The Hindu Business Line : Sony sells ad inventory for World Cup

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Mumbai March 5 Making a killing before the World Cup, SET India has sold the remaining 5 per cent of its ad inventory at Rs 4 lakh for every 10-second spot on its SET Max channel.

While the average ad rates have been pegged at Rs 1.5 lakh per 10 second spot across the seven hours of programming during the matches, there are premium packages for the 12 India-specific and the Super eight matches where ad rates have escalated to Rs 2.75 lakh per 10 second spot for the satellite rights holder.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Rohit Gupta, EVP-Sales, SET India, said, "We always hold back 5 per cent of the ad inventory and this time we have sold the spots at Rs 4 lakh each."

Having sold off 100 per cent of its ad time inventory, Sony claims to have covered the costs of acquiring the 2007 ICC World Cup rights.

Considering the matches would get aired from 5 p.m., Sony is betting on the surge in viewership during prime time with India audiences.

"We believe in being a viewership record breaker as night-time viewing is three times that of day-time viewing. There would be no dip in viewership post midnight since people usually watch the last two hours of any match,'' said Mr Kunal Dasgupta, Chief Executive Officer, Sony Entertainment Television.

Claiming to have covered the costs of acquiring the World Cup rights, Mr Dasgupta says, "We are satisfied with what we have got and have recovered our costs. At the same time, we are hard-pressed to make money but this is what is competition. While nobody will admit it, each one acquiring the rights has bled till the next one comes along. It is suicidal but it goes on. We are open to acquiring stakes in other sports channels.''

The 51 games during the World Cup would be shown across SAB and PIX along with SET Max, and Sony would have to share the feeds with the Government-owned Doordarshan channel as well.

"Doordarshan would be not be paying us any money for feed sharing and instead directly deal with GCC, the rights holder," said Mr Dasgupta.

Sony would be telecasting the matches from its studios in London.

During the World Cup, SAB would get converted to a cricket channel with the Hindi feed.

SAB to be relaunched

"We expect SAB to get a boost through the World Cup and intend re-launching the channel post the World Cup," added Mr Dasgupta.

To make up for the lack of movies on SET Max, Sony would have its flagship channel airing more of these. At the same time, Sony's flagship channel has not been tinkered with during the World Cup.

"We are in the process of re-building the Sony Channel, which is facing its own challenges. We would not use our main channel and disrupt it during the World Cup," said Mr Dasgupta, who was on his way to the Caribbean islands to watch the World Cup.