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Tag: Champions Trophy

  • ‘The ICC will continue to manage its economics on a global basis with India as a key market’ : ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat

    ‘The ICC will continue to manage its economics on a global basis with India as a key market’ : ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat

    Wearing the International Cricket Council (ICC) hat isn‘t an easy job these days. With the Indian Premier League (IPL) becoming the new economic powerhouse, scheduling international cricket can be a tough task.

     

    The challenge of the ICC is to ensure that a balance is maintained between the three formats – Test cricket, one-dayers and T20 – of the game as each has its own attraction and value proposition.

     

    The other task is to take the game to new markets including the US and China. The ICC has set aside $300 million for the development of the game.

     

    With the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) gaining superpower status in world cricket, the role of the ICC is to manage its economics on a global basis with India as a key market.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Ashwin Pinto, ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat talks about cricket continuing to be in a healthy state as it has three viable formats of the game running at the international level.

     

    Excerpts:
     
     
    How would you describe the health and state of cricket at this point of time?

    Cricket is in a very healthy state at present. We are fortunate to have three viable formats of the game at the international level – Tests, ODIs and T20Is. Having these three formats is a huge opportunity that offers our fans, sponsors and broadcasters different options. No other sport can boast three viable formats of the game at international level.
     
     

    What is the ICC‘s strategy going to be to ensure that all formats of the game co-exist?

    Depending on how all of us collectively manage the game, we believe that all three formats can survive because each has its own attraction and value proposition: Test cricket has its endurance, cut and thrust, and its tradition of more than 130 years and, importantly, it is regarded by the players as the ultimate format. It is the benchmark by which they will be measured.

     

    ODIs have a history of their own with nine ICC Cricket World Cups stretching back to 1975. This format offers a chance for sides to recover from difficult situations while still affording a result in a single day.

     

    It boasts the biggest attractions in the World Cup and largest team prize in the game.

     

    Twenty20 is a great new attraction and vehicle to develop the game at domestic level. This short and sharp format draws new interest and allows tournaments to take place over a short period of time.

     

    It is important that the ICC and our members get the balance right, particularly in terms of scheduling.
     
     

    What measures are being taken to protect Test cricket‘s status as the pinnacle of the game?

    There are three important factors – competitive matches, context and the spectator experience. Improvements can be made in all of these areas and we are working with our members to achieve this.

     

    Some current examples of this are the current investigation into developing greater context for Test cricket, the possibility of staging day/night Test cricket in territories that would benefit from that, and more effective and consistent marketing and promotion of Test match cricket.
     
     

    Could we see the day night concept being introduced post 2012 for Test cricket?

    We need to make sure that Test cricket is accessible to the supporters that want to watch it. The indications are that in some markets supporters may be more interested in watching Test cricket, at the venues and on television, if it is played in the evening.

     

    Day/night Test cricket is one of several options under consideration. It is dependent on successfully developing a cricket ball that can be used in night conditions and this would need to be trialled at the domestic level first.
     

     
    While you maintain that the ODI format is fine, the fact is that the Champions Trophy will now be held once in four years and not every two years. The Twenty20 World Cup will take place every two years. Doesn‘t this indicate that to some extent the balance of power in terms of viewership and revenue is shifting from the ODI towards Twenty20?

    Don‘t forget that the ICC cricket World Cup is also held every four years and between this and the Champions Trophy, there will be a 50-over tournament every two years until 2015. In other words, the World Twenty20 will alternate with a 50-over format every year.

     

    Not surprisingly the 50-over format at international level remains very popular with players, spectators, TV viewers and sponsors. The highly successful ICC Champions Trophy event in South Africa demonstrated that yet again as have other recent bilateral series.
     
     

    ‘Our major events are televised into more than 200 countries with hundreds of millions of viewers. Cricket receives the second highest amount of TV viewers of any team sport after soccer‘
     

     
    Are you satisfied at the progress that has been made in terms of the preparations for the 2011 World Cup?

    Yes, we have done extremely well with preparations during the course of this year.

     
     
    How much revenue will the ICC and the boards make from cricket‘s showpiece event?

    In terms of commercial and broadcast interests, the World Cup 2011 is bundled with all the other major ICC events over an eight-year period. The current deal will run from 2007 to 2015 but the details, as you would appreciate, are confidential.

     

    We will, though, be investing $300 million into the development of the game in our associate and affiliate members over the course of this cycle.
     

