All Article Properties:
{
"access_control": false,
"status": "publish",
"objectType": "Article",
"id": "2606915",
"signature": "Article:2606915",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-02-26-how-indias-richest-man-is-using-brain-mapping-to-woo-advertisers-to-cricket/",
"shorturl": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2606915",
"slug": "how-indias-richest-man-is-using-brain-mapping-to-woo-advertisers-to-cricket",
"contentType": {
"id": "1",
"name": "Article",
"slug": "article"
},
"views": 0,
"comments": 0,
"preview_limit": null,
"excludedFromGoogleSearchEngine": 0,
"title": "How India’s richest man is using ‘brain mapping’ neuroscience to woo advertisers to cricket",
"firstPublished": "2025-02-26 10:30:29",
"lastUpdate": "2025-02-26 10:30:33",
"categories": [
{
"id": "26",
"name": "Sci-Tech",
"signature": "Category:26",
"slug": "sci-tech",
"typeId": {
"typeId": "1",
"name": "Daily Maverick",
"slug": "",
"includeInIssue": "0",
"shortened_domain": "",
"stylesheetClass": "",
"domain": "staging.dailymaverick.co.za",
"articleUrlPrefix": "",
"access_groups": "[]",
"locale": "",
"preview_limit": null
},
"parentId": null,
"parent": [],
"image": "",
"cover": "",
"logo": "",
"paid": "0",
"objectType": "Category",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/category/sci-tech/",
"cssCode": "",
"template": "default",
"tagline": "",
"link_param": null,
"description": "",
"metaDescription": "",
"order": "0",
"pageId": null,
"articlesCount": null,
"allowComments": "1",
"accessType": "freecount",
"status": "1",
"children": [],
"cached": false
},
{
"id": "30",
"name": "Sport",
"signature": "Category:30",
"slug": "sport",
"typeId": {
"typeId": "1",
"name": "Daily Maverick",
"slug": "",
"includeInIssue": "0",
"shortened_domain": "",
"stylesheetClass": "",
"domain": "staging.dailymaverick.co.za",
"articleUrlPrefix": "",
"access_groups": "[]",
"locale": "",
"preview_limit": null
},
"parentId": null,
"parent": [],
"image": "",
"cover": "",
"logo": "",
"paid": "0",
"objectType": "Category",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/category/sport/",
"cssCode": "",
"template": "default",
"tagline": "",
"link_param": null,
"description": "",
"metaDescription": "",
"order": "0",
"pageId": null,
"articlesCount": null,
"allowComments": "1",
"accessType": "freecount",
"status": "1",
"children": [],
"cached": false
},
{
"id": "38",
"name": "World",
"signature": "Category:38",
"slug": "world",
"typeId": {
"typeId": "1",
"name": "Daily Maverick",
"slug": "",
"includeInIssue": "0",
"shortened_domain": "",
"stylesheetClass": "",
"domain": "staging.dailymaverick.co.za",
"articleUrlPrefix": "",
"access_groups": "[]",
"locale": "",
"preview_limit": null
},
"parentId": null,
"parent": [],
"image": "",
"cover": "",
"logo": "",
"paid": "0",
"objectType": "Category",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/category/world/",
"cssCode": "",
"template": "default",
"tagline": "",
"link_param": null,
"description": "",
"metaDescription": "",
"order": "0",
"pageId": null,
"articlesCount": null,
"allowComments": "1",
"accessType": "freecount",
"status": "1",
"children": [],
"cached": true
}
],
"content_length": 6427,
"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After striking an $8.5-billion media merger with Walt Disney, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is targeting small businesses and promoting unconventional neuroscience studies to boost its revenues from the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s most valuable cricket league.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pricey broadcast rights for the IPL and other cricketing events which cost Disney and Reliance nearly $10-billion in recent years, are set to weigh heavily on the </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL3N3FD2KT&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">merged group</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is India’s biggest entertainment giant.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Battling competitors Netflix and Amazon in the $28-billion market, the Reliance-owned venture is holding a month of closed-door seminars in seven Indian cities to woo small companies to become IPL advertisers, offering ad packages worth $17,000.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Ads are integral to IPL coverage,” the company said in one document that set its streaming service a target of reaching 40 million smart TVs and 420 million mobile devices during the IPL, set to run for 60 days from 22 March.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The document shows Reliance is privately pitching advertising agencies with “brain mapping” research that it says analysed the brain cells, or neurons, of participants to show its streaming ads have a higher engagement rate than Google.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Five media executives and Reliance sources, and two company pitch decks, revealed its focus on adding small advertisers as it beefs up digital ad inventory to increase streaming revenues, in strategies Reuters is the first to reveal.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2606884\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-2154224398.jpg\" alt=\"cricket advertising India\" width=\"1784\" height=\"1133\" /> <em>Heinrich Klaasen of Sunrisers Hyderabad is bowled by Harshit Rana of Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2024 IPL final at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on 26 May. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You have to make money,” said one company executive familiar with the thinking behind the effort.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the strategies are confidential.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reliance’s Star India, which runs its broadcast and streaming business, and Disney did not respond to requests for comment.