While all eyes may turn to the Indian Premier League (IPL) during the April-May period when the Twenty20 tournament takes place, that is not stopping rival television channels from trying their best to get their share of eyeballs. Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs), which see the maximum drop in viewership when the IPL is aired on Multi Screen Media?s (MSM) Sony Max and Sony Six channels, are launching a slew of new shows this week as the tournament kicks off.

Star Plus, the leading Hindi GEC, is launching Ek Hasina Thi – a story set in the eastern megapolis of Kolkata?on April 14 for its 8 pm slot. Meanwhile, rival Zee TV is launching Kumkum Bhagya on April 15 at 9 pm, replacing long-running serial Pavitra Rishta which moves to 6.30 pm. The new show is based on Jane Austen?s Sense and Sensibility. Interestingly, Sony Entertainment Television, the flagship GEC from the MSM stable, is also launching a new show called Encounter on April 11. It will air thrice a week from Friday through Sunday at 9 pm.

?We have announced one show for April 15. It?s at 9 pm. And there will be another property that we will announce soon during the IPL. We are going with the assumption that our viewers want to continue to be entertained through this period,? said Namit Sharma, programming head – Zee TV.

In the last six years, viewership ratings of rival channels have seen a drop during the IPL season. This year, too, the impact on broadcasters looks inevitable with major viewership dips expected in genres such as general entertainment, Hindi movies, music and sports. Hindi news, however, may be among the genres to benefit from the juggernaut of IPL. ?English entertainment, infotainment, English movies, English news and kids channels shall witness limited impact on viewership due to higher stickiness of viewers,? says Bharat Rajamani, associate director of management consulting firm EY. It is pertinent to note here that low- involvement genres such as movie channels and music witness about 10-15% drop in viewership during the IPL.

According to industry estimates, the Hindi GEC channels see as much as a 20% dip in viewership during the IPL, thereby leading to a 20% dip in their ad revenues. As a result, at least during the first two seasons, channels chose to lie low during the IPL. However, during season 3, 4 and 5 of IPL, when the tourney saw a dip in its viewership ratings, channels came back with a new-found strength to battle for audiences with tweaked storylines.

?GECs generally do not change the programme mix during IPL. However, there is a slight shift of viewership from evening prime-time to afternoon repeats. Moreover, any major change in programming mix would not help retain the viewership. Broadcasters refrain from launching any new properties during the IPL season; they rather wait for the juggernaut to go off air as the period after IPL is an opportunity to attract viewers who feel there?s a sudden lull in entertainment options,? says Rajamani.

This time round, however, there are a few players who are taking the bull by the horns. Says Zee TV?s Sharma: ?Today, we are working in a very challenging and an interesting environment. While there are the GECs fighting against each other for a slice of that viewership pie, there is the IPL and the polls too which play the role of added competitors. The challenge for us, therefore, is not just the IPL. It?s the overall environment and how to keep the viewers hooked through entertainment in the face of distraction from areas as diverse as politics and sports.?

Shailesh Kapoor, CEO of Ormax Media, a media research firm, observes that with time, the IPL has become part of a broadcaster?s life. Earlier, there would not be any launches at all. But now, some launches do happen during the IPL. ?Shows like Encounter and Ek Hasina Thi are launching in the IPL period. There will be other launches too. For the last two years, we have seen about five to six GEC properties launching during IPL,? he says.

According to Sukesh Motwani, former programming head?fiction, Zee TV, who is now a television programming consultant and entrepreneur, earlier, channels would take the defensive approach when they would allow the pace of their existing shows to slow down. ?Now the channels are on the offensive where they work harder on the promos and bring in high points in a show on a match day which may otherwise not perform very well,? he says. Consequently, during this season too, channels are expected to weave in high points in the storylines to retain their show ratings.

Ashish Pherwani, partner, EY is of the view that while the IPL does disrupt GEC viewership, it is also true that with the proliferation of multiple TV homes the impact on GEC viewership will continuously reduce. ?Any massively popular sporting event has the power to disrupt regular viewership patterns across the world, and the IPL is one such sporting property. The important thing for broadcasters is to evaluate the impact on different genres of channels, and determine strategies to minimise viewership loss (if any). Since there have been several IPL seasons, broadcasters have a lot of data to evaluate this aspect,? he says.

Now talk of the effect on the advertising revenues of the competitors, and the IPL surely absorbs a substantial sum of the advertising monies from the market. Nevertheless, for a majority of the advertisers, the expenditure is not sudden. Rather, it is part of a carefully drafted annual strategy with IPL being a regular feature. Advertisers with deep pockets pump in as much as 10-20% of the annual ad spends in the IPL. On the contrary, smaller players may either go full throttle and invest 70-80% of their annual marketing budget in IPL or totally shun the property as a tiny investment will go unnoticed in the gigantic wave.

Says Pawan Jailkhani, chief revenue officer at 9X Media: ?For the last 3-4 years, April-May have probably been the biggest months for broadcasters in the media space And the IPL has only helped in increasing the overall ad pie. 9X Media has the highest strike rate in April-May-June and I believe it is the same case for other genres too. The second quarter traditionally dips because of the monsoons.? Elaborating further, he says, ?Of the 5000 brands, about 50 brands go to the IPL. So, the remaining has to go somewhere else, right??

Ali Zaidi, senior vice president, ad sales, Hindi cinema cluster, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd observes that the Hindi cinema genre is in the strongest position when it comes to attracting male viewers and the price at which brands catering to male customers buy cinema is way cheaper than ad rates for IPL. ?Meanwhile, we stand at an advantageous position for FMCG brands and other female driven brands. For a majority of households, cinema continues to be a complete family entertainment option against IPL which does not offer much to the female viewers. With the highest share of almost 35% in the cinema cluster, we are a one-stop shop in terms of our channel mix with incremental reach and optimum efficiency,? he says.