want in advertising. Let’s grab them from as much as we can. We will just not give our money to them. Let’s have Laddo in both pf our hands!

We need to cheer IPL/Republic or whoever is earning money from Chinese. Not critique them. We should also welcome Chinese companies investing in India wholeheartedly. Let them make mega plants, it will bring us money, Let’s just not buy from them. They will have to sell all of it to our companies at a loss and get out if we just don’t buy.

We need to oppose whoever is importing from China. Not whoever is bringing in the money.

Let’s be cunning like them.

[Yash]

Until and unless the Indian government takes a certain steps to find an alternative for Chinese investments, no organization would like to ignore such huge amount and thus it will be tough for the Indian board as well. During this economic fallout of the Coronavirus pandemic and the uncertainty it has caused on the future of the sport, BCCI shouldn’t let emotions fall into its way unless they find other sponsorship from home grown companies.

Be it Vivo, PayTM or Dream11, most of BCCI’s sponsors have Chinese connections and as Sonam Wangchuk explained, India needs to take it step by step. Boycotting everything at once and then regretting to stand on its own feet will only be a loss for India.

[Himanshu]

Virat Kohli also has a Chinese connect. Kohli is the brand ambassador of Chinese smartphone company iQOO.
iQOO is a sub-brand of Vivo which has launched in India in February 2020 as a separate entity.

- YouTube

[Abhishek]

Country First…BCCI profits later!

Boycott all sponsorship deals with Chinese products. This will give them a good lesson that we Indians can do without them and can cause further economic impact to them.

[Praveen]

“Let’s say we call off VIVO deal with IPL. In these difficult times who will replace VIVO, who will give us the same value of 440 Cr. In this market, no one else can pay these amounts” , said the BCCI source.

The BCCI source further added, everyone should understand that the Chinese connect will not end with VIVO.

“We do have other BCCI sponsorships that has some connect with Chinese companies. How far we can go to end this? Chinese brands advertise big on television and on all cricket properties. How that can be stopped ? We don’t have any authority to do that. Our Contracts with Star India does not have any clause to suspend such advertising”

InsideSport tried reaching out to the broadcasters of IPL 2020 as well but did not get any response on the issue from Star India.

[Jay]

It’s a classic catch-22 situation! There is no easy way out of this situation but one has to start somewhere. Everyone will keep pointing fingers at others who are not doing and the end result will be status quo.

It would be shrewd to not to boycott Chinese money, only boycott Chinese products.

Consumer behavior is driven by price and it will be difficult to sway their behavior until we provide Indian consumers with competitive alternatives. And currently we do not have indigenous products or products from other foreign companies that can compete with Chinese products on the basis of price and the technology bundled with their products. Reduced dependency on Chinese products is a policy change that the Govt will have to drive and will take a couple of years at least to turnaround the situation.

Meanwhile, we can act upon what can be done immediately.
In order to show disagreement and displeasure with the current situation at the border, we got to pinch where the pain and hurt is likely to be noticed and felt. One deal - VIVO deal exit is a good start. The purpose is to signal that we will not tolerate their intrusions. And they better get their act together or face further extension of the ban on other Chinese firms.

This will get the Chinese Govt calculating the impact on it’s economy, feel it’s citizen’s confidence in the Govt lowering and fear the loss of their power in world economy. Imagine the extent of damage if other countries affected by their intermittent intrusions and policies, follow through.

They are as much dependent on us as we are. Time to shift the needle.

Note : I don’t object globalization and world trade but countries got to sort out political differences amicably and respect boundaries.

In these difficult times who will replace VIVO, who will give us the same value of 440 Cr.

We may not find as big a fish as VIVO who can shell out 440 Cr per year but there could be many businesses in India who could be interested in sponsorship. The amount may or may not be as big but it will definitely not hurt the richest board in the world, BCCI.

We need to cheer IPL/Republic or whoever is earning money from Chinese.

By this we are just making BCCI and it’s associated members even more richer and powerful at the cost of country’s security and interests.

Private Indian organizations are making tons of money even if they justify saying that they are passing on 40% of it as taxes to Govt and creating employment. All this at the cost of Indian Govt spending probably multiple times more in securing the borders and sacrificing lives who are protecting us at the borders.

The Indian military / govt has taken a firm stand but our growing economic dependency on China will cripple us in the long term.

If we fail to act now we should prepare ourselves for more intrusions, lost lives and land encroachment from the Chinese side in future.

[Varshith]

if BCCI does not end the deal with these firms then traders from across the nation will boycott the IPL and all other international matches at home.

This is more of a threat than a solution for the tussle. The traders are playing their own politics under the border tensions. It is not like the Indian Decacorn firms lack capital for advertisement & sponsorship. The situation currently is unknown and if IPL happens the only way of generating revenue would be from broadcasting & media rights. BCCI can open talks for Joint title sponsors from companies which look up to India as a potential market.

[Yash]

Parth Jindal, owner of BFC vowed to reduce their import from China to zero within the next two years.

[Sanchit]

BCCI should cancel the Vivo contract with IPL. Lead by Example Dada - you were great leader and leading BCCI now so expectation from you.

[Parthiv]

This is called lead by example! Parth Jindal

[Jay]

The Economic Times : TikTok predicts over $6 bn loss from India’s ban.

Chinese tech giant unicorn ByteDance Ltd. is anticipating a loss of over USD 6 billion after 3 of its apps, including the hugely popular video app TikTok, were banned by India last week.

Describing India’s ban of 59 China-developed apps as unprecedented, the report said it is a huge blow to the global expansion of TikTok, which is touted as the most popular Chinese app overseas. India is its largest market in terms of users outside China, where the service is called Douyin.

Parth Jindal, owner of BFC vowed to reduce their import from China to zero within the next two years.

The JSW Group’s move was exemplary!

Imagine the ripple effect if BCCI and associates follow through! The financial blow may prove to strike harder beyond China’s wildest imagination.

[Yash]

BCCI has decided to retain ties with their major sponsor Vivo, Chinese mobile handset maker and other companies Paytm and Dream11 - which also have Chinese investments. After this decision many Indian fans started the trend on Twitter to #boycottIPL

[Jay]

BCCI has decided to retain ties with their major sponsor Vivo

Didn’t expect anything different from BCCI!

[Abhishek1]

“Vivo has pulled out of IPL sponsorship this year. Since they had three years left under the contract, they will now do 2021, 2022 and 2023 instead,” a source in BCCI said.
BCCI will start tenders for title sponsorship in next three days and will then choose the title sponsor.

[Jay]

IPL 2020: Vivo’s exit could see Star India take a Rs 250 crore hit

The impact of the Indo-China tension and the prevailing anti-China sentiment in India, will hurt many of the league’s stakeholders. The financial impact is well stated below - excerpts from MoneyControl article:

VIVO’s exit may see an erosion in Star India ad revenue. Vivo, the title sponsor of the event, advertised heavily on television. According to BARC data, it was last year among the top 10 advertisers on television.

In the case of a replacement, it could be 5-10 percent lower than Vivo’s payout given the market conditions, said Karan Taurani, VP, Elara Capital.

Vivo’s exit may also lead to other Chinese brands lying low or not advertising at all during IPL 2020.

“Amid the Chinese companies, Oppo, Real Me, One Plus, Redmi/Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Meizu, Coolpad, Zopo, Tecno, spend at least Rs 600-700 crore on the IPL (across TV and digital),” said Sandeep Goyal, Chairman, Mogae Media, a Mumbai-based marketing and communication agency.

He also believes that companies such as “Paytm, Dream 11, Swiggy and Zomato, all having Chinese relationships (investments), could decide to play it low-key”.

This is why Goyal estimates a Rs 500 crore loss for Star TV and Hotstar, the IPL’s digital partner.

As much as 40-50 percent of Star’s potential revenue of Rs 3,000 crore is now in trouble because of China, estimates Goyal.

Last year, in the 12th edition of the IPL, Star India had recorded a 20 percent jump in ad revenue to Rs 2,200 crore across the television and digital platforms from Rs 1,750 crore in 2018. This year, it looks like the broadcaster will struggle to come close to that number.

Taurani added: “On TV, Chinese brands account for almost 40 percent of the telecom/e-commerce vertical spends and this vertical aggressively pushes towards the target group of IPL. Hence, the league will see a severe impact.”

He added that Chinese brands contribute almost 5 percent of the overall adex (advertising expenditure) across mediums on an annual basis based on their large presence in telecom/e-commerce. “This number could possibly become half or even lower if they decide to lie low or not advertise during the IPL this year,” he said.

[Yash]

The Board of Control for Cricket in India confirmed that VIVO will no longer be the official sponsors of IPL 2020. The Chinese phone makers have decided to pull out of 2 more title sponsorship, the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) and reality show Big Boss.

[Sagar]

Amazon leading IPL 2020 title sponsorship race; Unacademy, MyCircle11 join in: Report

[Yash]

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev is considering bidding for the Indian Premier League title sponsorship slot vacated by Chinese smartphone maker Vivo. “We are considering the IPL title sponsorship for this year, since we want to give the Patanjali brand a global marketing platform”, Patanjali spokesperson confirmed, adding Patanjali is considering making a proposal to the BCCI.