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reliance also plans to monetise tiny scorecard space on mobile screens, after having decided this month to end </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL6N3P40MG&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> streaming of IPL on its JioHotstar app, offered since 2023, in the first major sign that it is battling revenue pressures.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPL launched in 2008, becoming an instant success among the subcontinent’s cricket-crazy fans. In November, 10 teams, one of them owned by the Ambanis, fought a fierce $74-million bidding war for cricketers to play the 74 matches of this year’s IPL.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital is the new media battleground in India, where TV channel pricing is strictly regulated and geolocation of ads is not possible on the traditional broadcast medium.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2606880\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/111425483.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1773\" height=\"1158\" /> <em>Nita Ambani (left), actor Aamir Khan, actress Preity Zinta and Mukesh Ambani watch the 2011 ICC World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 2 April. (Photo: Matthew Lewis / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid fierce rivalry with Google and Meta, which dominate India’s digital advertising space, Reliance plans to exploit user data to offer ads targeted on the basis of such aspects as viewers’ ages, incomes and locations, while upping ad rates.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many small businesses and company executives attended Reliance’s February seminar in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru to be pitched one-on-one, with IPL ads described as being more affordable than ever.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Reliance ad rates booklet showed packages started at $17,000, but wellness startup owner Anita Devraj, who attended the seminar, said: “I find it cheaper to advertise on Instagram and YouTube.”</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2606878\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-2154241094.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1757\" height=\"1143\" /> <em>Venkatesh Iyer of Kolkata Knight Riders plays a shot during the IPL final against Sunrisers Hyderabad at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on 26 May 2024. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2606877\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-2154238114.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1758\" height=\"1172\" /> <em>Venkatesh Iyer of Kolkata Knight Riders plays a shot against Sunrisers Hyderabad during the IPL final at on 26 May 2024. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n<h4><b>Costly rights investment</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before their merger, Reliance and Disney spent roughly $3-billion each to bag IPL streaming and TV rights from 2023 to 2027, and billions more on </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N3A317B&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ICC cricket</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other leagues.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the heavy investment caused pain, with Disney India later describing the ICC rights as “onerous” and causing an estimated loss of $1.42-billion.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Reliance sees the IPL as key to luring advertisers, given the sport’s popularity, and consumers who may stay on to subscribe to other content, such as HBO movies or Bollywood hits, said the first company source.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To overcome the Indian antitrust body’s concerns about </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N3K70NO&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cricket rights</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and win clearance of the merger, the companies </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N3KF0UA&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">committed</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> not to raise ad rates to an “unreasonable level”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, Reliance has raised IPL streaming ad rates by up to 25%, according to a Reliance executive and documents drafted by one of its Indian media agencies, the Media Ant.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Packages at lower rates are offered by media agencies which buy ads in bulk from Reliance to sell to clients. While Media Ant’s website offers IPL packages starting at 500,000 rupees ($5,800), YouTube ad packs start at just 10,000 rupees ($115).</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Streaming is becoming mainstream but competition is stiff, Uday Shankar, the vice-chairperson of the Reliance entity, told McKinsey in an October interview.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You’re competing with global players: Google and Meta,” he said. “Most of digital advertising revenue goes to these two.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reliance’s growing focus on challenging US streaming tech is evidenced by pitch deck pictures of people wearing headsets and heart rate monitors to track neurons for a “brain-mapping study” comparing how engaging its IPL ads were against rivals.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It said the results showed the “focus”, “engagement” and “memorability” of the ads were up to four times greater than Meta's Instagram and Google’s YouTube. The two firms did not reply to requests for comment on the Reliance assertions.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“No platform has more engaged viewers than YouTube,” Google’s own “brain-imaging study”, with participants from Britain and Germany, concluded in 2024.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Reliance cannot hope to beat the reach of YouTube, with nearly 500 million active users in India, while touting neurons can only take you so far in the ad market, said Daoud Jackson, a streaming analyst at Informa TechTarget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You aren’t going to win an argument in a board meeting next year by pointing at a brain scan. You’ll win that market by pointing at the profit and loss chart.” </span><b>Reuters/DM</b>",
