Shorter slots have advertisers craving for more T20 matches

Television advertisers are hooked on to the T20 cricket format and they are willing to pay a premium whenever the next such match is held. And the success of the Indian team is not the only reason for this attraction.

"The T20 as a format has less clutter than one-day internationals in terms of advertisements," explains Meenakshi Madhvani, managing partner of media audit agency Spatial Access. "There is a maximum of 60 seconds available for advertising airtime between overs. This means a maximum of two 30-second slots. In the 50-over-a-side match, this gap is extended to three minutes with six slots." Another reason advertisers feel there's more bang for their bucks in the quicker format of the game is that since the gap between the overs is short and the game is more fast-paced, viewers do not feel the need to switch channels, even during the break.

Broadcasters, too, have taken note of this trend, and could charge advertisers a premium for slots in T20 matches, over and above that for ODIs, Madhvani said.

Television ratings, which indicate the level of TV audiences, also confirm that the T20 World Cup drew more eyeballs than the ODI World Cup earlier in the year. Companies such as Reliance Communications, one of the prime sponsors of the T20 World Cup, is excited about sponsoring more of these matches.

TAM Media Research registered a 4.11 per cent rating for the India-Bangladesh first round match in the ICC one-day World Cup that was telecast on Sony Max.

The television ratings for matches against Bermuda and Sri Lanka in the first round were 4.14 per cent and 5.30 per cent, respectively.

But the semi-final match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand had a rating of just 0.95 per cent and the other semi-final between South Africa and Australia had 1.34 per cent.

During the T20 World Cup, the rating during the semi-final between India and Australia shot up to 23.2. The average rating for the match telecast on ESPN was also a high 17.9 per cent, according to data provided by the sports channel.

Sanjay Behl, head of brand and marketing, Reliance Communications, attributes the success of the T20 tournament to India's outstanding performance as well as the timings of the matches. "The media efficiency of shorter slots provided good return on investment. However, returns in quantitative terms would be difficult to ascertain so early," Behl said. Reliance created exclusive communication for the T20 series. This is the first time that Reliance seriously associated itself with cricket after the 1987 Reliance Cup.

Asked whether Reliance would be interested in sponsoring more T20s than ODIs, Behl maintained that since there weren't many T20 tournaments scheduled yet, ODIs would remain important for advertisers.

Other long-term ICC sponsors, Pepsi and Hero Honda, feel that since their sponsorship was with the ICC and not with any particular form of cricket or tournament, the new format would not make much of a difference to their return on investments.