With high stakes in the South Indian entertainment industry, the Sun TV Network has got advertisers and media planners in a tizzy by bagging the rights at the price the Group has.

Speaking to Business Line , advertising majors said the Sun TV network was a very powerful group. “Over the years, they have successfully built a huge empire in Tamil Nadu and in the South, where they are very dominant. They are clearly looking to grow their newly acquired IPL asset in the next couple of years. Given their command in the media and entertainment space, it is not a tough task,” said a senior official of a media buying agency in Mumbai, who has been dealing with the company.

Shashi Sinha, Chief Executive Officer at Lodestar, said: “Though the Hindi belt is very big, it is not as economically rich as the South. The Sun Network is very well entrenched in media, and is bound to leverage its standing in the market over the last 10 to 12 years with this buy.''

Though some were initially stumped at the media major bagging the IPL rights, they stated that it was a great, bold and big move. “Star TV has got into cricket. It makes sense for these guys to get in, given the great opportunity to rope in massive advertising spends,” said a senior advertising executive with a WPP network.

V. Shantakumar, Managing Partner at DoingThink, a management consulting firm, said the original principle to associate IPL with cricket associations across different regions has gone for a toss. Take Kochi Tuskers, which was scrapped from the IPL, or even Pune Warriors.

“It is no longer region-specific. It is a Southern team which seems to have lost its franchise (Deccan Chargers) and is substituted by another team. As of now, the idea is to just get someone on board who can afford a good team and can provide the right guarantees. Someone who is closer to the powers that be,” said Shantakumar, former Chairman and CEO at advertising major Saatchi and Saatchi.

Shailendra Singh, Joint Managing Director, Percept, which advises on media buying and planning, says Sun TV is seen as an indispensable steady player in the South by media planners. Its ad rates are value-for-money. So a brand looking to crack the South is advised to allot at least 50 per cent of TV budgets for Sun.

Sun Group buying IPL augurs well for both brands. IPL’s brand value was being eroded in the last two years; it hasn’t had good news for some time now, but a new team joining the fray is certainly exciting, positive news. While it is hard to say if the buy will be a drain on Sun’s resources, it will make Sun a power brand in the field of sport and entertainment. There are a lot of on-ground benefits to leverage.

(With inputs from Swetha Kannan in Chennai)

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