Giving advertisers a tremendous return on investments, the Indian Premier League (IPL) as a television property on SET Max channel recorded a phenomenon 48% jump in reach for IPL-III semi-final matches compared to the same in its inaugural edition played in 2008.
When compared year-on-year basis, IPL-3 semi-finals witnessed a 25% jump in the average reach over IPL-II with 46 million viewers tuning in, 9 million more viewers than the previous IPL edition played in South Africa. Also, nearly one-third of the overall reach of IPL-III came from the two semi-final matches this year, in line with the trend emerged in the previous two IPL editions, the TAM data showed. According to the latest rating numbers provided by TAM Media, overall, IPL-III reached a cumulative of 142 million cable homes in the country (in the 59 matches played) thereby recording a 40% jump over the first edition which reached 102 million cable homes.
However, the average tournament ratings for IPL-III stood at 4.5 TVR, lower than those for IPL-I (4.7 TVR) but higher than IPL-2 (4.1 TVR), the TAM data said.
?A 40% growth in the reach numbers for IPL-III was anticipated and that is the reason why advertisers were spending around Rs 15 crore per IPL match this year, up from an average of Rs 12 crore for IPL-II,? said a senior media planner involved in the buying of IPL airtime for its clients.
SET Max is reported to have generated around Rs 750-800 crore in advertising revenue from IPL-3, around 30-35% more than the previous IPL edition, sources said. Most on-air sponsors on SET Max emerged as the top advertisers in IPL-3, same as the previous two IPL?s, the TAM data showed.
Telecom emerged as the top advertising category on IPL led by Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices. On-air sponsors Hyundai and Samsung too figured in the list of top-5 advertisers on IPL-III.
The recently concluded IPL saw MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings emerge as the winners beating the top team Mumbai Indians in Mumbai last Sunday.