Has cricket lost its appeal for viewers?

Viewership is down but channels have tided over this with new show formats - the issue is whether advertisers get the best bang for the buck.

Gopinath Menon,
Vice President (Media) TBWA India

From a high of 25 some years ago in a Bangalore match, TRPs are around 7-8 today "" the returns on cricket are falling

Amidst all the talk of the Indian economy booming, the two core variables used most often by communication specialists like advertising agencies to describe the 'changing Indian media landscape' are cricket and Bollywood. Since these two categories use up the most emotional energy of the average Indian, it's important to dwell a bit on one of these at a time when we are going into the biggest cricket carnival in less than two weeks.

Cricket has had a tremendous lineage in India, but the game really started to evolve in the late nineties. Commercialism came up in a big way and so did big investments. Investments in technology played a major role in bringing the game to all of us in a very interesting and novel format. Broadcasting rights became big business. Marketers supported the cause and in the process, advertising became an important lifeline to make all this happen. The main revenue streams in cricket were title rights, property rights and broadcasting rights.

Advertising agencies then began telling clients about the need to be associated with the sport over the long term and hence to generate synergies for the brand from the game. This resulted in many brands creating cricket-specific spots and running them during matches. Historically, cricket was dominated by five-six product categories, namely, soft drinks, automobiles, two wheelers, cell phone service providers, financial services and consumer electronics brands. This resulted in the category getting reactive and cricket was the big leveller here. Cricket became the platform to send signals to the retail trade, rivals and the sales force. A company using cricket as a vehicle to promote its brand was seen as a company making a concerted effort in marketing.

But too much of anything is not good and that is evident from the way the television viewership of cricket has evolved. In the late '90s and early 2000s it was normal to get very high ratings for a one-day game featuring India. The ratings have been dropping ever since, because there is too much of cricket happening. Secondly, the passionate euphoria accompanying an India vs Pakistan match has disappeared "" some years ago, the TRPs touched 25 in a Bangalore match as compared to around 7-8 today. There is also a big difference in TRPs for a match featuring India and one that does not (7 versus 2 in 2006), and between Tests and ODIs (a difference of around half in TRPs).

Media owners with broadcast rights, however, continue to have a ball and are making more money from each TRP today than they used to many years ago. As viewership has dropped from a TRP of over 25 about 10 years ago to about an average of 7-8 now, the advertising value has only increased "" indeed, the number of advertisers has risen from 287 in 2004 to 324 in 2006. Today there is an average of over 4,500 seconds of commercial time per ODI, and this is a problem of plenty that the networks are facing. To resolve this, they have created many more properties like Third Umpire, Big Toss, Action Replay, Master Blaster, Safe Hands, and so on. This is limitless and if you have a brand willing to park big money, you can create a property as per the proposition of the brand.

All of this makes you wonder who is milking whom. The viewer is not bothered, the media owner has invested heavily for the rights over a long period of time. At the end of the day, it is the marketer who is buying audiences who are getting more expensive with every match. Currently, we have about 180 days of cricket happening every year and this is likely to go up to over 200 days as I am told that the India vs Australia series alone is to go up to over 65 days! So why isn't anyone complaining? The reasons are very simple. First, demand exceeds supply since the manager of Brand X feels he should get a slot before his competitor does. Most importantly, the brand manager accountable for taking the key decision moves over to greener pastures before the annual review is due! The real suckers are people like you and me who pay 10 per cent more for that snack or soft drink as it is advertised on cricket.

Manish Porwal,
Managing Director (India, West & South) Starcom

Cricket-loaded plans ensure faster reach, and many new formats offer a good reach at a fraction of the cost of live games

Debates are often well poised and balanced between two views. Something tells me that my opponent, in this case, has got a raw deal. He has to endorse something, which may require several caveats and defensive statements. If he can prove the point, even if limited, some of the best brands in this country need to learn a new game. To me, if cricket was important in yesteryears, it is far more relevant today.  Cricket is no longer just a (bored) man's pastime. Numbers reveal that cricket has gone up as a genre amongst women and children, where soaps have gone down as a choice for men. Mandira and Fourth Umpire at work?  While the viewership of top saas bahu shows (erstwhile soaps) is going down by at least 10 per cent year-on-year, cricket has held its ground. Even the TRPs of top reality/format shows such as KBC, Indian Idol, Koffee with Karan, Nach Baliye and others have fallen as they move from one innings to the next.  Cricket is about engagement and not just exposure. Women once thoroughly engaged with serials "" emulating Kaumolika's bindis and leading agitations on Mihir's 'screen' death. People have engaged similarly with cricket. As cliched as it may sound, cricket is a religion in this country. Among men, cricket TRPs of 8 are not just the same as TRPs of 8 from soaps. In any case, there is no channel or vehicle that is truly national; cricket is. Just for clarity, Star Plus is, at best, a 'North-West-East' channel. If one compares ratings of any program with cricket, it should be done for the whole country and not just for a part.  Cricket is not expensive: not just yet. For a new copy or brand and if one is talking of men and women, live India cricket-loaded plans give a comparable overall and a much better 'early' reach at the same cost, vis-à-vis a regular plan. Sure, the latter can give a 3-4 per cent greater reach over eight weeks, but do brands/copies have that patience anymore? What about the 'impact' to compensate? If you are comparing Cost per Rating Points (CPRPs) "" which live cricket may not be able to generate "" other facets and opportunities of cricket will.  If the brand is only interested in garnering gross rating points(GRPs) or recall, Extra Cover and Fourth Umpire give 30-40 per cent of the live ratings at one-tenth the cost, being the most exciting CPRP buys one can get.  Another important thing to keep in mind is that of invisible coverage: in India, where less than 70 per cent households have a television set, there is a lot of viewership from non-TV households as well. People do not gather in office conference rooms to watch the shoot-out of Ansh by Tulsi (from one of Balaji Telefilms' soaps). They, however, do watch a match's last few balls together. That, of course, is not even metered.  It is also a lot easier to be on cricket today than ever before. Once upon a time, cricket belonged to large stake-holders like the Pepsi-Cokes, the Hero Honda-TVSes and the Samsung-LGs of the world. You needed 10-12 spots a match to get off the mark. Today, a cheeky copy makes good impact even with five spots. Unlike other programmes, cricket has the ability to extend beyond TV.  Also, industries traditionally using cricket advertising are doing better than those who don't. As traditional 'soapy' FMCGs pull the Sensex down, cellular phone firms, soft drink majors and car and bike companies are doing much better.  In conclusion, no one is saying that it's cricket or nothing. Too much of anything, including wine and milk, is bad for health. Also, wine for children and milk for grown-ups, do not work all that well. Cricket is good in a vehicle mix for most brands but not necessarily all. It may call for a special creative and media strategy and may require push-up or push-down campaign dates to make more sense. But sense cricket does make!