Champions Trophy sees record ad rates for India-Pakistan final

All inventory sold out; last-minute advertisers paid Rs 25-33 lakh per 10-second slot

A fortnight after India and Pakistan first faced each other in the ongoing cricket Champions Trophy in England, the two South Asian giants will be vying for top honours on Sunday, in the final match of the one-day tournament, to be held at the Oval in London.

In a tournament of upsets, Pakistan beat England on Wednesday to set up the final clash with India, which had beat Bangladesh in the second semi-final on Thursday. India's victory came after it went down to Sri Lanka last week.

The roller-coaster ride notwithstanding, advertisers appear to be savouring every moment of it, booking slots for the final match well before the final ball in the second semi-final. Media planners that Business Standard spoke to said 95 per cent of the advertising inventory for the final match was sold before the India-Bangladesh one concluded on Thursday. 

The remaining five per cent was sold within hours of India confirming its position in the final, they said. This inventory, according to persons in the know, who stitched these last-minute deals, attracted ad rates of Rs 25 to 33 lakh per 10 seconds, the highest for last-minute spots that an India-Pak match has got so far.

Two years ago, last-minute advertisers had to shell out nearly Rs 20 lakh per 10 seconds for the India-Pak match at the Cricket World Cup. On June 4, last-minute advertisers had to pay Rs 15 lakh per 10 seconds for the India-Pak match at Edgbaston, Birmingham. That itself was a a nearly four-fold growth in last-minute ad rates over regular rates the Champions Trophy attracted this year. And, this number shoots up nearly eight and a half times when the final match is taken into account.

Oppo, Samsung, Hero, Mondelez, MRF, Byju's, Airtel, Cricbuzz, Nivea and Nissan are some of the brands that will be visible during Sunday’s match. 

It is not surprising, said experts, why last-minute advertisers were willing to pay such money for a cricket match. The potential of reaching the record audience which is likely to tune in to watch the game is hard to beat. On Thursday, viewership data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) showed the June 4 match between India and Pakistan attracted 201 million viewers, the highest rated one-day international in BARC's history.

A spokesperson from Star India, telecasting the tournament on its sports network, said: “With the India-Pak match on June 4 setting a viewership record, this edition of the Champions Trophy has validated that there is nothing bigger than cricket for Indian consumers.” 

The expectation is that the final match will see even more viewer tune-ins, implying the effort by advertisers to park their money behind this match will not be a wasted effort.