"teaser": "How India’s richest man is using ‘brain mapping’ neuroscience to woo advertisers to cricket",
"externalUrl": "",
"sponsor": null,
"authors": [
{
"id": "177",
"name": "Reuters",
"image": "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/4744.Reuters-Logo-1.jpg",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/",
"editorialName": "reuters",
"department": "",
"name_latin": ""
}
],
"description": "",
"keywords": [
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "2122",
"name": "India",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/india/",
"slug": "india",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "India",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "5918",
"name": "Cricket",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/cricket/",
"slug": "cricket",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Cricket",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "6683",
"name": "Indian Premier League",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/indian-premier-league/",
"slug": "indian-premier-league",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Indian Premier League",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "8757",
"name": "Google",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/google/",
"slug": "google",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Google",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "9234",
"name": "Reuters",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/reuters/",
"slug": "reuters",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Reuters",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "12227",
"name": "Neuroscience",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/neuroscience/",
"slug": "neuroscience",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Neuroscience",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "14364",
"name": "Mukesh Ambani",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/mukesh-ambani/",
"slug": "mukesh-ambani",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Mukesh Ambani",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "49121",
"name": "IPL",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/ipl/",
"slug": "ipl",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "IPL",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "62568",
"name": "disney",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/disney/",
"slug": "disney",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "disney",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "116220",
"name": "tech",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/tech/",
"slug": "tech",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "tech",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "364863",
"name": "Meta",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/meta/",
"slug": "meta",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Meta",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "430583",
"name": "Reliance",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/reliance/",
"slug": "reliance",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "Reliance",
"translations": null
}
},
{
"type": "Keyword",
"data": {
"keywordId": "430584",
"name": "brain mapping",
"url": "https://staging.dailymaverick.co.za/keyword/brain-mapping/",
"slug": "brain-mapping",
"description": "",
"articlesCount": 0,
"replacedWith": null,
"display_name": "brain mapping",
"translations": null
}
}
],
"short_summary": null,
"source": null,
"related": [],
"options": [],
"attachments": [
{
"id": "114518",
"name": "Venkatesh Iyer of Kolkata Knight Riders plays a shot during the 2024 IPL Final match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at MA Chidambaram Stadium on May 26, 2024 in Chennai, India. (Photo by Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images)",
"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After striking an $8.5-billion media merger with Walt Disney, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is targeting small businesses and promoting unconventional neuroscience studies to boost its revenues from the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s most valuable cricket league.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pricey broadcast rights for the IPL and other cricketing events which cost Disney and Reliance nearly $10-billion in recent years, are set to weigh heavily on the </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL3N3FD2KT&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">merged group</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is India’s biggest entertainment giant.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Battling competitors Netflix and Amazon in the $28-billion market, the Reliance-owned venture is holding a month of closed-door seminars in seven Indian cities to woo small companies to become IPL advertisers, offering ad packages worth $17,000.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Ads are integral to IPL coverage,” the company said in one document that set its streaming service a target of reaching 40 million smart TVs and 420 million mobile devices during the IPL, set to run for 60 days from 22 March.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The document shows Reliance is privately pitching advertising agencies with “brain mapping” research that it says analysed the brain cells, or neurons, of participants to show its streaming ads have a higher engagement rate than Google.