Advertisers find money for Twenty20 championship

One-day cricket has got a taste of its medicine. Twenty20 cricket has taken advertisers away from it, just like it took them away from Test matches several years ago.

Sports broadcaster ESPN India has managed to lure over a dozen advertisers for the Airtel Twenty20 Champions League, who could spend as much as Rs 270 crore (Rs 2.7 billion).

This is much more than the commitment of Rs 200-210 crore (Rs 2-2.1 billion) it got for the ongoing Champions Trophy, the one-day tournament currently in South Africa organised by the International Cricket Committee. That India made an early exit didn't help matters.

For the 19 matches of the Airtel Twenty20 Champions League, ESPN has got large advertisers like Bharti Airtel, Hero Honda, Mirc Electronics, Samsung, Maruti Suzuki, PepsiCo, Havells and United Spirits.

The matches will be played in India between October 8 and October 23 amongst league teams drawn from India, Australia, England, Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand and South Africa.

However, sources in media buying agencies said that ESPN's hope of generating around Rs 270 crore in advertising revenue from the tournament may fall short by 20-30 per cent or even more if the viewership ratings for the tournament turn out to be lower than expected.

Advertisers hope the matches will get an average rating of four or more - they will be watched in at least four per cent of the cable and satellite homes in the country.

This is significant because the ongoing Champions Trophy has generated extremely low match ratings of less than 2 on ESPN. This has led to a reallocation of advertising budgets of some of the top advertisers and ESPN may generate not more than Rs 150-160 crore (Rs 1.5-1.6 billion) from the tournament, informed sources said.

"It is not necessary that the advertisers spend all their advertising budgets committed to a sports broadcaster for a particular tournament. If the match ratings are lower than expectations, there are instances of advertisers holding back some of the budgets from one tournament and spending it on another," said Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas India, a leading media agency.

Industry sources said that the commitments from Airtel, Hero Honda and Maruti Suzuki on ESPN are for a longer duration. This gives them the space to hold back their expenditure in case the matches fail to give the expected viewership. "Airtel is the title sponsor for the tournament in a five-year deal," confirmed an ESPN source.