Why IPL 2026 is a turning point for mobile advertising

New Delhi: Mobile advertising during the IPL is still fighting for serious, committed budgets rather than experimental allocations. 

The next phase of growth will depend less on inventory expansion and more on whether mobile platforms can offer predictability, premium environments and clear proof of business impact.

Why standard video is no longer enough

According to Nitin Sabharwal, Founding Partner and COO at indixital, advertisers are no longer debating whether mobile matters during the IPL, but whether it can deliver outcomes with the same confidence as television.

“The market has moved past the phase where volume alone could unlock budgets,” Sabharwal said. “What brands are asking for now is predictable scale and proof that mobile exposure during live matches can translate into action.”

The limits of traditional mobile video inventory are already becoming evident. Vishal Singh, Vice President - Agency and Advertiser Partnerships at Globale Media, said incremental IPL revenue will not come from simply adding more pre-rolls or mid-rolls.

“That inventory is already well supplied and largely priced in. Just explaining reach is no longer enough to unlock new money,” Singh explained.

On platforms such as JioHotstar, mobile ad rates currently start at around Rs 180-200 CPM for standard placements and rise to Rs 340 or more for premium matches. While these rates remain significantly lower than television, Singh said advertisers now expect more than cost efficiency.

The opportunity, according to Singh, lies in formats that allow brands to participate in live moments rather than interrupt them. Interactive layers, contextual placements triggered by match events, and app-native formats that allow users to act immediately are increasingly central to discussions.

Sabharwal agrees but adds a note of caution. “Innovation alone doesn’t justify premium pricing. These formats only scale when they can consistently deliver tens of millions of high-quality users per match, backed by strong data signals,” he said. 

Without predictable delivery and standardised measurement, both Singh and Sabharwal believe such innovations will remain test spends rather than moving into core IPL allocations.

Innovation tied to real mobile behaviour

For Vijay Shenoy, Deputy Vice President at LS Digital Group, the next phase of mobile growth depends on how closely advertising mirrors real fan behaviour.

“Incremental IPL mobile revenue won’t come from more mid-rolls; it has to come from understanding what fans actually do on their phones during matches,” Shenoy said.

Mobile users, he noted, move rapidly between live streams, scorecards, fantasy-style interactions, messaging apps, and commerce platforms. Formats such as shoppable ads, click-to-WhatsApp integrations, and moment-triggered units appearing after a wicket or a six align far better with this behaviour.

Referring to IPL 2025 data, Shenoy said digital audiences were already around 650 million. “For premium pricing, publishers need to deliver 70 to 100 million-plus unique mobile viewers across a season,” he noted.

Sabharwal added that this behaviour-driven approach is critical in a market where mobile is not just the primary viewing screen but also the primary action screen. “When ads allow users to respond instantly, browse, buy, sign up, that’s when mobile starts justifying its place in serious IPL budgets,” he said.

Context and environments over novelty

Beyond formats, Bharat Subramanian, Founder and Director at BigTrunk Communications, believes environments are becoming just as important as innovation.

High-attention placements embedded within live scorecards, player statistics, prediction interfaces, and multi-angle feeds tend to outperform standalone video because they appear during moments of peak engagement.

“Premium value will come from predictability, not novelty,” Subramanian said. “Brands are willing to pay more when outcomes are reliable rather than experimental.”

This shift has become more pronounced following changes in gaming regulations. Fantasy gaming platforms were among the largest mobile advertisers during previous IPL seasons, particularly for real-time, high-engagement formats. Their absence has created a short-term demand gap.

Sabharwal sees this as both a challenge and an opportunity. “Fantasy platforms drove a lot of live, event-triggered demand,” he said. “With them gone, there’s less competition for premium mobile inventory, but also more pressure to bring in new categories.”

“That level of volume is unlikely to come back in the same way,” he said, adding that the opportunity now lies in smarter reallocation rather than chasing lost demand.

According to Sabharwal, many advertisers are already shifting 40 to 50% of their incremental IPL budgets toward mobile programmatic and in-app environments from non-gaming categories such as quick commerce, FMCG, and e-commerce. 

This, he said, is often accompanied by a conscious reduction in over-reliance on OTT video, with brands blending live IPL exposure with social and short-form mobile content to maintain frequency and momentum.

When mobile starts competing with television

Pricing remains one of the most contested aspects of mobile IPL advertising. Singh said mobile inventory begins to compete seriously with television when CPMs move into the Rs 450-600 range and can justify that pricing through outcomes rather than reach alone.

“At that level, brands expect tighter targeting, frequency control, and clear evidence of impact,” he said.

Shenoy believes mobile does not need to match television pricing to win budgets. At Rs 300-400 CPM, he said, mobile can compete effectively if it proves incremental reach and measurable performance.

Publicly reported IPL 2025 benchmarks underline this comparison. Mobile CPMs averaged around Rs 340, while a 10-second television spot cost approximately Rs 18 lakh.

Sabharwal pointed to cross-screen planning as a key factor in shifting this evaluation. “Running campaigns across TV, CTV, and mobile typically results in less than 5% overlap, while delivering 20 to 40% incremental reach,” he said. 

This has helped sustain premiums in CTV-led IPL packages, while mobile continues to attract performance-oriented budgets through interactive layers, QR-led shoppability, and contextual triggers.

Incremental budgets versus reallocation

Whether mobile IPL spends represent fresh budgets or reallocations remains a critical question. Shenoy said most large media plans still fund mobile IPL spends through television rationalisation and the movement of generic digital video budgets into premium live environments.

Subramanian offered a more layered view. Some mobile IPL spending comes from brands that were never television-led and see the tournament primarily as a digital event. Another portion is drawn from within digital plans, where match days replace routine social or video bursts. A smaller but growing share is being redirected from television as spot rates rise and viewing fragments.

Sabharwal said the intent behind the spend matters more than the source. “Brands are choosing mobile for control, over timing, frequency, creative variation, and audience targeting during live match moments,” he observed. 

Formats delivering stronger performance

Performance data suggests that not all mobile formats deliver equal value. Singh said formats that combine brand storytelling with interaction deliver 1.5 to 2 times higher engagement than standard video, along with better conversion efficiency, particularly for digital-first categories.

Shenoy noted that action-led formats perform better because they allow immediate response and respect mobile intent. Subramanian added that context often matters more than creative execution, with ads appearing immediately after key match moments feeling relevant rather than interruptive.

In the post-fantasy landscape, Sabharwal said performance-driven non-gaming formats are easier to measure and often command 20 to 50% premiums due to higher engagement and lower clutter.

The measurement gap is holding back the scale

Despite steady growth, all four executives agree that measurement remains the biggest barrier to decisive budget shifts ahead of 2026.

Singh said the industry lacks a unified framework linking attention, brand lift, and performance outcomes at scale. Shenoy highlighted the importance of deduplicated cross-screen measurement, noting that once marketers see clean incremental reach, mobile stops being debated and starts becoming the default.

Subramanian said marketers ultimately want proof that match-time exposure drives real business outcomes within short windows.

Sabharwal said marketers are becoming more disciplined in how they test and scale mobile IPL investments. 

Many are deploying just 10 to 20% of their budgets during the early matches, using broadcaster and third-party tools such as JioStar and Nielsen to track return on ad spend before committing larger sums.

As the IPL ecosystem heads toward 2026, mobile’s share is expected to grow, but driven by evidence rather than optimism, and by proof rather than promise.