ESPN STAR scores with Twenty20 World Cup

India - Cashing in on the popularity of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty 20 tournament, ESPN STAR Sports has sold 90 per cent of its on-air advertising inventory for the upcoming ICC Twenty20 World Cup cricket for about INR 2.25 billion and also in record time.

The broadcaster has also been able to get a premium of more than 45% over what it charged last year for a 10-second spot, at INR 3.25 million.

Twelve cricket teams will take part in the second edition of this tournament that will be played in England from June 5 to 21, barely 10 days after the culmination of the IPL on 24 May in South Africa.

IPL's host broadcaster Sony SET MAX is expected to make around Rs 400 crore in advertising alone in the IPL which, however, covers 36 days against the World Cup's 16 days. The broadcaster, however, had been able to sell 10-second spots at around Rs 4 lakh for the latter stages of the tournament even before it began in South Africa.

India is the defending champion of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup tournament, having won the inaugural tournament in South Africa in 2007, defeating Pakistan in the finals. Twenty-seven matches are scheduled and they will be broadcast live to India at 6pm and 10pm.

ESPN is said to have roped in at least 10 advertisers, including Pepsi, Hero Honda, Maruti, Visa, Hewlett Packard, Perfetti and Nokia. There are three co-presenting on-air sponsors for the World Cup, and seven associate sponsors, sources in the advertising industry said.

The last Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 saw more than 90 million viewers tuning into ESPN STAR Sports. So far, more than 70 million viewers have watched the first 12 matches of IPL2 on SET MAX, about 10% more than IPL1 for the same number of matches, according to an analysis of the viewership data provided by ratings agencies aMap and TAM.

According to the advertising industry sources, ESPN is cashing in on the fact that India is the defending champion of the Twenty20 World Cup. An ESPN STAR Sports spokesperson said, "The inaugural edition of the ICC T20 World Cup caught the imagination of cricket fans across the globe. We expect the second edition to do even better and the advertiser response has been very positive till date."

The first edition of this tournament had an average rating of 15 for the Indian matches, considered extremely high for any format of a television show.

Commenting on advertiser interest in the Twenty20 World Cup tournament, Anita Nayyar, CEO of Havas Media, said: "There is definitely a lot of advertiser interest in this particular format of cricket -- however, there is also apprehension owing to the Indian timings for its telecast and also because of the uncertain English weather."

In India, most of the 27 World Cup matches will begin at 10 pm. The Indian team will play a maximum of seven matches, if the team makes it to the finals. Otherwise, India can play a minimum of five matches after its two group matches on June 6 and June 10.

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