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Five media executives and Reliance sources, and two company pitch decks, revealed its focus on adding small advertisers as it beefs up digital ad inventory to increase streaming revenues, in strategies Reuters is the first to reveal.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2606884\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1784\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2606884\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-2154224398.jpg\" alt=\"cricket advertising India\" width=\"1784\" height=\"1133\" /> <em>Heinrich Klaasen of Sunrisers Hyderabad is bowled by Harshit Rana of Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2024 IPL final at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on 26 May. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You have to make money,” said one company executive familiar with the thinking behind the effort.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the strategies are confidential.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reliance’s Star India, which runs its broadcast and streaming business, and Disney did not respond to requests for comment.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reliance also plans to monetise tiny scorecard space on mobile screens, after having decided this month to end </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL6N3P40MG&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> streaming of IPL on its JioHotstar app, offered since 2023, in the first major sign that it is battling revenue pressures.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPL launched in 2008, becoming an instant success among the subcontinent’s cricket-crazy fans. In November, 10 teams, one of them owned by the Ambanis, fought a fierce $74-million bidding war for cricketers to play the 74 matches of this year’s IPL.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital is the new media battleground in India, where TV channel pricing is strictly regulated and geolocation of ads is not possible on the traditional broadcast medium.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2606880\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1773\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2606880\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/111425483.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1773\" height=\"1158\" /> <em>Nita Ambani (left), actor Aamir Khan, actress Preity Zinta and Mukesh Ambani watch the 2011 ICC World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 2 April. (Photo: Matthew Lewis / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid fierce rivalry with Google and Meta, which dominate India’s digital advertising space, Reliance plans to exploit user data to offer ads targeted on the basis of such aspects as viewers’ ages, incomes and locations, while upping ad rates.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many small businesses and company executives attended Reliance’s February seminar in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru to be pitched one-on-one, with IPL ads described as being more affordable than ever.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Reliance ad rates booklet showed packages started at $17,000, but wellness startup owner Anita Devraj, who attended the seminar, said: “I find it cheaper to advertise on Instagram and YouTube.”</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2606878\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1757\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2606878\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-2154241094.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1757\" height=\"1143\" /> <em>Venkatesh Iyer of Kolkata Knight Riders plays a shot during the IPL final against Sunrisers Hyderabad at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on 26 May 2024. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2606877\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1758\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2606877\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-2154238114.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1758\" height=\"1172\" /> <em>Venkatesh Iyer of Kolkata Knight Riders plays a shot against Sunrisers Hyderabad during the IPL final at on 26 May 2024. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n<h4><b>Costly rights investment</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before their merger, Reliance and Disney spent roughly $3-billion each to bag IPL streaming and TV rights from 2023 to 2027, and billions more on </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N3A317B&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ICC cricket</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other leagues.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the heavy investment caused pain, with Disney India later describing the ICC rights as “onerous” and causing an estimated loss of $1.42-billion.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Reliance sees the IPL as key to luring advertisers, given the sport’s popularity, and consumers who may stay on to subscribe to other content, such as HBO movies or Bollywood hits, said the first company source.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To overcome the Indian antitrust body’s concerns about </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N3K70NO&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cricket rights</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and win clearance of the merger, the companies </span><a href=\"https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N3KF0UA&linkedFromStory=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">committed</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> not to raise ad rates to an “unreasonable level”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, Reliance has raised IPL streaming ad rates by up to 25%, according to a Reliance executive and documents drafted by one of its Indian media agencies, the Media Ant.