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India’s exit from the ICC World Cup Twenty20 Cricket championship is unlikely to impact the official broadcaster Star India’s ad revenues, though the viewership on the final day may take a hit.
Star India has already raked enough revenues from the India-Pakistan match as well as the knock out round between India and Australia, so the drop in viewership, if any, will not have an adverse impact, according to media planners.
According to a statement by Star India, which quoted Broadcast Audience Research Council’s data, 332 million viewers (BARC CS4+) tuned in the first two weeks of the tournament. The India-Pakistan match on March 19, generated 8.3 crore impressions. (BARC measures viewership and time spent in impressions).
Vinit Karnik, Business Head at Group M ESP, said: “While the viewership may come down a little bit, there is not going to be any impact on advertising revenues as the sports broadcasters sell a large chunk of the ad inventory in packages.”
Only if a broadcaster is left with some inventory then the demand for those last minute spot buys are impacted, said Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO-South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network.
Typically broadcasters, keep aside 5-10 per cent of the total ad inventory for key matches to be able to charge a premium from advertisers who want to make last minute spot buys. In this season, Star India has not kept aside such inventory, said another media planner.
Star India has roped in 19 sponsors for the World Cup T20 with four co-presenting sponsors – Flipkart, Nissan Motors, Airtel and Oppo — each spending between ₹25 crore and ₹30 crore. Industry estimates have pegged Star’s overall ad revenues in the range of ₹500-600 crore.
Basabdutta Chowdhury, COO, Starcom MediaVest, said: “It has been a huge success as the viewership numbers have been good. I don’t see any significant impact on their ad revenues with India’s exit from the tournament.”
When contacted, Nitin Kukreja, President & Head, Sports, Star India, did not comment on commercials. But on T20 World Cup he said, “Cricket cuts across all age groups and demographic boundaries and new records have been set in terms of viewership in the tournament.”
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