While Star was expecting around Rs 1,800 crore as ad revenues from the television and digital media, it may end up getting Rs 1,500-1,600 crore now, after factoring in the washouts and India not being able to reach the final.
Last-minute advertisers may not have to worry about paying a premium for a television spot during the ongoing Cricket World Cup.
TV ad rates for these spots are down over 50 per cent after India lost to New Zealand in the first semi-final on Wednesday.
According to media planners and buyers negotiating on behalf of their clients, the asking price for around a 10 per cent inventory available for the final, valued at Rs 100-150 crore, is Rs 10-15 lakh per 10 seconds, lower than the Rs 30-35 lakh per 10 seconds Star was quoting last week.
New Zealand and England will clash in the final on Sunday.
The Eoin Morgan-led side thrashed five-time world champions Australia in the second semi-final on Thursday.
“The premium that advertisers would have paid if India were in the final will not be there,” said Basabdutta Chowdhuri, chief operating officer, Publicis Media.
Last-minute advertisers include those who have not booked a spot in the tournament so far. Some footwear and deodorant brands, skewed towards males, were keen to mark their presence in the final, said sources.
Around 40 advertisers have signed up as Cricket World Cup sponsors this year on Star’s television and digital media network Hotstar.
They include PhonePe, OnePlus, Havells, Amazon, Dream11, MRF Tyres, Coca-Cola, and Uber.
But these have paid a lower price since they were locked at the beginning of the tournament.
Media industry sources say the average TV sponsor rates for the Cricket World Cup were in the range of Rs 8-10 lakh per 10 seconds.
Spot buys, on the other hand, are negotiated at a higher price, depending on when advertisers come on board and for which matches.
High-impact clashes such as the one between India and Pakistan on June 16, for instance, saw last-minute advertisers fork out as much as Rs 25 lakh per 10 seconds.
Star’s asking price last week, said sources, was for both the semi-final and final, based on the assumption that India would clear the penultimate round of the World Cup.
It was also Star’s last-ditch effort to extract maximum value from the penultimate and final rounds at a time when rain has disrupted matches, putting pressure on ad revenues.
Four matches, including a league match between India and New Zealand on June 13, were washed out.
And the semi-final between India and New Zealand stretched for two days because rain disrupted play on Tuesday.
While Star was expecting around Rs 1,800 crore as ad revenues from the television and digital media, it may end up getting Rs 1,500-1,600 crore now, after factoring in the washouts and India not being able to reach the final.
Hotstar, however, has recorded 19 million concurrent viewers for the India-New Zealand semi-final on Wednesday, according to Counterpoint Research.
That is higher than the 18.6 million concurrent viewers for the IPL final between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings on May 12, and the 15.6 million concurrency recorded during the India-Pakistan match.
Concurrent view means the number of viewers watching the digital stream at each second.
This number tends to fluctuate as viewers join and leave the stream.
Photograph: Lee Smith/Reuters
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