    Do you see the IPL posing a threat to international cricket? Already last year Sri Lanka withdrew from their tour of England so that their players could take part in the IPL which offers much more money?

    On balance, the IPL has been very positive for the sport overall. It must be remembered that it is a domestic tournament under the auspices of the BCCI and does not take precedence over international cricket. This is something that the IPL itself and the BCCI has made clear to the players and public.
     

     
    Is the ICC examining the possibility of creating a window for the IPL?
    Being a domestic event, there is no consideration for a window at present and there is also no request for one.
     
     

    Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are also planning a league. Would this pose a challenge to the ICC in terms of formulating the FTP post 2012?

    I am not aware of such a league being planned. In any case, it would not impact the FTP post 2012 as this has already been agreed subject to a few provisos.
     

     
    India dominates the game economically in that 80 per cent of the revenue generated comes from here. Does the ICC have a gameplan to reduce this imbalance which cannot be healthy for any sport?

    We are always pleased when our members are able to generate funds and optimise their revenues domestically. On the other hand, we have always been fortunate to attract local and global sponsors that are not purely driven by the Indian market.

     

    However, given the huge market in India, it is not a surprise that this is the revenue generating powerhouse for world cricket. We will, therefore, continue to manage our economics on a global basis with India as a key market.

     

     
    Does more need to be done in terms of how the game is covered on television or are you satisfied?

    I think that the coverage the game receives worldwide is excellent. Our major events are televised into more than 200 countries with hundreds of millions of viewers. Cricket receives the second highest amount of TV viewers of any team sport after soccer.
     

     
    New media is growing through mobile and the Internet. How is the ICC taking advantage of this to spread the reach of the game?

    We have an excellent partnership with Yahoo! in relation to our website and other internet platforms. We also work with our commercial partners to make the most of the mobile platforms.

     
    The BCCI recently formed a consortium to fight piracy. Is this a serious threat from your point of view?

    ICC supported the BCCI in this regard and is also working seriously to handle this issue. We are working with our stakeholders to form a coalition to actively address and counteract online piracy.
     

    Could you shed light on the strategy that the ICC follows when it comes to doing local sponsorships for its events?

    The strategy we adopt depends on the event and the market in which it is taking place.
    In truth, it was not really difficult to get in sponsorships for this year. We managed to secure some excellent local sponsors despite the global recession and we were very pleased with the overall outcome. That is a reflection of the good health of the game and the value we are able to offer our commercial partners.

     

    For instance, we got Standard Bank to sponsor the World Twenty20 cricket championship. Local partners are an important feature of all ICC events because they tend to have a vested interest in the markets in which our events are staged. The ticketing component of the local partner packages offers an excellent platform for targeted sales promotions by sponsors.

     

    Our marketing research suggests that the dollar value of the televised brand exposure that local partners receive far exceeds their level of investment, primarily because our events are uncluttered in terms of the number of branding messages.
     

     
    What are the steps taken by the ICC to avoid ambush marketing?

    We implement sensible and practical measures during our events to ensure that orchestrated ambush marketing does not occur. I don‘t want to go into too much detail. But it is suffice to say that we are vigilant in our efforts to preserve our commercial partners‘ rights and make sure they receive value for their investment. 

     
    Is it easy to spread the reach of cricket to emerging and new markets?

    We invest more in developing the game than any other sport, apart from soccer. The Pepsi ICC Development Programme is spending around $300 million over the next cycle to develop and promote cricket below Full Member level.

    The Development Programme has made huge strides over recent years and we have seen teams like Ireland, Kenya, Scotland and the Netherlands come through that programme and put in competitive performances against the top sides. Ireland made it through to the Super Eight stage of Cricket World Cup 2007 and the World Twenty20 2009 beating a number of Full Members along the way. We recently saw the Netherlands beating England at Lord‘s in the World Twenty20. Participation has doubled over the last five years with the biggest growth areas being junior and female players.

     
     
    Finally, do China and the US play an important role in the ICC‘s growth plan?

    We have identified the US and China as two obvious areas for potential growth and, through our regional structures, we are involved in developing the game there. They are two very distinct and different markets for cricket and so cannot really be compared.

    However, there is no doubt that both offer a wonderful opportunity for cricket to continue to spread the sport and we intend to do just that.
     

