GROUND ZERO
Big bucks riding on mega sporting year
Last year was an important year in the evolution of sports broadcast
in India. Sports broadcasting willy nilly includes the advertising and
sponsorship industry which in turn revolves around the fulcrum of
ratings. Cost per ten second spot and its resultant viewership remain
the only criterion for marketers who are willing to bet big on Indian
sport as a vehicle and driver for ratings and revenues. The only maxim
known to these marketers is cost per TV rating point or CPTRP. This is
the benchmark. Sadly the bulwark of this sporting rump remains cricket
in India. But then that
is precisely why 2009 was a year of learning. A year of comprehension
of new realities. That advertisers are willing to punt big bucks on
Indian cricket at a multi lateral platform, but equally they can get
singed if India is knocked out in double quick time.
Strangely it happened repeatedly in 2009 and many dreams and
aspirations went bust. At the same time, one broadcaster went home
laughing because his call of backing bilateral cricket featuring India
worked like a charm. So, we had the T 20 World Cup in England followed
in quick succession by the Champions Trophy in South Africa and the T
20 Champions League in India. India or Indian teams fell by the
wayside and while the broadcaster ESPN Star Sports with its tactic of
pre booking spots survived the woefully inadequate Indian playing
response on the field, it was a chilling reminder that cricket sells,
but only if India is involved and is consistently doing well.
What followed were a raft of bilaterals featuring a resurgent India
and all of them at home. Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa toured India and
several gladiatorial Test and one day contests saw the ratings zoom
and advertisers queueing up with Neo Cricket. Inventories were emptied
out and cricket was once again the showstopper on telly. This was in
stark contrast to the poor ratings generated by multilateral events
where India was kayoed. This bilateral versus multilateral jigsaw has
now been digested by broadcasters to some extent. But what do you do
with inflated and elevated purchases of telecast rights for
multilateral cricket featuring India? Pretty much, nothing, because
you are locked in.
But that was 2009, in the new year, we are once again ready to lock
and load all over again. A never ending conveyor belt line up of
sporting offerings will keep the sports couch potatoes adhesived to
their seats in 2010. The year has got off to a great start with the
India-South Africa Test and one day series which saw climactic
cricket. This was immediately followed by the Hero Honda hockey World
Cup titanic clash between India and Pakistan which saw ratings
climbing to unprecedented levels. Phir se dil do hockey ko struck an
emotional chord with hockey loving cognescente. Vindicating the fact
that sportspersons need to perform to generate interest and
consequently ratings and revenues. I wasn't surprised when I read
this: The historic India-Pakistan match on the opening day of the
hockey World Cup on Sunday attracted record number of audience in the
country, generating viewing figures akin to that of one-day cricket
internationals. The match, in which India beat Pakistan 4-1 during
primetime, gained an audience share of 8.9 on Doordarshan (TVR = 1.8)
and 1.3 on Ten Sports, a FIH media release said.
"By way of a benchmark, cricket's TVR on Doordarshan for the four
one-day internationals between India v Sri Lanka in December last year
ranged from 1.1 to 2.3, averaging 1.85. Ten Sports has a reach of
12.5-13 million households and together with Doordarshan, it expects
to reach about 55-60 million homes. The channel is expecting a rating
of 1-1.5 TRP for the event telecast." What the hockey World Cup being
staged in India after 29 years has done is kickstarted a revival in
interest in India's national game. Though India lost by identical
margins 2-5 to Australia and Spain in subsequent games, it has not
been shamed. If Indian hockey can get a top six finish in the
tournament, the doors to top of the line tournaments like Champions
Trophy will reopen. Rekindling and reviving interest in hockey is
paramount. But this was merely an appetiser for coming up back to back
is the IPL which is awaited eagerly for it returns to India after a
one year hiatus, followed by the T 20 World Cup in the West Indies
beginning on April 30.
And if this wasn't enough, there is the FIFA World Cup in South
Africa, followed by the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October. In
between there is a possibility of India visiting Sri Lanka for a Test
and one day series. Immediately after the CWG is the Asian Games in
Guangzhou. And running almost parallely will be an India vs Australia
one day series at home where two Tests are being fitted in, a tour by
the Kiwis to India, followed by India's tour of South Africa. All this
will seamlessly merge into
the cricket World Cup in the sub continent starting next February. How
is that for a gangbuster sporting season. So, fasten the seat belts
and enjoy the ride.
