Neo to score big from Pak series

It's going to be one of the biggest money-spinners on TV. Neo Sports is hoping to net Rs 250 crore from the upcoming Indo-Pak cricket series. The official broadcaster of the series that starts on November 5 has already raked in Rs 160 crore by selling ad slots for the five one-day internationals alone. There are three test matches as well.

The broadcaster has till date sold commercial time for the series as a package (Neo Sports and Doordarshan) at a rate of Rs 3.5-3.75 lakh for a 10-second slot. Company executives said that 85 per cent of Neo's advertising inventory has been sold as a Neo-DD package. Which means that advertisements will be shown on both the channels.

However, surrogate advertisers "� like liquor brand Bacardi "� have bought slots on Neo alone. A 10-second slot on Neo has been sold at around Rs 2 lakh.

"With nearly 82 per cent of the inventory already sold, we are hoping to sell the balance at around Rs 4.5 lakh (for a 10-second slot on Neo and DD together), while advertisers wanting to come on board with only Neo will have to pay around Rs 2.7 lakh," said Shashi Kalathil, CEO, Neo Sports Broadcast. He added that the broadcasters chose not to sell ad slots on DD alone because it would bring down rates.

On the other hand, media buying agencies are hoping that Neo is able to boost its distribution and reach.

"During the India-Australia series, around 25 per cent of the television viewership ratings in cable and satellite homes came from Neo while the major chunk was contributed by DD. This is one of the reasons that advertisers have had to buy Neo and DD together. Else, advertisers would buy spots on Neo alone," said Basabdatta Choudhuri, CEO, Madison Media.