The broadcasting deal between Indian Premier League (IPL II), Multi Screen Media (MSM) and World Sport Group (WSG) has facilitated the channel to earn more than Rs 350 crore, say experts. This is due to the revenue-sharing model between the broadcaster and franchisees and the increase in the advertising spends.
Experts view that BCCI is estimated to earn around Rs 400 crore profits in IPL IIas against Rs 300 crore last year. Rajesh Jain, executive director, head, (information, communication & development), KPMG said, ?IPL this year has definitely done well in terms of Rs 8,200-crore broadcasting deal between BCCI, MSM-WSG for nine years. A broadcaster relies on subscription revenues for earning profits. This year there were 9-14 sponsors for various teams and with increasing ad spends, IPL II had a good business for the tournament. IPL II was an year of innovation and leveraging the brand, and one cannot predict the business made by the teams as it?s a long-term concept.?
According to analysts, IPL II was a success as rates of advertising spots increased the revenue of the broadcaster. The advertising costs on the channel were initially around Rs 3.5 lakh per second, which shot up to Rs 7.5 lakh to 10 lakh for the final match. Last year, 10-second spots for the semi-finals and the finals were sold for Rs 8 lakh. However, this year advertisers shelled out around Rs 30 crore-35 crore to get associated with IPL. According to an analyst, over Rs 500 crore was spent by more than 85 advertisers on SET Max during the 36-day IPL II telecast. Sony was unavailable to comment when contacted.
The franchisees are estimated to earn profits of around Rs 80 crore from ticket sales, merchandising and advertising.
Out-of-home (OOH, malls and other public places) dominated the viewership of IPL II and hampered the television ratings (TVRs). As per Lintas Media Group (LMG), a significant 26% of the viewers watched IPL II matches on OOH, resulting in the dip of TVRs. The TVRs of the tournament this year dipped 15%, recording an average of 5.1 in 2008 to about 4.3 this year. The time spent in front of the television sets this year dropped 8.5% resulting in a TVR fall for the 8 pm matches.
The tournament this year had 90 million viewers overall as compared with 85 million last year. SET Max enjoyed a viewership of about 25-30% on an average at any given time of total television viewing population. IPL II recorded a viewership of 82 million in the first 20 days (April 18-May 7), as against IPL1 that reached 71 million viewers in the same time frame. According to aMap data, 25-30% of TV viewers watched IPL-II. The final match between Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers on May 24 got 7.2 television ratings (TVR) at all Indian urban market level (C& S 4+ years) as compared with 8.8 in the last year?s final between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings.