The sports channel is set to score heavily as advertisers queue up for the twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.
This Twenty20 extravaganza is less than a month away. And if you thought advertisers have had enough of cricket after the Indian Premier League (IPL), think again.
India’s leading companies are in a rush to book space for the third edition of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup due to start in the West Indies on April 30, and broadcaster ESPN Star Sports is laughing all the way to the bank as the T20 version of cricket is becoming more firmly entrenched with each lucrative swing of the bat.
The sports channel had paid $1.1 billion in 2006 to acquire the telecast rights of all ICC matches till 2015.
R C Venkateish, managing director of ESPN Software, says “Cricket is on a major upswing and we have had tremendous response from advertisers.” He has reasons to be on cloud nine. The channel has already sold over 75 per cent of its inventory for all the 37 matches spread over 17 days. Venkateish says he expects to net Rs350-400 crore (55 per cent more than that of last year) in advertisement revenues. Though that’s half of what Sony Set Max has got from IPL, the fact is ICC T20 will have less than half the number of matches and the tournament is spread over only 17 days compared to IPL’s 45.
The two big cricketing events (IPL3 and ICC T20) will generate over Rs 1,200 crore worth of ads, which is over 12 per cent of the total advertising spend of Rs 9.800 crore on television this year. And if you look at what advertisers are expected to spend on sports programmes (around Rs 2,000 crore), 60 per cent of it will be consumed by these two tournaments.
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Though the World Cup matches are not going to be on prime time like IPL, ESPN has already sold a bulk of its advertisement inventory for Rs 3-3.5 lakh for 10-second spots. And that rate, Venkateish says, is 30 per cent more than last year’s.
The response has prompted ESPN not to sell its entire inventory and keep at least 10-15 per cent stock which will be sold when the matches are on. Venkateish says he would easily get a hefty premium for this inventory and sell them at Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
Advertisers of course have different reasons to get hooked on to the Twenty-20 format of cricket. For example, Coca-Cola may have invested heavily in IPL apart from sponsoring teams like the Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders, but the cola giant also knows it cannot ignore the World Cup. “For us, Bollywood and cricket are the two key mediums through which we connect to our consumers. That is why we will buy advertising space in the World Cup too,” says a spokesperson of Coca-Cola India.
Even Videocon, which has been amongst the top three advertisers on IPL, sees a huge opportunity in the World Cup. “We are in talks for associate sponsorship for T20 World Cup. We spend around Rs 50 crore on cricket sponsorships and advertisements out of our total ad budget of Rs 300 crore,” says Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot.
Though the channel is still tightlipped on who the co-presenting sponsors are, the buzz is that Hero Honda, Paras Pharmaceuticals and Tata Teleservices are in talks with ESPN. The channel has already signed on Intel and Maruti as associate sponsors. Talks are on with others including Videocon.
Sam Balsara, chairman of Madison Media, says “IPL ad rates are much higher compared to the T20 World Cup and companies, which could not advertise extensively during the IPL season, will use this opportunity to target the audience.”
The key thing, media experts say, is that T20 is delivering the eyeballs. Farokh Balsara, entertainment analyst with Ernst & Young, says, “Even if the ad rates are expensive, advertisers seem to be happy with the delivery”.
| TWENTY20 CRICKET: GRABBING EYEBALLS | ||
| Indian Premier League 2010 (on SET Max) | ICC Twenty20 World 2010 (on ESPN Star Sports) | |
| Bulk ad rates before commencement of tournament (per 10 seconds) | Rs 4.5 lakh | Rs 3- 3.5 lakh |
| Intermediate ad rates (per seconds) | Rs 6 lakh | Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh |
| Rates for last-minute sales (per 10 seconds) | Over Rs 10 lakh | Not yet decided |
| Expected ad revenues | Rs 700 crore | Rs 350 to Rs 400 crore |
| Number of matches | 60 | 27 |
| Number of days that the tournament is on air | 45.00 | 17.00 |
Tarun Singh Chauhan, executive director, Lowe Lintas India, agrees: “The T20 format has caught on in terms of grabbing more eyeballs. So, this would continue to be a good platform irrespective of increasing ad rates.”
Some media buying and advertising agencies however aren’t sure whether paying such huge money makes sense. EDM G Parameshwaran, executive director of FCB Ulka Advertising, says “I think the pricing for advertising time is expensive. The interesting thing about T20 will be the viewership of non-India matches which can throw some light on whether such high rates are justified or not. But T20 India matches will see more viewership than even IPL”.
That, however, isn’t much of a concern for ESPN Star as T20’s instant gratification of flash and flourish is tough to beat.
With contributions from Swarup Chakraborty & Pradipta Mukherjee