Cashing in on the IPL frenzy, UFO Moviez and Crown Infotainment, the firms behind the in-theatre telecast of Indian Premier League (IPL III) matches, hope to generate Rs 50-55 crore of annual business from the high definition live telecast of cricket matches on the big screen. And this will be possible without inserting any advertising during the playing period of the Twenty20 format cricket matches, claims UFO Moviez.
?There won?t be any ads in between the overs. Ads will only play before and after the match and during the strategy breaks. Theatre screening of IPL can easily generate Rs 30-35 crore from multiplexes and theatres and another Rs 15-20 crore from various sponsorship deals and events around the event,? Kapil Agarwal, joint managing director, UFO Moviez, told FE.
Crown Infotainment holds the in-theatre rights for IPL for a 10-year period and is a subsidiary company of Valuable Media, also the promoters of UFO Moviez. The telecast of IPL on television has so far generated advertising revenue in excess of Rs 1,200 crore for SET Max during the first two seasons. SET Max is the host broadcaster for IPL, an annual cricket event organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and played between eight franchisee teams. The third edition of IPL beginning next month is the first occasion when theatres will be able to screen the matches. UFO aims to tie up with 1,000 screens by the time IPL-III kicks off with nearly 70% business coming from single screen theatres.
?We have offered several flexible packages to the theatres, including various packages for 10, 20 and 30 matches. We will work on revenue-sharing arrangement with most theatres and multiplexes apart from our fees,? said Agarwal. So far, UFO has tied up with multiplex chains including Inox, PVR, Cinemax, and Fame, among others. The company is charging a hefty premium for in-theatre screening of the two semi-finals and the final match. However, as the current provisions of the Cinematograph Act does not have provisions for showing non-film content in theatres, the cinema owners may have to shell out additional money and taxes to the respective state governments for airing IPL-III cricket matches. ?Yes, we have to take special permission from the local authorities. Also, in Maharashtra, we have to pay a special tax called the house-full tax when we air non-film content,? said Vishal Kapoor, chief operating officer of Fun Cinemas, a leading multiplex chain that is also signing a deal with UFO Moviez for IPL telecast.
House-full tax simply means that a theatre has to pay the entertainment tax on a full-house irrespective of the number of patrons that may have watched the non-film content.