MAM

Weak IPL5 ratings cause for concern

Published

14 years ago

April 11, 2012

MUMBAI: After a spell of success for three consecutive years, the Indian Premier League is getting a harsh reality check. While Max, the official broadcaster, has found it tough to sell to advertisers at last year‘s rates, the initial ratings are a matter of concern for the long-term growth of the property.

The average rating for the first six matches of the fifth edition of the IPL has hit an all-time low, scoring weaker than last year‘s which had taken place immediately after a long-drawn World Cup at home that India went on to win. TAM data shows that the average rating stood at 3.76 TVR, a big drop from the 4.63 TVR that the event garnered last year. The third edition of the event had done even better with average rating of 4.99 TVR.

Making matters worse for Max is the fact that the overall reach too has seen a 10 per cent drop to 90 million from 101 million last year. If the ratings continue their downward spiral, it will have huge implications for Max in particular as it had to make do with unsold inventory and lesser sponsors for this season. The channel had made Rs 9 billion in revenues from last season‘s IPL in spite of average viewership for the tournament falling even as the overall reach increased.

The drop in ratings will certainly put pressure on Max. As it has sold just 65-70 per cent of its commercial time.However, MSM president network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta says that it is still early for an analysis. “We need to give it another week. We are doing deals.”

Industry experts point out that the main reasons for the drop in ratings are Team India‘s disastrous performance in England and Australia followed by lackluster showing in the four nation Asia Cup with the win over Pakistan being the only talking point coupled with one-sided matches in the IPL.

The mood in the market is that while there were no sky high expectations from the IPL this year, in the same breath it wasn‘t expected to do this bad.

Percept Jt MD Shailendra Singh reasons that the positioning of the IPL as a “youth” league has gone for a toss what with retired players Adam Gilchrist and Rahul Dravid taking centrestage.

“The IPL has become a veteran league with so many retired players playing in the tournament. The franchises should have promoted the youth faces. The whole purpose of the IPL will be defeated if the youth is not given due recognition,” he avers.

GroupM ESP managing partner Hiren Pandit does not agree that the IPL has lost its youth value. He believes that the lack of competitiveness is driving away interest. The Indian team‘s pathetic form also contributed to the low interest.

Pandit, though, cautions against writing off the IPL as the data is just for the first six matches. “I think it‘s too early to comment, let‘s wait for some more matches. But, yes, the ratings have gone down due to lack of good performance from players and the Indian team‘s performance in the recent tours,” he says.

He is also hopeful that a couple of good performances will lift the mood among fans. A case in point is last year‘s IPL when Chris Gayle took the IPL by storm with his ruthless knocks. Gayle, who remained unsold during the auction, was taken as a replacement player by Royal Challengers Bangalore, which turned out to be a game changer.

Singh feels that the franchises should do more activity round the year to engage fans and the emphasis should be on the sport rather than entertainment. He is quick to add that the right dosage of entertainment is also needed.

Maxus and Motivator South Asia MD Ajit Varghese says though the drop in ratings is a concern, advertisers at the same time will get a value out of their marketing investment‘s since a rating of 3.76 is not that bad either. He also contends that advertisers who have taken on-air sponsorship this year will gain more as the number of advertisers is less which will result in less clutter.

“We never had high expectations from the IPL this season as ratings have taken a hit due to Indian team‘s (bad) performance. However the drop in ratings remain a concern,” Varghese adds. “Different advertisers have different objectives to get on to the IPL bandwagon. Some might want to use it to launch products, while others do it for impact. Some also might do it to strengthen their leadership position.”

A sports marketing expert feels that one reason for lower ratings is a lack of close match endings. “Glamour also is important as the IPL has always been sold as an entertainment property. The fact that ‘Houseful‘ did well at the box office shows that people are not interrupting their schedule to watch matches,” the executive says.

Pandit, however, has a contrarian view. “I don‘t think that (glamour) it will do any wonders for the IPL because at the end of the day it is about the sport, which in itself is an entertainment proposition.”

Related Topics:Hiren Pandit IPL TAM data

Up Next

Hindi GECs in IPL week

Don't Miss

Publicis NCD Upputuru Emmanuel quits

Click to comment

MAM

Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement

Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted

Published

4 days ago

February 4, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.

The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.

The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.

Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.

Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.

For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.

More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.

The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.

In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.

Brands

Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

Published

1 week ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

MAM

Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

Published

1 week ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.

Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.

Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.