Comes June and world’s top twelve cricket teams will be seen vying for the topper’s crown in the shortest format of cricket. Last time it was in South Africa, this year it is England which is going to host the second edition of T-20 world championship. While world’s fiercest cricket teams will hit the pitch from June 5 to 21 to prove their excellence in the rock and roll version of cricket, the action packed drama will be directly brought to your television screen by ESPN STAR Sports.

While audience catches up yet another twenty-20 drama unfolding on their television screen, ESPN runs all the way to bank after hoarding up huge profits from the ad revenues.

Here is what it has already gained by selling airtime at 45% premium - a whopping Rs 225 crore and that is also for 90% of its on-air advertising inventory. The revenues for rest ten percent are yet to be assessed. This year, the channel is charging some Rs 3.25 lakh for10-second slots, which is straight 45% jump from previous year’s price.

Meanwhile, the competitor, Sony SET MAX is busy making profits in South Africa. IPL’s official broadcaster Sony SET MAX is expected to make around Rs 400 crore in advertising revenues alone. As goes the inside news, the IPL broadcaster managed to squeeze out around Rs 4 lakh for ten seconds slots for the latter stages of the league. And with over 70 million viewers having watched the first 12 matches of IPL Season 2 on SET MAX so far, the advertisers are visibly happy with the kind of viewership, which is about 10 per cent more than IPL Season 1 for the same number of matches, confirms the ratings agencies aMap and TAM.

While IPL is a 36 day affair, the June event is going to last for just sixteen days. But last year, it managed to draw some 90 million viewers to ESPN STAR Sports channel for watching the clashes over twenty-20 world title. This year, the broadcaster has already signed 10 heavyweight advertisers that include the brands like Hero Honda, Maruti, Pepsi, Nokia, Hewlett Packard, Perfetti and Visa. While there will be three co-presenting on-air sponsors, seven will feature as associate sponsors. The fact that India is the defending champion of the Twenty20 World Cup makes it easier for the sports channel to lure the advertisers with the promise of a larger Indian audience for this year’s show.  

“The inaugural edition of the ICC T20 World Cup caught the imagination of cricket fans across the globe. We expect the second edition to do even better and the advertiser response has been very positive till date,” an ESPN STAR Sports spokesperson was quoted saying.

As confirms Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media, advertisers today are very keen on putting stakes on Twenty-20 version of cricket. However, they are also apprehensive of the unpredictability of English weather and the time gap between two countries that may affect the telecast time back in India. As per Indian timing, most of the matches will begin at 10 pm. If the Indian side can make it up to final, then it will play a maximum of seven matches. And anything less than final means a minimum of five matches. The two group matches of India are however scheduled for June 6 and June 10.

The eight teams are divided into four groups and India is in ‘Group A’ with Bangladesh and Ireland.  Two toppers in each group- that is total six teams- will move to the second stage of the tournament. These will pick up the top four, which will meet at the semi finals. The Lord’s will host the final match on June 21.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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