By ASHWIN PINTO
Indiantelevision.com Team

(17 July 2008 7:00 pm)

MUMBAI: With the Idea Cup between India and Sri Lanka kicking off on 23 July, Ten Sports has roped in a clutch of sponsors. Besides Idea, which is the presenting sponsor, the channel has also roped in Bharti AGA Life Insurance and Hero Honda as co-presenting sponsors. The associate sponsors are LG and Maruti.

Speaking to indiantelevision.com Taj Television India GM Rukin Kizilbash says, “We have sold 80 per cent of our inventory for the Test matches at Rs 50,000 per 10 seconds. For ODIs, we started at Rs 200,000 and went up to Rs 250,000. There is a month still to go for the ODI series to kick off and we have sold 85 per cent of our inventory. Our aim is to take the rate up to Rs 350,000 as the event comes nearer. For ODIs there are around 20-25 spots left while for the Test matches there are around 10-12 spots left per playing day.”

Information available with indiantelevision.com indicates that the presenting sponsors paid around Rs 100 million while the associate sponsors have coughed up Rs 80 million. It is also believed that in total, Idea will spend Rs 300 million on the event as the title sponsor. Sri Lanka Cricket will get around Rs 200 million from Idea for the association.

The special packages like Action Replay are believed to have been sold for around Rs 18–20 million each.

The sponsors get between 240-300 seconds of ad time per match day. Bharti AGA has also taken the fall of wickets package. Maruti has the ratings deal. It also has a car on display, which will be given to the man of the series.

Hero Honda will present a bike to the batsman who hits the most number of sixes in the ODI event. HP has taken the super fours and sixes package.

Gujarat Ambuja has the Action Replay section. LF is sponsoring the score pop up feature while Visa has associated itself with Hawkeye. Companies that have taken spot buys include Sony India, which is pushing their Bravia television line, Pepsi, Volkswagen and the Aditya Birla Group.

While refusing to comment on the financial details of specific deals, Kizilbash says that there is no cricket fatigue from either the viewer's or the advertiser's end. “Today in an increasingly fragmented media environment nothing cuts through the clutter like India cricket. The final of the Asia Cup drew a rating of over six. If you look at males 15+ the rating crosses eight. Which other programme on television can deliver this? Having said that, the advantage of a bilateral series involving India is that there is no wastage for the clients. In the Asia Cup there were a number of matches that had weak teams. The Sri Lanka series will benefit clients as the ratings will be maintained.”

Kizilbash adds that the fact that Zee Sports is airing the ODI series in Hindi will give the event an increase of 25 per cent in terms of reach. “It is also encouraging to see that new clients like Havells who have never looked at cricket are coming on board. While there are a lot of series involving India in the year, I also feel that there are enough advertisers who want to use cricket to get an all India presence to justify many events. No other event on television can do that.”