ICC T-20 World Cup to bring in bigbucks for Star India

The company stands to rake in close to Rs 380 cr

The ICC Twenty-20 World Cup which kicked off on 16 March and will see the super 10 league matches flagoff with the India Pakistan tie on 21 March, will rake in close to Rs 380 crore for the broadcaster Star Sports. This is a marked increasefrom the revenues of the the previous edition which stood at close toRs 250 crore.

The increase in revenues is a result ofan increase in ad rates (nearly 25 per cent) and the increase in thenumber of matches played. The 2012 edition of the T20 World Cup had 27 matches played among 12 participating teams. This year, with theaddition of Hong Kong, Netherlands, Nepal and United Arab Emirates the total number of participants has gone up to 16 and the total number of matches is 35. The number of advertisers though, have come down from 34 in 2012 to around 25 in 2014.

The broadcaster charged an average Rs 3 lakh for a 10 second spot in 2012 for the series while this timearound, advertisers have to fork out Rs 3.75 lakh for the same. The rates for the last stages of the matches will be hiked depending onthe teams that make it to the semis and final. Media planners revealthat in case teams like India, Australia and Pakistan make it to thefinal leg of the tournament, another 10 to 15% increase in spot rates could be expected.

The broadcast sponsors on board include Pernod Ricard, Hyundai Motors Coca cola, Perfetti, State Bank ofIndia and TVS Sricharkra (tyres). This is four less than the number ofsponsor in 2012 when the broadcaster had a total of 10 sponsors -three presenting sponsors and seven associate sponsors.

"The main reason why the responsehas been lukewarm is that the timing of the series is unfavourable.It's the end of the financial year and brands may need to tighten the purse strings due to budget constraints. Also, probably, had thevenue been a country like England or Australia, the response may have been better," says COO, Madison Media Ultra.

While the exact financials of thesponsorship deal were not available, planners believe that theaggregate value of the six sponsors partnerships would be upwards of Rs 30 crore.

Apart from these, the International Cricket Council (ICC) already on board official commercial partnersfor its tournaments. These include - PepsiCo, LG, Hyundai, Castrol,Emirates, MoneyGram, Reebok, and Reliance.

The Indian Premier League which willfollow the T-20 World Cup has seen similar increase in ad spot rates.The ad rates for the seventh season of the IPL are in the range of Rs 4.75 to 5.0 lakh. This is a 20% increase from last year andhas been made primarily to compensate for the reduction in the numberof matches played with the expulsion of the Pune Warriors franchise.The broadcaster's target revenue for this year's IPL is Rs 900 to 950 crore.

Another media planner who did not wantto be named says, "While both the tournaments follow the shortformat of the game, the buzz around the IPL is much more. Also, everyteam has Indian players in the IPL and thus the viewership is muchmore. The advertiser interest also in proportionately more. Also, thenumber of matches in the IPL is significantly higher than the ICCT-20 World Cup, which gives MSM the leg room to adjust the rates and offer deals and packages."