India's T20 exit queers the pitch for advertisers

NEW DELHI: Knives are out for Mahendra Singh Dhoni & Co, with India crashing out of the Twenty20 World Cup, and advertisers are chewing their nails fearing a slump in viewership, but event broadcaster ESPN Star Sports is sitting pretty, having sold all the spots for the entire tournament at a premium.

���We do expect some attrition in ratings with India���s exit, but as far as commercial deals are concerned, we are sold out,��� said ESPN Software India MD RC Venkateish.

His firm had closed advertising deals at rates ranging from Rs 2.7 lakh to 4 lakh per 10 seconds, at least three weeks before the tournament kicked off, and only a few seconds are left to be picked up.

Advertisers who paid a 20-25 % premium over the previous Twenty20 World Cup to ESPN Star Sports (ESS) include Reliance Mobile, Hero Honda, PepsiCo , Reebok, Hewlett-Packard , Maruti, Perfetti, Nokia, Adani, Visa, LG Electronics and Max New York Life.

ESS is learnt to have earned close to Rs 180 crore from the tournament.



���Viewership ratings will be adversely impacted, with India now out of the tournament. But our arrangement with ESS is till 2015,��� said Sanjay Behl, CEO of Big TV and head of Reliance Mobile���s branding and marketing operation.

Maruti VP marketing Mayank Parekh, too, agreed ratings would get affected with India���s exit. Apart from expecting the defending champions to at least make it to the semi-final stage, advertisers had invested in the tournament, riding on the growing popularity of the quick-fix format.