Fall in the TRP rating, lack of the sponsors, dropping ad rates--- Broadcasters in India are going through a phase of difficulties in the post IPL days---reports Cricket360.

With Indian Premier League making its debut this year, the meaning of entertainment has changed for ever. The way televisions used to make money from ads also has changed. Thanks to IPL, Indian TV audience has found its blockbuster hit right at their living rooms. The extravaganza called twenty-20 matches have 40-50% higher viewership than an ODI match. Then Twenty-20 matches draw more female viewership than any other type of live cricket matches. Cricket has now more female viewers than before, thanks to the glamour and glitz of 20-twenty cricket.

Cricketers are happy with IPL and the big money and fame that it brings with. Audiences are happy with the entire package of sports and entertainment. The television broadcasters were also very very happy during the tournament but post IPL they are the most disappointed lot. In the post IPL days, Indian television audience does not find any sport as nearly exciting as twenty-20 matches. The India-South Africa tournament at the beginning of the year gave a good start for the television broadcasters. But the slump started just as IPL tournament came to an end; other cricket tournaments in the post IPL days did miserably in drawing TRPs. And the broadcasters started losing advertising revenues.

Here is a little piece of stat to make it clear how the other cricket tournaments lost their values in the eyes of the sponsors and advertisers. By airing the IPL tournament SET Max was reported to earn about Rs.3 billion from advertisers; their ten-second slots were sold for nearly Rs.300,000 and the figure doubled up for the  semifinals and final matches. Now compare this with the price drop in the post IPL days. During the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh Tri series, the ten seconds slots on Neo Sports were sold for as little as Rs.175,000-180,000. Then during the Asia Cup ESPN STAR Sports could manage to sell their ten seconds slots for Rs.120,000-Rs 150,000, in place of Rs 200,000 to Rs.250,000 demanded by the channel.

 

The advertisers simply declined and the channel had to settle for lesser. Now Ten sports, the official broadcaster of the India-Sri Lanka series has managed to fish out just five sponsors each for Rs.60-80 million and sell the ad slots for Rs.180,000.

All the channels agree on one point: the Indian Premier League breathed in novelty and glamour in cricket and took domestic cricket to a different level.

 

With Champion’s Trophy shifted to 2009, the broadcasters are looking forward to forthcoming India Australia Series. Broadcasters fear that advertisers won’t come up with a very fat budget as IPL. In that case the traditional cricket tournaments are going to face tough competition in the upcoming days. Now it is the audience’s turn to wait and see what innovations the broadcasters introduce to woo the advertisers.

Let’s hope for a hotter version of Mandira Bedi…..   

Comments

Add New RSS

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

Newer news items:

Older news items: