Multi Screen Media, the official telecast partner for the Indian Premier League, has got competitive sportscasters nipping at its heels. Even as Star India has signed a three-year ground sponsorship deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for around Rs 70 crore, ESPNCricinfo, the digital offering from sports channel ESPN, has cordoned off the cricket coverage across digital devices.
Is it ambush marketing at work? Rohit Gupta, President, Multi Screen Media (MSM), said the move could be construed as an act of desperation by rival telecasters to gain more eyeballs, but it also reveals the hot property that IPL has become.
“We are the official broadcast sponsor for 10 years. They (Star) have only bagged ground sponsorship for three years and will have nothing to do with the actual telecast. Other than a few boards around the field, there is not much that they can hope to achieve,” Gupta told
MSM, earlier known as Sony Entertainment Television, signed a 10-year deal with the IPL for around $1.6 billion. The channel pays around Rs 900 crore to the BCCI every year. In comparison, the Star deal with BCCI is estimated to be around Rs 18-20 crore per year.
However, Sony competes directly with Star Plus. MSM operates the flagship Sony Entertainment channel, besides SET Max and Sony SIX, which will also telecast the IPL.
MSM’s Gupta noted that IPL has had many ground sponsors such as Karbonn, CitiBank and YES Bank, and that Star India would be truly “contained to the ground”.
However, aided by its heightened visibility during previous editions of IPL, former ground sponsor Karbonn Mobile has milked its association with sports, and has reported resounding success in the domestic market. Media buyers said the handset maker set aside Rs 200 crore and has fastidiously associated with football, hockey, Champions League T20 and the IPL.
This year, Karbonn Tabs have been added on as associate sponsors for the telecast. Another former ground sponsor, YES Bank, was signed on by MSM at end-March for five years, as the official partner of the Financial Services category.
Not the first attempt
The signing of a sponsorship deal with a rival is not the first attempt, and market observers point out to a similar move by Nimbus Communications to sell its advertisement slots to a Star property, though with adequate financial compensation.
With the start of IPL 2013 season, ESPNCricinfo is also readying a range of products and sections on the Web for cricket fans to be deployed across its online and mobile services.
A social scorecard has been introduced, that aims to provide a second-screen match experience that combines standard scorecard information and stats with the functionality of social media. It will allow fans to connect and engage with other fans, chat, debate, play games, follow the chatter on Twitter and have tools to access in-depth stats, information and analysis.
According to a company spokesperson, “The aim is to deliver comprehensive coverage of the IPL across digital devices. ESPNCricinfo’s coverage of the sport includes match reports, news, analysis and stats. This has now been enhanced with Rahul Bose, Harsha Bhogle and player diaries and several other features.”