In terms of sponsorship and advertising, what can be expected? Many
reckon that with an Indian economy on a high growth trajectory, the
spin offs to sport as an industry are immense. I asked B & K
Securities to do some number crunching on what kind of advertising
revenues may be riding on this large catalogue of sporting events. And
a conservative estimate produces a mind numbing number - a tad over Rs
3000 crore (see box). The estimate for IPL season 3 alone is Rs 648
crore, while the cricket World Cup will bring in Rs 493 crore and IPl
season 4 is expected to garner an astonishing Rs 875 crore. These
three events form the bulk of the advertising revenues.
Sport also makes available a spanking new platform to showcase India's
new economic dominance. Ergo, the hockey World Cup, the Commonwealth
Games and the cricket World Cup need to be used by the Government to
pull out all
the stops. Just as Seoul and Beijing have done in the past. By hosting
the Asian Games and the Olympics thereafter, both maximum cities made
a statement of intent to the world. They displayed their new found
economic might and management skills at hosting events of such
magnitude. Further it allowed them to showcase their sporting prowess.
India has a similar opportunity. SportBusiness.com which tracks these
things has this to say about India's emergence as a hub for sporting
related business. It says:
* High growth economy, rapid rise of middle class with disposable
income and leisure time
* Rapid growth in TV households driving interest and value in sports content
* Potent mix in the public consciousness of sport and Bollywood
glamour attracting a male and female audience
* Rapid growth in advertising as local and international companies
target this lucrative, underdeveloped market.
Multiply these together and you get huge prospects for sports TV
rights and marketing. The predictions are born out by figures from
recent years with the sponsorship market estimated at $250m per year,
TV rights worth over $350m per year and both growing fast. Some of the
insights provided by this report are interesting to understand the
changing paradigms. The report goes on to say - Were cricket to be the
only game in town the prospects for the market wouldn’t be as
enticing. Recent months have witnessed a number of developments that
suggest that other sports are starting to become serious proposition.
Formula 1 has seen a huge surge of
interest following Vijay Mallya’s creation of the Force India team.
Golf and tennis, both aspirational sports for the middle class, are
enjoying record levels of success. Throw in the presence of an Indian
driver - Karun Chandok - and you have a winning combination. Perhaps
most interesting of all, football is starting to achieve real traction
with TV audiences turning on in ever greater numbers for
international leagues and competitions.
"There are also some major events in the calendar which look set to
have a transforming effect on sport in India. Delhi will play host to
the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and India will stage part of the ICC
Cricket World Cup in 2011. The race is also on to bring F1 to the
country which will almost certainly see the creation of a new circuit
which together with historic investment in stadia by cricket and
football will drive opportunities here too.
"Who should buy India: Opportunities in the Business of Sport?
The Indian market presents a tantalising prospect for organisations
across the business of sport including:
• Local and international brands looking for ways to build their share
of a huge consumer market
• Sports federations hoping to boost participation and grow commercial revenues
• Event and tour organisers seeking new destinations for sport
• Agencies and sport professional services aiming to grow internationally
• Stadium architects and contractors wanting to explore new opportunities."
What does this tell you? That 2010 may well be a transformational year
for Indian sport and its allied advertising and sponsorship market.
Now let us pause a bit and examine the impact of the return of IPL to
India for season 3. Economic Times recently reported the event looks
promising for Set Max as the channel has sold its entire inventory to
its sponsors Vodafone, Videocon, LG, Samsung, Pepsi Co, Godrej,
Hyundai among others and is expecting its revenues to go up by 30%
this season compared to last.
According to Set Max, the main sponsors-Videocon, Vodafone and Pepsi
have bought 10-second slots for Rs 5.25 lakh and they have been
allotted 180-200 second slots per match. Last year, the same 10-
second slot was sold for Rs 3.5 lakh.
ET wrote: "The associate sponsors like LG, Samsung, Godrej among others have
bought the slot for Rs 4.50 lakh to Rs 4.70 lakh per second and have
been allotted 120-140 second per match. “Ninety per cent of our
inventory is sold out to the nine sponsors on board and the rest 10%
will be sold at a premium rate between Rs 8-10 lakh shortly by spot
buyers,” says Rohit Gupta, president of Multi
Screen Media (the parent company of SET Max). The viewership of IPL 2
was 20% more than the inaugural season in 2008. IPL’s broadcast
partner Sony’s Entertainment Television Network’s channel SET Max,
almost doubled its revenue last year compared to IPL 1. The channel is
estimated to bring in around Rs 900
crore for the 2010 edition that would be over 50% higher than in 2009.
“We expect are revenues up by 50-60% this year as the matches are
being played in India,”says Gupta.
