Neo Sports may not be able to capitalise as much as it would have liked to from the huge success of the ICC Twenty20 World Championship in terms of advertising revenues. Most of the advertising inventory on Neo Sports?that has the global rights to broadcast all international cricket played in India under the aegis of BCCI till 2010?was sold out before the T-20 series started.
Industry sources say, a large chunk of the inventory on Neo Sports for the upcoming India-Australia series, which begins on September 29, was for grabs at around Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh for 10 seconds.
FE has learnt that almost 75% of inventory (that includes sponsorships, tickers, tags etc) went for around Rs 75 crore. In other words, the rekindled love for cricket may not convert into big bucks that Neo would have hoped for after the no-show during the India-Bangladesh series in May this year.
Since Neo is forced to share its feed with Doordarshan, courtesy the mandatory sharing of sports feed rules, advertisers have been offered a composite rate for both channels?which is reported to be around Rs 3.25 lakh for a 10-second spot. Advertisers opting for Doordarshan alone have to shell out about Rs 1 lakh for a 10-second spot.
Hopefully, Neo Sports will be able to capitalise on the balance 25% inventory. Also, being day-long matches (compared to the three-hour T-20 format) there is scope to pack in more ad breaks and greater opportunity for spot selling as the series progresses.
To put things in perspective, since the time Neo Sports was launched in November last year, it has faced a number of problems ranging distribution issues to advertising and subscription pricing issues. There are also some legal battles with the national broadcaster due to its decision not to encrypt signals and inadvertently leaving scope for piracy by neighbouring countries.
Earlier this week, Neo Sports announced that it has reached an agreement with InCableNet to carry its channels. InCableNet reaches close to 4 million viewers across the country.