BCCI has lessons to learn from ICL errors

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first season of ICL kicked off on November 30, 2007 in Chandigarh, and media analysts say poor home cable penetration of the Zee Sports channel translated into poor viewership and advertising for ICL.

According to aMap, a television ratings agency, the online ratings of the first three ICL matches and even the combined ratings of all the 25-odd Zee channels for the first hour of the ICL tournament failed to attract significant viewership, with the average time spent on the channels being just eight minutes. The first three T-20 matches played on November 30 and December 1 generated peak ratings of only 0.5 on Zee Sports despite aggressive promotions and appearances by film personalities.

The maximum combined ratings for the first 30 minutes of the third match between Mumbai Champs and Hyderabad Heroes was 1.0. But this was because of the match being available across all the 28 Zee network channels. The stand-alone rating on Zee Sports for this match was 0.2. According to analysts, these ratings are the worst in recent times for any important cricket tournament held this year involving Indian cricketers.

So what really went wrong with ICL?

Says Harish Bijoor, renowned brand consultant, “The country is not very kind to interests or new formats, be it sports or in any other arena. A tried and tested formula is always preferred to something which entails taking risks. It is the day and age of connected commerce where connectivity and networking result in success.”

Bijoor feels that ICL did not succeed “because it is not just about getting stars and parading them at an event. It is about having the ability to garner business. The coffers of BCCI are deeper than that of any other sports entity in India, and this is one of the driving factors for its success. The operations of IPL have a deeper degree of commitment and follow a structured format.”