  • ‘We have enough high quality relevant content to provide for each of the three channels’ : RC Venkateishi- ESPN Software India managing director

    ‘We have enough high quality relevant content to provide for each of the three channels’ : RC Venkateishi- ESPN Software India managing director

    Just when everyone was thinking that sports broadcasters might look to “de-risk” the cricket story, ESPN Star Sports has announced the launch of a dedicated cricket channel for Indian audiences. The new channel, christened Star Cricket, will commence transmission in June.

     

    Star Cricket will be making its bow with a big bang property to showcase because its launch coincides with the India tour of England that involves four Tests and seven One Day Internationals.

     

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with ESPN Software India managing director RC Venkateish in an attempt to get a feel of what was guiding this decision.

     

    Excerpts:

    Is this the right time to launch another cricket centric sports channel, particularly considering the disillusionment of the general public with the game in the country?
    Suffice to say that there is still no challenge to cricket as the single sport which has pole position in the Indian market. And I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future. So, from the perspective of timing, we really don’t think that is an issue.

     

    What is more important is the longer term picture and going forward we continue to believe that cricket will continue to hold its own and in fact strengthen as there is a lot of new talent coming in.

    Nobody’s is arguing that India will not continue to remain cricket-centric. But the fact of the matter is that for something like this to work, it has to be underpinned by high levels of interest in the domestic game as well, which is not the case in India. In fact, this is a problem that Neo Sports seems to be confronting as well.
    Which is a pity actually. In fact, if the local tournaments are properly marketed and properly packaged for the viewers, have the potential. We unfortunately don’t have the rights for that.

    Exactly, and isn’t that what Nimbus is hoping to leverage on Neo Sports. And you don’t have local Indian cricket to showcase, so what is the USP of your channel?
    What we will be showcasing in fact, apart from the international matches, is county cricket in England and domestic cricket in Australia, which also feature some of the best players in the world, including a lot of Indian players. There will also be a substantial effort to market that.

     

    In many ways we will be doing a parallel to things like English Premier League. Where it was four or five years ago to where it is today, it is really a result of the investments that we have done in promoting that property and making it interesting for the viewer.

     

    If you just pick up something and put it on the channel, it is not going to work. That is the job of marketing to popularize a particular sport. It has to be exploited and executed properly. Even the domestic Indian tournament, it needs to be put across properly to the viewer. It is not something that will happen automatically.

    There are two strands to the communication that you sent out on your upcoming channel. One is that you will showcase live India and non India cricket. You will also showcase feature programming, including reality reality shows?
    Reality shows are like we had recently Harsha ki Khoj Dream Job. That genre has lot of space. It has a lot of opportunities for us to create programming around that. We will be developing more such shows and putting them across to the viewer.

    Fair enough but the point is that now you have three platforms through which you have to transmute content. Is there enough content to go around?
    On the content side, over the last couple of years, we strengthened our cache, not just in cricket but in all other sports. We just recently renewed the English Premier League. We have the Spanish League, we have Euro 2008. Those are the big soccer properties. In tennis, we added the French Open so we now have it along with Wimbledon and the Australian. In motor sports we have Formula 1 and A1. In golf we have all the major properties.

     

    So, if you look at each and every sport and the key properties, they are all residing on our channel. Along with this, we have other smaller content also which has come on the network.

     

    As for cricket, for the next 14-16 months I have India’s tour of England, the Twenty20 World Cup, India’s tour of Australia, the Asia Cup and the Champion’s Trophy. That is five major cricketing events.

     

    So I don’t believe that we are in anyway falling short of providing high quality relevant content in each of these three channels.

    What about distribution? Right now we are in a very uncertain distribution market, both on analog as well as on digital cable, with Cas only in the beginnings of being rolled out. And in such a time you are launching a 3rd channel?
    I agree with you that there are a lot of people having trouble finding distribution. But ultimately, your bottom line is going to be content. I think we will be in a position to demonstrate it through cable and to the viewer that the content we have to showcase on the channel are of a quality that must be carried.

    Let us accept that you have great content, but today the reality of placement fees cannot be wished away. And it means that slots are booked on tunable bandwidths for one year, two years…
    I think that applies more to other genres. Unless people see your channel how will they get hooked on to it? They will not demand it. For my cricket channel, I don’t have to create a demand.

    There is the recent example of Neo Sports, which had great content but still faced distribution problems?
    The difference is that Neo Sports did not have its own distribution team.

