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Multi Screen Media's (MSM) special events and Hindi movie channel Max has seen a surge of 20.86 per cent in viewership in week 17 of 2014 (April 20 to April 26). The upswing comes on the back of the twenty-20 tournament the Indian Premier League.
The channel's gross viewership in thousand (GVT) went from 410,312 in week 16 (April 13 to April 19) to 495,922 in week 17. The IPL kicked off on April 16 and the week under consideration saw nine matches take place. This year, the tournament is being held in two legs - first in the United Arab Emirates from April 16 to April 30 and the second leg in India, which kicked off on Friday.
Rohit Gupta, vice-president, MSM, says, "The viewership and reach, both have been much better than anticipated. The reach for the first 15 matches has gone up from 133 million in 2013 to 140 million in 2014. People were apprehensive that shifting the tournament to UAE will impact ratings, but that has not happened. The television viewership in thousands has also been going good from 8,239 TVT in 2013 to 8,559 TVT this year."
Gupta adds that the most encouraging bit is that the viewership figures have held their own among the male target audience, which is the segment most advertisers target. He is optimistic that with the tournament coming to India, the viewership will see a spike. Usually, one sees a dip in ratings towards the middle of the tournament (typicality in the third and fourth weeks considering it is a six-week event), but this time, MSM hopes to see an uptick in the third week of the IPL since it is coming back to India in that time period. The network has been sending out communication emphasising the return of the IPL to India on its channels and in media like print and out-of-home.
However, media planners and buyers who are involved with brands advertising on the IPL inform that the ratings have seen a drop on a year-on-year basis. One such professional, who wished to remain unnamed, says, "The ratings have seen an average drop of 25 per cent (in the CS4+, All India market) when compared to last year." The CS4+ All India market includes the cable and satellite audience above four years of age across the country.
The change in venue and ongoing Lok Sabha elections are being considered the main reason for the drop in ratings.
"There is a lack of on-ground buzz in the IPL this year since it is being held out of the country. That is one of the main reasons why the viewership may been impacted. However, with the tournament moving to India, hopefully there will be an upswing in the coming week," says Karthik Lakshminarayan, COO, Madison Ultra.
Another big reason for the drop in ratings is the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Touted to be one of the most interesting in recent times, the event has attracted a lot of attention from the news media. Weekday and weekend prime time is dominated by interviews and news analysis during the elections.
"The buzz around the election has been splitting audience in the prime time. Actually, it's the coming together of the elections, the shift to UAE in the first leg and the controversy around betting and match fixing scandal that might have kept the viewers at bay. The match fixing controversy has rubbed off on the audience to an extent and some segments of the target groups are disillusioned (by the IPL). Having said that, once the election fever dies down, viewers may come back to IPL since the matches have been entertaining and interesting as ever and with the tournament coming back to India, the prospects seem much better," explains another media planner who desired to maintain anonymity.
MSM's Gupta, however, feels the main factor for any advertiser investing in the IPL is the reach and that has shown a significant increase. "The elections do not really make a difference since the share of the news channels is not so high," he says.
In fact, the broadcaster has added another sponsor to the list with the Future Group coming on board as the associate sponsor. This means that the broadcaster has managed to rope in nine sponsors for the tournament this year, with Vodafone and Karbonn as presenting sponsors and associate sponsors like Havells, Amazon, Perfetti Van Melle, Marico, Cadbury, Future Group and TVS Motors. MSM raked in Rs 850 crore in ad revenues from the IPL last year, and expects to increase it to Rs 900 crore this year.
At the same time, planners inform that though the spot ad rates have not gone down, the amount of inventory sold for the first two weeks has come down 20-25 per cent. All eyes are now on the ratings for the Indian leg of the tournament.
