Star Sports cashes in on India-Australia test series

Billed as the clash of erstwhile two top teams in transition, the upcoming India-Australia test series is turning out to be a money spinner for broadcaster Star Sports that has managed to rope in top advertisers, even including Hero MotoCorp, which recently decided to end relationship with IPL and Mumbai Indians. The broadcaster, which will be airing the Hindi version on its Star Sports channel and English on Star Cricket and Star Cricket HD of the series, has signed up Tata Teleservices, Havells and Hero MotoCorp as joint presenting sponsors. Besides, it has got on board nine other advertisers, including Maruti Suzuki India, Nokia, Samsung Cameras, Panasonic and Perfetti, as associate sponsors. According to media buyers, the company is understood to have garnered around Rs 75 crore as advertisement revenue from the four-match test series. The first test will be played in Chennai from February 22-26, second at Hyderabad from March 2-6, third at Mohali from March 14-18 and the last will be played at Delhi on March 22-26. When contacted, a Star Sports spokesperson said: "We are completely sold out for the India Australia Test series. In fact, over the last 2-3 days we have said no to multiple clients who were keen to leverage the forthcoming test series because we don't have any inventory left with us." Commenting on the advertisers' response to the series, Platinum Media CEO Basabdutta Chowdhury told