    Well they had Star distributing them, which is as good as it can get?
    I don’t know what Neo Sports needed to do but they didn’t do, or what support they got, I don’t really want to comment on that. But as far as we’re concerned, we have the strongest distribution as well as distribution team in India, and I am completely confident that we will not have any issues with our channel.
    ‘We have been delivering higher and higher reach and we haven’t seen the proper monies for that as yet‘

    That still doesn’t explain how you’re going to find place in a tunable bandwidth if all the slots are already locked in.
    In case there is a cricket match happening, he (the cable operator has to put it in the prime band. I can’t see a situation where the matches will not be shown.

    There is the option of DD, where the matches are being shown because of must carry.
    Test matches are not going to be shown on DD. I agree with you that channels tend to go up and down, especially the ones who don’t pay money to the cable operator. That is a fact.

     

    Even then, we have always managed to be there in prime band even when we didn’t have cricket running. And you must understand that in regards to sports channels there has been a certain amount of consolidation. So the other channels which don’t have relevant content tend to be pushed onto the hyper band.

     

    There will be a little bit of juggling and we will have to manage that. But as a company policy, we will certainly not pay any carriage fee or any placement fee. We are a pay channel and we will get our price.

    What rates have you fixed for the new channel?
    We haven’t announced the final rate but it should be in the region of around Rs 28 to RS 30.

    Let’s talk about the ICC cricket rights. I take you back to a comment you’d made earlier to Indiantelevision.com that the crazy escalation in rights prices will start cooling down a bit. And yet you went and plonked $ 1.1 billion for those rights?
    If you do a bit of math, you’ll see that whatever I said earlier has actually happened. Let’s benchmark it with some of the other rights. The BCCI rights, which the previous version was for $ 50 million for five years, went for $ 612 million for four years. So that’s basically an escalation of 1,400 per cent.

     

    Now take the ICC, the last ICC went for $ 550 million. So that’s basically a 100 per cent increase. And the last ICC did not have events like the Twenty20 World Cup, which have been added on this property.

     

    What we have paid over eight years, is basically a 9 per cent per annum escalation in rights fee, as opposed to some of the other properties, which in recent times have gone absolutely berserk. The BCCI, as well as the BCCI offshore cricket rights package sold to Zee for over $ 215 million ($ 219.15 million).

     

    Even if you look at things like the Sri Lanka board for $ 50 million, or the Bangladesh board, which went for $ 56 million after going for $ 6-7-8 million last time.

     

    So what we have paid for are not just the World Cups and Champions Trophies, but also what is going to develop into a real cracker of a property – the Twenty20 World Cup. Not once, but thrice.

    From an average per day cost perspective, and if we compare the three properties that went for big bucks, how does such a payout work?
    Zee paid $ 8.71 million, BCCI went for around $ 3-4 million per day and we are around the same ball park.

    There are also the cricket rights that are coming up over the next 12 months for many big territories over the next year and a half. You have already committed $ 1.1 billion for the ICC rights as well as all the other rights you’ve mopped up recently, so where do you stand on that?
    We are quite comfortable with the levels of investment we’ve made thus far and what we have identified as key acquisitions for the future.

     

    But having the ICC rights provides us a very strong backbone of cricket over the next eight years. Whatever else we add on would be accretive to what we already have so it won’t be necessary to go out and buy everything under the sun.

    What of the territories that ESS currently own – England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa? Will you be making aggressive bids to retain them?
    We haven’t formalised how we’re going to go about it yet.

    I again come back to the disaster that was the World Cup. Everyone was expecting 2007 to be cricket’s year as far as advertising is concerned due to the sheer volumes of A list properties that are coming up throughout the year. Now will all the calculations have to be reworked?
    On this I have a different take. I think the advertisers have had it pretty good so far. I have an argument we need to push more forcefully and that is something as a broadcasting community we haven’t done enough of. The fact of the matter is all the rates that advertisers have been paying us have been on the basis of CPRP at a time when overall reach has doubled.
    But this is an argument that Star’s Paritosh Joshi has raised, as too Zee’s Joy Chakraborty. Today we are faced with a situation where HLL has pulled out its advertising from Star. And the broadcasting community does not seem to have any unity on this issue so what are we talking here?
    There is unity developing on this issue and you will see a more forceful exposition of the point in the days to come. Certainly at IBF we are all seized of it in terms of a consolidation of our position.

    We have been delivering higher and higher reach and we haven’t seen the proper monies for that as yet.
    Coming back to the development of local sport, you’ve earlier stated that Sports federations need to get their act together. One of the biggest culprits in that sense is the IHF run by KPS Gill with whom you’re a partner. One could say that it is because of the mess the IHF is in that the PHL is not taking off. So doesn’t it make sense to encourage the IHF to get itself sorted out?
    Our experience with the PHL has been very positive. There wasn’t anything in PHL that we needed to do and have not been able to do because of lack of support from IHF. Suffice to say that we are quite happy, both with the way the PHL has performed and with the kind of partnership we have with the IHF.

    But you yourself have said one reason why PHL is not taking of is because they are not performing well internationally. I think it is interlinked. If the federation was being run properly, the teams would be doing better internationally. A follows B, one could argue.
    How federations are run is not something I would like to comment on. We stand ready to help the federation in any way we can but it is not our brief to tell the associations how they are to be run. Because, quite frankly, this is something they need to work out among themselves.
  • Indya.com gears up for cricket World Cup

    Indya.com gears up for cricket World Cup

    MUMBAI: Played with passion! Followed with obsession!

    With the cricket World Cup scheduled to kick off in less than a month’s time indya.com, which is running the official website www.cricketworldcup.com as the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) web partner, is starting to make a push.

    The site officially launches on Monday, 26 February.

    Information available with indiantelevision.com indicates that one presenting sponsor and four associate sponsors have been signed up so far for this year’s highlight cricket event.

    It was last year that Star inked a deal with the ICC to run its sites for the Champions Trophy and next month’s World Cup. Indya.com business head Sumant Kasliwal claims that its Champions Trophy site got three million unique users. In total there were over a billion hits, a lot of which, not surprisingly came from India. One million downloads took place and there were 100,000 registered users.

    For the Champions Trophy the site got 230 million page views. Kasliwal says that for the World Cup the site is expecting a billion page views during the event. “Our application Matchcast (which is a scorecard) has been expanded upon. It will be interactive. The aim is to give the consumer a complete experience. One can get match highlights, fall of wickets package, interactive contests. There will be live chat during the game. Users can comment on the state of the game. Our video content will include highlights from the previous World Cups. Other sites (as per the ICC diktat) are not allowed to show cricket videos.”

    Kasliwal also mentions another application – the Simulator. The visitor can view a graphical representation of what is happening ball by ball. He says that from a technological point of view it is a challenge. For each over two dozen parameters are taken into account. The recording takes place on the fly.

    There will also be expert analysis of each match. Prominent names are in the process of getting signed up. There will also be interviews with players and the captains. For the captains there is a section Captainspeak. Kasliwal says that it is in the process of tying up with speakers.

    It is also doing an interactive Voice Of the World Cup initiative. The contest kicks off next month. Here a clip of India’s match versus Pakistan in the previous World Cup is featured. Sachin basically hammers Shoaib. One can visit the section and provide a commentary recording. The winner who will be chosen by the public and a team of experts gets to do commentary for the semi finals and the final for the site.

    The site will also have a picture gallery courtesy gettyimages. For fun one can participate in games. One game that will shortly be launched is called Pick The Score. This is a prediction game and one has to guess scores. There will also be a fantasy game. Here one chooses a dream team for each match and one scores depending on how well the individual players are faring.

    The site will also have quizzes, an ICC contests suite. There will also be pages dedicated to teams and players, merchandise that can be ordered. In some countries like New Zealand, Hong Kong, Korea, Germany, France the site will offer for a fee live streaming of matches. In India highlights and the other earlier mentioned features will be given for free.

    GroupM COO South Asia Vikram Sakuja says that at first the agency was not sure how the product would turn out. However he is happy that for the Champions Trophy the site got a quarter of a billion page views. “I am glad that GroupM saw this potential and got some of our brands like Lufthansa to work with this exciting media offering.”
     

  • ‘What we need to do now is concentrate on our week day prime time band’ : Sneha Rajani – Max business head

    ‘What we need to do now is concentrate on our week day prime time band’ : Sneha Rajani – Max business head

    It has been an eventful time for Max. It recently aired the champions Trophy. Having successfully shored up its share on the weekend due to its focus on Sunday, it is now concentrating on strengthening its week day prime time band. It is also putting together plans for next year’s cricket World Cup.

    Indiantelevision.com’s Ashwin Pinto caught up with Max business head Sneha Rajani for a quick chat. She recently took over from former head Albert Almeida who was tapped to head Sony.