"Vodafone and Videocon who are the co-presenting sponsors of the
tournament will pay close to Rs 50- 55 crore with a commercial second
age of 180- 200 sec per match across 60 matches to be played from
March 12 to April 25. The associate sponsors like LG, Samsung, HUL,
Pepsi Co’s outlays are around Rs 30-40 crore with 120-140 second per
match. Set Max has raised its per second slot rating by 30% this year as
against last season, therefore the sponsors like LG, Samsung and
Videocon have also raised the advertising revenues by 15-20%. Vodafone
will come up with its new campaign as it did last IPL season with Zoo
Zoo ad campaign that was a huge success. So will LG for its LCD
television, Samsung for its corporate campaign and Videocon will
launch its new mobile phone campaign as it will launch new handsets
during that time and Godrej Boyce & Co for its air conditioners. “We
have taken 120 second slot and will be spending Rs 30 crore as our
total ad budget. Our ad budget has gone up by 15% this IPL because the
Set Max ratings have gone up,” says L K Gupta, chief marketing officer
at LG India. IPL will draw more revenues from the ground sponsors for
their local activation in and around the matches played,” says Tarun D Kumar,
executive director of media planning agency StarComm India."
Gung ho would be a gross understatement to describe the afore
mentioned scenario. As I had mentioned earlier, viewership ratings
for cricket in the second half of 2009 were plummeting. The Sri Lanka
tri-nation series in September on Ten Sports brought in
average television rating points of 2.28%, according to ratings firm
TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd. Champions Trophy clocked an average 1.1%
and Champions League, 0.7% in the first couple of weeks. Yet, Neo
Cricket managed to turn around these flagging and floundering
fortunes. This threw into stark relief cricket involving India in
bilateral versus multilateral events. For the Australia-India one-day
international series for instance, Neo Cricket had eight sponsors,
including Hero Honda Motors Ltd, Tata Docomo, Gillette India Ltd and
Hewlett-Packard Co. “For viewers in India, especially the large
cricket fan who is always supporting (the) home team, there are six
months of fantastic bilateral nations format cricket happening,” said
Yannick Colaco, chief operating officer (COO), Nimbus Communications
Ltd, which owns
Neo Sports and Neo Cricket.
As Nandini Dias was quoted as saying by Mint, “You have to watch
cricket whether we win or lose. I am predicting ratings between 4% and
5%, and no programme in Indian TV is getting that kind of ratings.”
This is what convinced Neo Sports to shoot for an astounding Rs 1000
crore target for the 2009-10 season.
The break was as follows -it was targeting over Rs 650-700 crore in
advertising revenues, and in addition to this, the broadcasting
company was eyeing over Rs 300 crore revenues from subscriptions,
bringing the overall revenue target to nearly Rs 1,000 crore this
year. The broadcaster also set up a GRP target of 5,000-plus. It was
looking at ad rates in the range of Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per 10
seconds. Neo Broadcast CEO Prasana Krishnan explained, “From the
viewers’ perspective, attraction of cricket and its popularity remains
as high as ever, if not growing, because clearly the Indian team’s
performance has been consistent and
good, and this year will see home season again, wherein we are looking
at three out of four seasons being at home. And as it always happens,
home ratings are higher because there is a greater level of attachment
and, therefore, the buzz and the excitement will be higher.”
Krishnan believes that the market has recovered from last year and
things are definitely looking up and that even the advertisers are
back with a bang, spending big money. “The deliveries from sports are
consistent and growing, so there may be temporary blips like last
year, but that’s an aberration. Nevertheless, the long term plans of
cricket have been only growing and we are back on track. I still see
sports growing 19-21 per cent this year as compared to the industry
growth of around 11-13 per cent of the overall media pie. Thus,
clearly sports has been outperforming the industry,” Krishnan pointed
out.
The unfortunate part is that cricket continues to be the biggest
beneficiary of this largesse towards sports broadcast. But even then
what is important is that sports broadcast alone has the potential to
grab Rs 3000 crore in revenues over the next 12 to 14 months. That by
itself is a statement of intent. The entry of new players in the cut
throat competitive telecom sector has further galvanised the revenue
potential. The deepening and widening of this market, or the tipping
point if you will, has come about thanks to IPL. That is the single
biggest marketing bonanza for marketers. Throw in the sponsorship tie
ups that the club owners have bagged and the latent potential of the
IPL franchise goes up manifold. A recent valuation of $4.1billion by
UK based Brand Finance for IPL is based on these factors and
parameters. Next stop BSE and NSE, I presume.
(Impact)
No comments:
Post a Comment