Come April 18 and the advertisers will have compelling reasons for diverting their advertising budget from other television channels to Set Max - the host broadcaster of the Indian Premier League (IPL) - for the Twenty20 format cricket tournament promoted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
But are the advertisers ready to take the IPL gamble as opposed to popular entertainment channels like Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony TV and others that give them both ratings and viewership? Media planners give a balanced view on this.
According to the IPL schedule, a bulk of the 59 matches will be played during the 7 pm-10 pm prime time television band that currently attracts advertising money worth over Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) between Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony TV and other entertainment channels.
Additionally, the advertisers are banking on the captive reach of IPL through Set Max to about 80 per cent of the 76 million cable homes.
Together, the 59 IPL matches played for 44 consecutive days will generate over 177 hours of live cricket action. This, advertisers said, may give them a good reason to divert their ad-budget from the existing entertainment channels to Set Max. But media planners have a different take on the IPL.
Said Vikram Sakhuja, Chief Executive of GroupM India, the country's largest media agency: "The whole power of IPL lies in the fact that it will differentiate vanilla advertising from brand sponsorship. It brings great sponsorship opportunities and as in the case of Olympics, all brands that feel that IPL is an extension of values, will want to pay the premium to be a part of the whole exercise."
On Set Max, the advertisers will have about 35 hours of advertising spots (each ad-spot is for 10 seconds) for the first IPL tournament with fixed on-air sponsors.
Going by the industry buzz, Set Max has already finalised three more associate sponsors in Nokia, Hero Honda and Coca-Cola, apart from Vodafone (presenting sponsor) and Hyundai Motors (associate sponsor).
"Two more associate sponsors will come in shortly so that we will have six associate sponsors and one presenting sponsor," a senior Sony TV executive said.
While Vodafone is said to have paid Rs 30-32 crore (Rs 300-320 million), the six associate sponsors will pay about Rs 22-24 crore (Rs 220-240 million) each for being the exclusive advertisers for that category.
Explaining the benefits of being the on-air advertiser on Set Max, Vivek Srivastava, Joint MD, Innocean Worldwide India, the in-house advertising arm of Hyundai Motors, said: "With Hyundai as the associate sponsor, we will be ensured that no other four-wheeler brand will get to advertise during the IPL matches. All associate sponsors will get 200 seconds during each match and that will help us deliver focused messages to the viewers."
Set Max has said it will pocket about Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) from the IPL tournament. Going by the industry rates, the broadcaster will earn about Rs 180 crore (Rs 1.8 billion) from fixed on-air sponsors while the rest should come from spot sales.
But currently, the 10-second ad-spot rates for Set Max are in the range of Rs 250,000-290,000. At this rate, the broadcaster will be able to add another Rs 64 crore (Rs 640 million) taking the tally to Rs 244 crore (Rs 2.44 billion), Rs 56 crore (Rs 560 million) short of its target. But a senior Sony TV executive is confident that as the tournament goes on, the ad-spot rates will shoot up to Rs 600,000-800,000, and thereby they will touch Rs 300 crore (Rs 8 billion).
But media buyers are sceptical at such a huge escalation. According to senior media planners, each IPL match will offer about 200 ten seconds advertising spots on Set Max, of which about 160 such spots will go to the sponsors.
"Unless, a company buys 10-12 ad-spots on 20-25 IPL matches, the advertising message will not have its desired impact on the consumers. Will I advise my clients to stop advertising on Star Plus or Zee TV in favour of Set Max? Of course not! But I will tell them to buy spots if Set Max gets a consistent higher ratings," said a senior media buyer.
The Sony Entertainment Television-World Sports Group (WSG) combine bagged the 10-year telecast rights for IPL at a whopping Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion). And ad-revenue target of Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) in the first year will mean a shortfall of about 33 per cent in the first year.
But Sony executives feel that as the IPL fever catches on, the advertisers will start spending big from second year onwards that will help the channel fill the gap in revenue.
With inputs from Suvi Dogra
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