    Excerpts:

    Firstly, could you talk about the push given to The Champions Trophy by Max?
    If you look at the, ratings you will see that once again cricket on Max has delivered higher ratings than on any other channel. This started four years back. The non-India match ratings have been a revelation. It has been the highest since the World Cup. Our ratings were certainly helped by the buzz that Extraaa Innings bought and the innovations we did.

    Some advertisers I spoke to were not too happy. Do you feel there would be some cooling off in the next edition of the event?
    One grouse is that a lot of the matches including the final finished way too early. I think the advertisers are smart enough to understand that its in nobody’s hand whether the game ends before 100 overs or goes on till the end. This Champions Trophy has been fascinating from a cricket point of view as it has been unpredictable. When you have a high scoring game you have an idea of who will win and lose. Here dodgy totals kept viewers in suspense. It could swing either way. This is why the non-India ratings were more than what was achieved in 2004. So I don’t think it would in any way effect the next year’s Trophy.

    A lot of matches did not last 100 overs as it was a bowlers tournament?
    Matches ending early is in nobody’s hand. As an advertiser, if you decide not to put money the next time around in 2008 because of this and most matches last 100 overs it will be a lost opportunity. You cannot pre-empt anything.

    What is Max’s game plan going to be to build up buzz and anticipation ahead of the World Cup?
    We tailor our campaigns around where an event is happening. The campaign is always skewed to reflect the country a tournament is being played in. So when the Champions Trophy was in Sri Lanka it had a sub continental feel to it. In England we incorporated the stiff and proper mannerism into our campaign.

    In India we did the Shaadi campaign to emphasize the spectacle. Everything was shown as larger than life and melodramatic. Now when we go to the West Indies the campaign will be around beaches, sun and sand. It will have a carnival atmosphere.

    You are doing a ‘Host ka Dost’ hunt. What are the logistics involved to find someone to go the West Indies?
    This initiative is being done in collaboration with Reliance. It is a hunt for someone who’ll be part of the Extraaa Innings team for the World Cup and other cricket that we may have.

    If one is selected from the call they would be asked to come for an audition at Reliance Webworld, where they have to give a two to three minutes performance in front of the camera. There will be five finalists who would be further shortlisted by public voting. At present we are just at the call stage. We should wrap this up by the second week of January.
    ‘Matches ending early is in nobody’s hand. As an advertiser, if you decide not to put money in 2008 because of this and most matches last 100 overs it will be a lost opportunity‘

    What are the big properties that Max has lined up for now till March?
    We signed some big movies recently. Fanaa is coming up as a weekend premiere. We also have Apna Sapna Money Money. January and February 2007 is where big titles will be shown. In terms of thematic blocks right now we have a King Khan festival.

    Certainly having a theme block associated with a star brings in loyalty. We will also have a comedy festival lined up for December.

    How do you push the non-blockbusters?
    It’s simple. We market and promote them in a way that has not been done before. It is all about the buzz you create – old wine in a new bottle. On air promotions are a key. You find a key moment that defines a film and you push that. We had a movie called Nayak, which tanked at the box office. It has delivered tremendous ratings for us though.

    In the past you focussed heavily on Sunday with housefull and then the blockbuster at 1 pm. How did this help grow your share over the weekend?
    Our reach has grown by 20 per cent. A 12-hour slot delivers an average of 1+. We will continue to focus on Sundays as well as festivals that happen once in a month. What we need to do now is concentrate on our week day prime time band. The evening slots are fine. The afternoon band is doing well where we have a block for women.

    My job is to strengthen the Monday – Friday prime time band from 9 pm. There will be a mix of titles. We have 36 China Town, Golmaal.

    What libraries were recently acquired?
    To name a few we have acquired Sajid Nadiawalla’s library, Yash Chopra’s library and Ramesh Behls library recently. Our library is over 1000+.

    What are the changes that have happened in the acquisitions process in the past couple of years?
    We have always focussed on acquiring the top five to six films in a year and that will stay. The scenario has changed with more players. More buyers for the same product means that the pricing has become buoyant. Competition is good and It keeps us on our toes.

    One big change that has happened, especially in the past year is that films are acquired before their theatrical release. This is a risk that all broadcasters are taking. This was not the case earlier on. Then it was more staid. You now go by track records in buying films pre-release. We just presume that a certain star cast with so and so director and producer should be doing well.

