Rs.60 crore expected from TV ad revenue
Disney-owned ESPN Software India, which will broadcast the Olympic games to over 50 million cable homes in the country, is hoping to corner around R35-40 crore in advertising revenue from sponsors. When contacted, a spokesperson for the company said: “There is tremendous advertiser interest in the Olympic coverage. In fact, we have sold 75% of the inventory.”
Sources in media agencies say big spenders like Hero MotoCorp, Tata Docomo and Airtel DTH are already on board as main sponsors, with one or two more brands in the process of signing the agreement with ESPN India.
On its part, national broadcaster Doordarshan, which will also air the Olympic coverage for cable as well as terrestrial viewers, might rake in around R20 crore in advertising revenue. “The minimum that we should get is in the vicinity of R17-20 crore from various government-run public sector undertakings, ministries and others. We are also in talks
with FMCG, telecom, banking and other category of companies in the private sector,” said a senior government official connected with DD Sports channel.
Reportedly, DD’s event sponsors include the department of consumer affairs, Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC). It has also finalised a sponsorship deal with Hero MotoCorp Ltd, which has been very active in hockey and was also the sponsor of the Olympic qualifiers held in Delhi earlier this year and ran a mass media campaign for it as well. Sahara group, the lead sponsor of the hockey team, too, may pitch in with its own media campaign.
It is for the first time that the Olympics will be broadcast by a private network and not just state-owned Doordarshan. ESPN-Star Sports (ESS) has been running a television campaign on the Olympics, which also features Indian athletes, in order to market the event and create a buzz around it. On the coverage of Olympics, the ESPN spokesperson added, “We will showcase live broadcast of Olympics on three networks in India—ESPN, Star Sports and ESPN HD. Overall, we have rights to broadcast 240 hours of programming every day for the duration of 15 days, which makes it almost 3,600 hours of programming.”
ESPN will be more India specific and showcase sports featuring Indian athletes, and sports that are more popular in India, such as hockey, shooting, boxing, wrestling, tennis, football, etc. Star Sports will focus its coverage on international top athletes and events beyond the Asia contingent. ESS declined to comment on the current status of spot sales and details of their broadcast partners.
However, industry sources say the picture might just not be as rosy as it seems. Despite the intensive campaign by ESS, there just might not be enough advertiser interest. On conditions of anonymity, an industry source with knowledge of the developments says the current spot rates being offered by ESS are between R10,000 to R20,000 per 10-second spot. The source added that while ESS was looking for eight broadcast partners (two co-sponsors and six associate sponsors), they've just managed three as of now—Hero Moto Corp, Airtel and Docomo—which would each be committing to about 1,200 seconds of advertising a day.
It is said that a deal with Samsung as another associate sponsor is in the works. Coke and McDonald's may also activate India.
"The Olympics have a fragmented audience and events are spread across days altogether. It's extremely difficult to get an aggregated mass of viewers for particular sports and disciplines within the Olympics. So unlike in cricket, where it is well known as to when a particular match will be played and telecast, too many simultaneous events and varied audience make advertising difficult in the Olympics," says Anwesh Bose, senior vice-president, DDB Mudra. Bose adds, "ESS has been very brave in saying that they will be taking advertisers who will advertise through the event on a daily basis. But knowing Indian advertisers, that seems to be a tough one. It's a great effort on the part of ESS for branding and packaging Olympics, but it's unlikely that it will translate into great monies."
Shubha George, COO, MEC South Asia, says there is considerably more interest in the Olympics as far as advertisers are concerned. But that still might not be enough. "Compared to prior Olympic editions, there is higher advertiser interest because of multiple reasons: sustained media coverage of Indian performance in Olympic sports such as wrestling, shooting; some medal hopefuls (wrestling, weight lifting, shooting) and popular stars. The current pricing is, however, higher than what the market will bear and this is keeping some advertisers away despite a positive inclination to the event," she says.
Disney-owned ESPN Software India, which will broadcast the Olympic games to over 50 million cable homes in the country, is hoping to corner around R35-40 crore in advertising revenue from sponsors. When contacted, a spokesperson for the company said: “There is tremendous advertiser interest in the Olympic coverage. In fact, we have sold 75% of the inventory.”
Sources in media agencies say big spenders like Hero MotoCorp, Tata Docomo and Airtel DTH are already on board as main sponsors, with one or two more brands in the process of signing the agreement with ESPN India.
On its part, national broadcaster Doordarshan, which will also air the Olympic coverage for cable as well as terrestrial viewers, might rake in around R20 crore in advertising revenue. “The minimum that we should get is in the vicinity of R17-20 crore from various government-run public sector undertakings, ministries and others. We are also in talks
with FMCG, telecom, banking and other category of companies in the private sector,” said a senior government official connected with DD Sports channel.
Reportedly, DD’s event sponsors include the department of consumer affairs, Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC). It has also finalised a sponsorship deal with Hero MotoCorp Ltd, which has been very active in hockey and was also the sponsor of the Olympic qualifiers held in Delhi earlier this year and ran a mass media campaign for it as well. Sahara group, the lead sponsor of the hockey team, too, may pitch in with its own media campaign.
It is for the first time that the Olympics will be broadcast by a private network and not just state-owned Doordarshan. ESPN-Star Sports (ESS) has been running a television campaign on the Olympics, which also features Indian athletes, in order to market the event and create a buzz around it. On the coverage of Olympics, the ESPN spokesperson added, “We will showcase live broadcast of Olympics on three networks in India—ESPN, Star Sports and ESPN HD. Overall, we have rights to broadcast 240 hours of programming every day for the duration of 15 days, which makes it almost 3,600 hours of programming.”
ESPN will be more India specific and showcase sports featuring Indian athletes, and sports that are more popular in India, such as hockey, shooting, boxing, wrestling, tennis, football, etc. Star Sports will focus its coverage on international top athletes and events beyond the Asia contingent. ESS declined to comment on the current status of spot sales and details of their broadcast partners.
However, industry sources say the picture might just not be as rosy as it seems. Despite the intensive campaign by ESS, there just might not be enough advertiser interest. On conditions of anonymity, an industry source with knowledge of the developments says the current spot rates being offered by ESS are between R10,000 to R20,000 per 10-second spot. The source added that while ESS was looking for eight broadcast partners (two co-sponsors and six associate sponsors), they've just managed three as of now—Hero Moto Corp, Airtel and Docomo—which would each be committing to about 1,200 seconds of advertising a day.
It is said that a deal with Samsung as another associate sponsor is in the works. Coke and McDonald's may also activate India.
"The Olympics have a fragmented audience and events are spread across days altogether. It's extremely difficult to get an aggregated mass of viewers for particular sports and disciplines within the Olympics. So unlike in cricket, where it is well known as to when a particular match will be played and telecast, too many simultaneous events and varied audience make advertising difficult in the Olympics," says Anwesh Bose, senior vice-president, DDB Mudra. Bose adds, "ESS has been very brave in saying that they will be taking advertisers who will advertise through the event on a daily basis. But knowing Indian advertisers, that seems to be a tough one. It's a great effort on the part of ESS for branding and packaging Olympics, but it's unlikely that it will translate into great monies."
Shubha George, COO, MEC South Asia, says there is considerably more interest in the Olympics as far as advertisers are concerned. But that still might not be enough. "Compared to prior Olympic editions, there is higher advertiser interest because of multiple reasons: sustained media coverage of Indian performance in Olympic sports such as wrestling, shooting; some medal hopefuls (wrestling, weight lifting, shooting) and popular stars. The current pricing is, however, higher than what the market will bear and this is keeping some advertisers away despite a positive inclination to the event," she says.