Disney Star-backed Pro Kabaddi League makes ₹2 crore profit after a decade

Mashal Sports Private Ltd, a subsidiary of Disney Star that owns the league, posted a profit of ₹2 crore in FY23, according to company filings with the ministry of corporate affairs accessed via business intelligence platform Tofler.

Mashal Sports turned profitable after consistent losses till FY22. That year, it had a net loss of ₹8.6 crore. In FY21, the loss was ₹22 crore.

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Disney Star picked up the media rights of PKL for five years at the base price of ₹900 crore in 2021 as the sole bidder. Last year, at the central level, the franchise-based league had sponsors such as Dream11, Roff, UltraTech Cements and Patanjali. The 12 teams also had marquee brands as principal sponsors.

According to the filings, viewership in season nine rose on streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar in terms of both unique viewers – a 43% increase – and overall watch time, which climbed 24% from season eight.

Other than Star's 74% stake in Mashal, industrialist Anand Mahindra and sports commentator Charu Sharma own 11.7% each, while the remainder is with law firm Lex & Legal Services.

Broadcast vs online

Anupam Goswami, CEO of Mashal Sports and league commissioner, told Mint the company is the largest league outside of the Indian Premier League. He said there has been growth in viewership, citing data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.

In season 10, its most recently concluded one, PKL had a cumulative reach of 245 million viewers, growing 10% over the ninth season’s 222 million. In the eighth season, the figure was 189 million. Cumulative reach is the number of people watching an event across a defined time period.

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"We compare well with other forms of cricket outside the IPL as well. The business model for monetisation that we use, and our critical numbers (of audiences) are very much there for everyone to see. Broadcast will be an important way forward for our league and some of the others for some time before new media comes in. Consumption of sports online is growing very fast, but all of us – including teams – will have to learn what new media means for sports in India," Goswami said.

 

Disney Star's ownership has meant the league has been able to stay afloat even after nine lossmaking years.

"Yes, they are important (to us) to the extent that media rights are crucial in the formation years. In the emerging years of a league, media rights become very important for the revenue of a sports franchise. Sports also gets modernised when you have a strong media partner," he said.

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The tournament’s core following has traditionally been in tier 2 and 3 cities, apart from rural areas. But Goswami argues that Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh lead the way in terms of viewership, with at least two of these states high in the index of urbanisation.

"Madhya Pradesh seems to be working well too, even though we don't have a team there," he said.

Among the teams, Jaipur Pink Panthers has actor Abhishek Bachchan as owner. There are also U Mumba, Bengaluru Bulls, Dabang Delhi KC, Puneri Paltans, and Telugu Titans. Bengal Warriors and Patna Pirates are also popular teams. 

Tendulkar, Adani

The league added four teams in its fifth season in 2017 including Haryana Steelers, Tamil Thalaivas from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat Giants and UP Yoddhas. Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar formerly co-owned Tamil Thalaivas. UP Yoddhas is owned by the GMR group. Gujarat Giants is owned by Gautam Adani's Adani Sportsline. Patna Pirates is the most successful team, having won the title thrice.

However, Goswami pointed out that while the league has performed well, the sport of kabaddi overall has not grown for the past 7-8 years. India hosted the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup, its third edition, organised by the International Kabaddi Federation in Ahmedabad that year with 12 teams coming in.

"We have to recapture some of that momentum for the entire sport to grow," he added.

A recent report by GroupM titled, ‘Sporting Nation: Building a Legacy,’ said there was significant growth in the country's sports industry, and spending reached ₹15,766 crore ($1.9 billion) in 2023, marking a compounded annual growth rate of 13%. But it was the IPL that dominated this spending, absorbing ₹13,701 crore, or 87% of the total investment.