    If you go with established producers you should be fine. Sony has great relationships with them. Shaadi Se Pehle was a title that we bought pre release. The acquisition process is very organised. The producers are fairly realistic, they know which film is to be priced at one crore and which at 10 crores.

    How important are dubbed Hollywood films?
    Extremely! We launched Hollywood Hungama two and a half years back. It is one of the most loyal slots on our channel. Each year we acquire 25-30 titles.

    You had in the past done the innovation of the onebreak film. What further innovations can we expect to boost viewer loyalty?
    It worked for us initially and then it did not. Viewers got worried that why is the channel not having a break. They might feel that one ad break equates to a channel not doing well. They are conditioned to having breaks in between a film. Also we had a lot of ads on our plate to schedule. The one ad break did not prove to be economically viable.

    We keep looking at innovations that will surprise people. In this Champions Trophy we had huge cut-outs of Mandira Bedi and Virendra Sehwag at Mahim. We will do some wrap around programming on films and we are also looking at an innovation during our ad breaks. We do outdoors on special occasions, like for Lucky we had done an outdoor and we might do it for Fanaa too.

    Are you also looking at new formats like chat shows, news related film specials to add variety or is there too much of this already on Indian television?
    No! We already have Sony and Sab for this kind of content. We have a news show Current Bollywood but we will not be adding to this.

    New media segment is growing in importance in terms of mobile and the internet. What can we expect from Max in this regard?
    We did a lot of mobile activity for the Champions Trophy. It was very interactive. We offered movie trivia on the mobile and did contests as well. Clips we do not offer as the rights belong to either a mobile firm or a producer. Whether we go beyond will be an a decision that will be taken as an organisation and not as a channel. We won’t rule it out though. On the net right now Max site basically offers film information.

    One way that Max has separated itself in cricket has been through personalities like Mandira Bdei. Are you planning to extend this association further through the film platform?
    We already do this. She used to anchor Extraaa Shots which was a wrap around show for our films. Manish Vanicha is now anchoring the show. He is now doing stuff on cricket. So while Mandira moved from a cricket anchor to a film anchor Manish did the opposite. Next year you will see more personalities.

    Besides cricket and films what other events is Max looking at over the next few months?
    We have the Max Stardust awards coming up. We have been doing that for the last two years. I would say that it was the best looking awards show last year. Concerts air across the network.

    Could you talk about how your client portfolio has grown as well as ad rates?
    In the last year our client base has grown by 25 per cent. I am not in a position to talk about revenues or increase in ad rates.
  • indya.com sets ‘web traffic record’ for Champions Trophy

    indya.com sets ‘web traffic record’ for Champions Trophy

    MUMBAI: Star India’s internet portal indya.com has registered over 1.1 billion hits and 234 million page views on its iccchampionstrophy.indya.com site since its 8 October 2006 launch.

    As the official internet partner of the International Cricket Council, indya.com was designated by the ICC to develop, host and market the official global web destination for the Champions Trophy, asserts an official release.

    The site attracted over three million unique users from around the world – the most from India itself, followed by users from the US, UK, Pakistan and Australia. The ICC Champions Trophy was held from 7 October to 5 November in four cities across India: Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mohali and Mumbai.

    “Cricket lovers throughout the world have counted upon indya.com to deliver the best online cricket experience available, and I believe that the results speak for themselves,” said Star India Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair.

    “The success we achieved makes icchampionstrophy.indya.com, Star India’s most successful web property to date and as the ICC Champions Trophy serves as a precursor to the 2007 Cricket World Cup, we anticipate an even larger response in the future,” he added.

    The website hosted country specific packages which were available at different price points, allowing internet subscribers to buy into a ‘match pack’ – a gateway to live clips, highlight packages, and expert comments of every match in the tournament. The site served over one million video and live-streaming requests.

    iccchampionstrophy.indya.com also offered a feature rich application called Matchcast that allowed users to access live scores, ball-by-ball updates of on-going matches, player and team backgrounds and a host of other information cricket enthusiasts would bowl their arm out for, adds the release.

    Sponsors on the site throughout the month long tournament included Lufthansa Airlines and Monster.com.

  • 2008 Champions Trophy to see 8 teams competing

    2008 Champions Trophy to see 8 teams competing

    MUMBAI: One of the problems in the recently concluded cricket Champions Trophy is that it took a while to take off. A major reason for this is that you had the minnows Zimbabwe and Bangladesh playing in the first week.

