In India, the arena for the Sydney 2000 Olympics seems to be the Net. At least it has managed to rope in more advertisers than Doordarshan. As is well-known, advertisers have, by and large, kept away from DD Sports, the only channel with the right to broadcast the event live in India. On the other hand, several portals such as Indya, Rediff, Khel.com, India Today Group Online (ITGO) and 123india, have roped in quite a number of corporates for their Olympic specific sections.

Rediff.com boasts of tying in at least 12 advertisers. Among others, it includes brands like Fujifilm, Castrol oil, Ericsson mobile phones, Cherry Blossom shoe polish etc. lndya.com too has roped in Ericsson, Maruti Zen and Electrolux as its advertisers. While ITGO and 123india have exclusive sponsors in Samsung India and ICICI Prudential respectively. Industry sources say that Olympics will contribute at least Rs one crore to the Net advertising kitty.

Besides, the target audience for the Olympics, the upper middle class, is also the audience for these brands. "The class of people who watch the Olympics are those who watch the Olympics are those who spend a lot of time at work. The best way for Olympic update is the Net," says Choudhary. Agrees chief executive officer Media2india Suresh Raman: "Net is the best bet to catch the Olympics. Besides, Net advertising is more focussed. "On TV, one is never sure of the visibility. On the Net we can get across to our target audience without too much wastage," says Pradeep Sarkar marketing director of Jindal Photo Films which markets Fujifilm in India. Ericsson, meanwhile, is sponsoring Rediffs WAP coverage of the Olympics. "The Rediff association will benefit us immensely as it allows us instant visibility with our target audience,- says Ranjivjit Singh director consumer products at Ericsson.

Arun Katiyar executive vice president content and services at Indya.com says that corporates view this as an opportunity to leverage their consumer base as Indya reaches out to a global audience."

Says Choudhary: "If such events keep happening, we can encash them and make 15 times the amount we now make from ad revenues." Rediff claims that it will earn about Rs 35 lakhs from Olympics sponsorship alone. While Indya is expected to earn about Rs 20 to 25 lakhs from the event.

Samsung India on the other hand is following a different route In association with ITGO, for which it has paid Rs 40 lakhs, Samsung has set up its own microsite called Samsung 4sports.com. If one clicks on ITGO’s Olympic page, one automatically reaches the Samsung microsite automatically. Yet others lament it as a missed opportunity. Says Dhruv Saxena, CEO 123india: "I think the corporate response has been lukewarm. We were expeting more advertisers."

While the dotcom fraternity may be enthused by its Olympics bounty, Bates India’s Delhi head Shovon Chowdhury puts things in perspective: "TV and Net are not interchangeable. The Net has far less penetration than TV and cannot usurp its position. Probably if DD had marketed the Olympics better it would have attracted the advertiser traffic.