Series to get ESPN STAR Sports a 'decent' Rs 150 cr

ESPN STAR Sports (ESS), the official broadcaster of the ongoing cricket series between India and England, could get Rs 150 crore in advertising revenues from the series. The series comprises four Tests, five one-day internationals two T20 matches.

ESS has already roped in eight sponsors for the Test matches — Tata DoCoMo and Havells are joint-presenting sponsors, while Maruti Suzuki, Samsung, Perfetti, Nokia, ITC and Microsoft are associate sponsors.

“The series began after the Diwali festival window. So, getting advertisers to cough up more money is not very easy. But ESS has done good de-risking with annual deals,” said a senior media planner. “Also, considering ESS was targeting Rs 250 crore from the T-20 World Cup, Rs 150 crore from the India-England series is a good figure,” he added.

ESS has signed annual deals with Nokia, Havells, Maruti Suzuki and Tata DoCoMo for the entire cricket season — till the series against Australia in February. “Yes, we have signed four sponsors for the yearly deal,” said Aloke Malik, managing director of ESPN Software India.

Though he refused to divulge numbers, it is understood the four sponsors have pumped in about Rs 280 crore.

“I cannot talk about numbers. But yes, the four sponsors would have spots in all the series, except the India-Pakistan series,” Malik told Business Standard.

For the India-England series, ESS was seeking Rs 60,000 per 10-second slot for Tests, Rs 3,00,000 for one-day internationals and Rs 4,50,000 for the T20 matches.