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Packages at lower rates are offered by media agencies which buy ads in bulk from Reliance to sell to clients. While Media Ant’s website offers IPL packages starting at 500,000 rupees ($5,800), YouTube ad packs start at just 10,000 rupees ($115).</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Streaming is becoming mainstream but competition is stiff, Uday Shankar, the vice-chairperson of the Reliance entity, told McKinsey in an October interview.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You’re competing with global players: Google and Meta,” he said. “Most of digital advertising revenue goes to these two.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reliance’s growing focus on challenging US streaming tech is evidenced by pitch deck pictures of people wearing headsets and heart rate monitors to track neurons for a “brain-mapping study” comparing how engaging its IPL ads were against rivals.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It said the results showed the “focus”, “engagement” and “memorability” of the ads were up to four times greater than Meta's Instagram and Google’s YouTube. The two firms did not reply to requests for comment on the Reliance assertions.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“No platform has more engaged viewers than YouTube,” Google’s own “brain-imaging study”, with participants from Britain and Germany, concluded in 2024.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Reliance cannot hope to beat the reach of YouTube, with nearly 500 million active users in India, while touting neurons can only take you so far in the ad market, said Daoud Jackson, a streaming analyst at Informa TechTarget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You aren’t going to win an argument in a board meeting next year by pointing at a brain scan. You’ll win that market by pointing at the profit and loss chart.” </span><b>Reuters/DM</b>",
"focal": "50% 50%",
"width": 0,
"height": 0,
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg",
"transforms": [
{
"x": "200",
"y": "100",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/t7jynCV2ha7kZxwvauoR5zGgQYU=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg"
},
{
"x": "450",
"y": "0",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/uquFDoGQijP4NNt08i4jR0tuOHQ=/450x0/smart/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg"
},
{
"x": "800",
"y": "0",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/q53wmhqSOJNRv84qFl9D_ddyhPo=/800x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg"
},
{
"x": "1200",
"y": "0",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/ZzaIZSFuNDWQ4ibMW32PkRx7EfE=/1200x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg"
},
{
"x": "1600",
"y": "0",
"url": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/oOT0yYi0zzJ4t6y4scO3ckf9YZI=/1600x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg"
}
],
"url_thumbnail": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/t7jynCV2ha7kZxwvauoR5zGgQYU=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg",
"url_medium": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/uquFDoGQijP4NNt08i4jR0tuOHQ=/450x0/smart/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg",
"url_large": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/q53wmhqSOJNRv84qFl9D_ddyhPo=/800x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg",
"url_xl": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/ZzaIZSFuNDWQ4ibMW32PkRx7EfE=/1200x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg",
"url_xxl": "https://dmcdn.whitebeard.net/i/oOT0yYi0zzJ4t6y4scO3ckf9YZI=/1600x0/smart/filters:strip_exif()/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-132668970.jpg",
"type": "image"
}
],
"summary": "The battle for advertising dollars in the lucrative Indian Premier League has been ramped up.",
"template_type": null,
"dm_custom_section_label": null,
"elements": [],
"seo": {
"search_title": "How India’s richest man is using ‘brain mapping’ neuroscience to woo advertisers to cricket",
"search_description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After striking an $8.5-billion media merger with Walt Disney, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is targeting small businesses and promoting unconventional neuroscience s",
"social_title": "How India’s richest man is using ‘brain mapping’ neuroscience to woo advertisers to cricket",
"social_description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After striking an $8.5-billion media merger with Walt Disney, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is targeting small businesses and promoting unconventional neuroscience s",
"social_image": ""
},
"cached": true,
"access_allowed": true
} 
Heinrich Klaasen of Sunrisers Hyderabad is bowled by Harshit Rana of Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2024 IPL final at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on 26 May. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)
Nita Ambani (left), actor Aamir Khan, actress Preity Zinta and Mukesh Ambani watch the 2011 ICC World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 2 April. (Photo: Matthew Lewis / Getty Images)
Venkatesh Iyer of Kolkata Knight Riders plays a shot during the IPL final against Sunrisers Hyderabad at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on 26 May 2024. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)
Venkatesh Iyer of Kolkata Knight Riders plays a shot against Sunrisers Hyderabad during the IPL final at on 26 May 2024. (Photo: Pankaj Nangia / Getty Images)