As IPL- 4 wraps up, the official broadcaster Set Max is expected to rake in revenues in excess of Rs 1,000 crore.

But not all advertisers and their media buying agencies are sure about getting adequate eyeballs this season. The country's largest media agency Group M with the some of the biggest clients like Vodafone and L'Oreal is going to get cautious next season.

“The IPL ratings have been below expectations. The average ratings have fallen 15-20 per cent and the CPRP (cost per rating point) was higher than last year. We have to be slightly cautious now and will have to evaluate 2012 IPL keeping in mind the lack of eyeballs this season,” says Mr R. Gowthaman, Managing Director, Mindshare (belonging to Group M).

However, Set Max managed to rake in revenues on the back of factors like inflation and more number of teams and matches this season.

As Mr Sidharth Parashar, National Trading Head, Maxus Global, says: “Inflation ensured that ad rates were higher this season and more number of matches led to greater revenues.''

Ad rates hovered around Rs 4-5 lakh and almost doubled for the knock-out matches. There were almost 70 advertisers this season. While big spenders like HUL and Videocon stayed away, new advertisers like Lenovo and Reliance Digital TV started advertising during the play-off stages.

SET Max too is willing to admit the drop in viewership this season and would look at ways to rectify it going forward.

Mr Rohit Gupta, President, Multi Screen Media (the owners of SET Max channel), says, “It has been mixed bag in terms of ratings this season. While there was reach, the total time spent on the matches was less and we are looking at ways to correct it. But IPL is still holding on to its position of being the No. 1 property. “The last four games have already been sold at Rs 15 lakh per 10 second and there have been new advertisers like L'Oreal, Cadbury, Tata Motor's Nano and Asian Paints. People are still coming in to watch the games and we have crossed last season's viewership of 143 million and reached 155 million till last week''.

Presenting sponsor Vodafone was the biggest advertiser this season bagging 210 seconds for every game of the IPL.

“Yes, expectations from IPL-4 were higher and there was a bit of fatigue but towards the end viewership did pick up. Vodafone had a single sustained message right through the World Cup and the IPL and it was about announcing its 3G services and new data services through the super zoos for the past four months,'' said Mr Kapil Arora, Senior Vice-President, Brand and Country Head for Team Vodafone at O&M.

Big spender LG Electronics simply used IPL-4 to advertise its latest 3D televisions, a category where sales had stagnated.

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