The second edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), a 20-20 over format tournament organised by Indian cricket board, is still over a month away. But Set Max, the host broadcaster of IPL, has already sold over 50 per cent of the 45-day tournament's advertisement airtime.
"Yes, we have sold about 50 per cent of our airtime for IPL. But I cannot share any details at this juncture," said Rohit Gupta, president, network sales of Multiscreen Media, the company that runs Set Max among other channels.
The 50 per cent sale, according to Multiscreen Media (formerly Sony Entertainment Television) executives, has already ensured Rs 200 crore of advertising revenue from the tournament, which kickstarts on April 10.
However, Sony had generated over Rs 500 crore as advertising revenue from the much-successful first edition.
Confronted with the slowdown in advertising, media planners say the broadcaster has now dropped airtime rates for the first 17 matches of the total of 59 games, offering a discount of around 18 per cent at Rs 3.25 lakh for a 10-second slot-over what has been paid by the main sponsors for the entire tournament.
Set Max has roped in the country's leading mobile services providers Vodafone and Airtel as the co-presenting sponsors, while Pepsi, Max New York Life, Havells India and Hyundai have been selected as the associate sponsors.
The broadcaster is said to be in talks with handset major Nokia and Korean electronic major LG for the associate sponsorship slots, industry sources said.
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Corporates who have already bought airtime say that Set Max has offered them the airtime for Rs 4 lakh for a 10-second slot and a 10-15% discount to those who have bought in volumes.
"The rate is virtually double of what we paid last year, because we had done agreements before the tournament started and no one had a clue how it would do," says the senior executive of a leading multinational consumer services company, which has locked a deal with Sony.
The executive points out that this year, however, armed with good ratings for the matches, Sony has asked for a premium. "But with the slowdown, many corporates who spend last year will keep away. So, Sony faces the challenge; whether they want to sell 80-85 per cent of their airtime without dropping prices, or do they want to drop the price, which will make the earlier sponsors demand the same."
Media buyers, however, say that Set Max in order to avoid such a situation has dropped airtime only for the first 17 matches.
Obviously, viewership of the matches in the second half would be higher and it is possible for the broadcaster to charge advertisers a premium of even Rs 4 lakh.
Last year, for instance, Sony started selling 10-minute slots for Rs 2 lakh in the initial stages but started charging over Rs 4 lakh during the later part of the tournament when it became a runaway success.
However, advertisers such as Nokia and LG are said to be negotiating hard for the associate sponsorship spots. "Obviously, companies are asking for a bigger pound of flesh by spending rationally. The slowdown has impacted the advertising budgets of most big-spenders," says Anita Nayyar, chief executive officer, MPG India, the media-buying arm of Havas Media.
The last edition of IPL had generated nearly Rs 300 crore of advertising revenue from 8-10 sponsors, while the sale of advertising spots generated another Rs 175 to Rs 200 crore for Sony. However, media planners are not sure if the IPL's second season will be able to meet the benchmark of last year.
"Big advertising spenders like Reliance ADA group have already pulled out of the IPL. The impact of the slowdown on advertising spends is clearly visible," said a senior media planner, requesting anonymity.