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Meera Mohanty

New Delhi, Sept. 23 Broadcaster ESPN could not have asked for a better finish to the ongoing ICC World Twenty20. Media planners are predicting a highest ever rating for the India –Pakistan final on Monday evening.

Media planners say that the broadcaster could well make an additional Rs 2 crore from the 200-odd seconds of its reserve inventory. It is selling at a premium rate of Rs 10 lakh for a 10 seconds spot; that’s about five times higher than the rate at which ESPN sold its other matches, say planners.

ESPN doesn’t need to offer discounts. Earlier this week (September 20) TAM Media Research released figures that rewarded the combination of ESPN and Star-cricket channels with almost half (47.2 per cent) of all channels share for the Indo-Pak match, that resulted in a tie on September 14.

“Ratings for the finals are expected to touch a new high. I won’t be surprised if it delivers the highest ever rating on Indian television, but then it depends on how interesting the game is,” said Mr Sundar Raman, Managing Director, MindShare.

The figures also indicated that some of the audiences of the popular musical contest/reality shows on other general entertainment channels such as Sony and Star TV had switched to cricket. According to ESPN, its channels notched up an 8.6 per cent of the channel share, ahead of Zee TV’s 7 per cent and Star Plus’ 6.5 per cent during September 11-15.

However, despite the definite success of the new hip commercial avatar of cricket, it is too early to say that the format has been established, according to advertisers. Mr Raman, who will be watching the finals on September 14 in the Bull Ring, as the Wanderers Cricket Stadium in Johannesburg is fondly called, said: “The format had all the ingredients — short, snappy, fast paced and unpredictable. It was clearly next-gen cricket and our early consumer studies show it has attracted a younger audience and higher stickiness with the game.”

India’s flamboyant performance is sure to help the new BCCI and Essel leagues that seek to invigorate domestic cricket. “Anything that delivers audiences and with the kind of passion that cricket does is of value to advertisers,” said Mr Raman.

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