Advertisers hope for turnaround
THE MARKET IS ALSO RESPONDING CAUTIOUSLY TO THE NEXT TWO EVENTS INVOLVING INDIA
MUMBAI: Indian cricket and advertising make an inseparable duo, but the back-to-back winless series in South Africa and New Zealand has left advertisers wary.
Though Sony Six, the rights holder in the recently-concluded India-New Zealand series, is happy with the numbers market analysts feel the broadcaster was not able to monetise the property.
The channel had pitched 10-second advertisement spots at `1.4 lakh for the One-dayers and `25-30,000 for Test matches, but advertisers brought down the One-day figures to `65,00070,000 where as Test slots sold at `25,000, which otherwise go for `65,000.
“We got the rights at the last moment from Neo so didn’t have the time to monetise it, then the matches were beamed early in the morning, hence advertisers were lukewarm”, a source told the Hindustan Times.
The market is also responding cautiously to the next two tournaments involving India — Asia Cup and ICC World T20 Championship, both being hosted in Bangladesh and for which Star India holds the rights.
Unlike New Zealand, timing is not an issue, it is the performance of the team that has left advertisers sceptical. According to industry findings, Star is pitching `1.8 lakh for 10-second ad spots for the Asia Cup, whereas for the ICC World T20 there is a premium rate of `4 lakh.
After acquiring rights for the Asia Cup and the ICC event till 2015, Star is hopeful of a turnaround in India’s performance.
“Winning and losing are part of the game. When we buy telecast rights we know there is a risk of your team losing at some stage, it is factored in. We have got a very good response from the market for both the tournaments so far. And since series are often sold in advance, the performance factor largely doesn’t hit our revenue,” said Nitin Kukreja, head of Star Sports.
Pratik Rathod, senior investment director at Maxis, a mediaplanning group, concurred. “India’s away performances and timing of matches affect advertisers, but in the sub-continent wickets, where India often perform well, advertisers show a lot of interest. Two big IndiaPakistan games — in the Asia Cup and World T20 have drawn a big response from the market. Let’s hope India do well to win back the advertisers’ confidence”.
There is good news for Sony Six, the IPL broadcaster, with no risk involved in the favourite team crashing out. “With the IPL coming up next, advertisers keep a separate budget for it. Also, the low-risk and high-visibility factor adds up to the enormous interest even though at the cost of paying `5 lakh for a 10-second spot,” said another media planner.