Sport - Cricket broadcasts suffer post IPL

Cricketing properties this year have been disappointing for sports broadcasters and the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to postpone the Champions Trophy to next year will further add to the misery.

Even though the India-South Africa tournament, at the start of 2008, did reasonably well for Neo Sports, post the DLF-sponsored Indian Premier League, all other cricket tournaments have suffered in terms of advertising revenues and viewership.

To begin with, the ten-seconds ad slots for the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh series on Neo Sports were sold in the range of Rs 1.75-1.8 lakh (Neo and DD combined), according to media buying companies.

This trend remained in tact for the Asia Cup 2008, which was aired on ESPN STAR Sports. The channel was able to sign on just four sponsors — Bharti Airtel and Havells as co-presenters, and Future Group and Maruti as associate sponsors. The ten-second spots were sold between Rs 1.2-Rs 1.5 lakh.

However, both channels had demanded Rs 2 to Rs 2.5 lakh for ten seconds, which did not go down well with advertisers and had to eventually settle for less, said sources.

On the contrary, the IPL property earned SET Max about Rs 300 crore from advertisers with the ten-second spots being sold for nearly Rs 3 lakh and the semifinals and final for nearly 6-7 lakh.

“The IPL had a lot of buzz around it for its novelty and the property delivered. Any cricketing property after a big-ticket event like IPL is bound to suffer,” said Shubha George, MD, Group M. Media sources added that if it wasn’t for IPL, the other cicket tournaments would have commanded at least 20 per cent higher ad rates.

Added Basabdatta Chowdhiri, CEO of Madisson Media, “The verdict on the twenty overs format is out, the ODI format is what is under discussion.”

The official broadcaster of the India-Sri Lanka tournament, Ten Sports, has also managed to rope in just five sponsors - Idea Cellular (title and co-presenting), Hero Honda (co-presenting), LG, Maruti, Viacom 18’s channel Colors each for Rs 6-8 crore, while the ad slots have been sold for about Rs 1.8 lakh.

“There is too much cricket happening and with the Olympics, ad rates for the India-Sri Lanka tournament were affected. However, we are awaiting the TAM ratings,” said Rukin Kizilbash, general manager, Taj Television India, promoter of Ten Sports.

With the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled for next year, media buyers feel that the spends will be diverted towards India-Australia to be telecast on Neo Spots in October.

“India-Australia series have attracted a lot of attention in recent times. We are certain that advertisers will line up,” said Abhishek Verma, head-marketing & communications, Neo Sports Broadcast. Following the India-Australia series is the India-England tournament in November-December.

While ESPN STAR Sports executives say it would not lose advertising revenue due to the postponement of ICC Champions Trophy, media experts feel that the broadcaster will have a tough time selling the property next year as three major properties - BCCI’s DLF IPL, the Champions League, ICC World Twenty20 - are also slated during the period.

“Budgets are limited and advertisers will have to make a choice. DLF IPL has taken cricket to a different level. Other properties in 2009 will have to compete,” said Nirvik Singh, president-Southeast Asia, Grey Global Group.