    Recognising this fact, the International Cricket Council (ICC) president Percy Sonn has announced that in the 2008 edition, which takes place in Pakistan, there will be eight teams instead of the ten for this years event. “That should increase the intensity and excitement still further. The shape of the tournament has changed on more than one occasion since its inception as the ICC Knock-out in 1998 but there is no doubt this has been the best format yet.

    “It meant there was something riding on virtually every match and that helped provide a real competitive edge to proceedings” he said.

    Sonn also thanked India for hosting what he called an ‘outstanding’ ICC Champions Trophy.
    “Although world champions Australia came through to take the spoils, this was still a tournament that, more than any other in recent memory, illustrated the unpredictability of our great game.

    “The formbook was turned upside-down on more than one occasion, and matches such as Pakistan’s win over Sri Lanka, South Africa’s great comeback against Pakistan and the West Indies’ win over Australia in the group stages were illustrations of that.

    “The ICC Champions Trophy also showed how fascinating one-day cricket can be when there is a balance between bat and ball and that balance helped define this tournament.”

    Another highlight for Sonn was the way the players embraced the ICC’s dedication of the event to the Spirit of Cricket.

    Only one player – West Indies’ Chris Gayle – was found guilty of a Code of Conduct violation in the 21 matches.

    “We called on players and officials to honour the Spirit of Cricket in this tournament and my view is that they have done just that.

    “The sight of the two sides meeting to congratulate each other after each match was not something the ICC ordered players to do; it was a spontaneous gesture that simply caught on and it was wonderful to see.

    “And incidents like the one where Australia’s Michael Clarke refused to claim a low catch during a crucial stage of the semi-final against New Zealand without any recourse to the umpires will stick in my mind for quite some time.

    “My hope now is that the spirit in which these matches were played will continue for the foreseeable future.”

  • Champions Trophy propels Max into Top 10

    Champions Trophy propels Max into Top 10

    MUMBAI: If there is one truism about television in India, it is that the only sure way to break Star Plus’ monopoly on the ratings is to have India cricket. Such is the case with India cricket.
    Tam data for the period 15/10/06 to 21/10/06 shows that India playing England on 15 October 2006 came in seventh in the Tam Top 100 C&S 4+.

    It managed to get a rating of 5.8. It also appears at positions 21 and 22 with ratings of 4.8 and 4.5.

    Starcom’s Manish Porwal says that whenever India plays in a multi team tournament the round robin matches not featuring India get a ratings that are 1.5 times higher compared to events that do not feature India at all. This explains why the Australia versus West Indies match got a rating of 3.6 and is at number 33. The England versus Australia match got a rating of 2.5. The Sri Lanka versus Pakistan match got a rating of 3.1. Extraaa Innings, which is Max’s wrap around show, also finds a mention twice.

    However, the theory of 1.5 times more for a non India match in the league stage only applies for as long as India is in contention in the tournament. Therefore, from an advertising standpoint, it is fortunate that India versus Australia was the last league match. India’s awful performance and hence elimination would have had a much bigger impact on viewership if it had been held before other league matches. As it is only three matches (the two semi finals and final) are now affected.

    How do advertisers view India’s exit? Porwal says that cricket friendly brands would have taken into account the scenario of India not qualifying for the semi finals. He is satisfied with the ROI achieved thus far. “It has been what we have expected. I will say that there has been a loss of profit with India not getting through into the last four. There has not been a loss per se.

    “That is because brands like Western Union would have done internal costing looking at different scenarios before putting their money on the tournament. Having said that, there will definitely be a backlash on the ratings that the semi finals and final get.”

    Sony executive VP Rohit Gupta concurs on this point saying that if India had been there in the semi finals and final you might well have seen a rating of 7-8. Now one could see a rating of around 3 for the semi finals. It could go up for the final depending on which teams qualify. He adds that when you include Sab, which had a simulcast of India’s matches with Hindi commentary, the match between India and England gets a rating of nearly seven.

    The International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO Malcolm Speed’s stand as far as a potential situation of India not making the last four has been that Indians care for quality cricket. As long as people care sport will not die. The ICC’s hope therefore is that the television ratings as well as on ground attendance will not be affected too badly as Indians would want to see quality international cricket. The coverage being given in the newspapers and television indicates that.

    Gupta, meanwhile, is most satisfied on how the non India matches have fared pointing out that it was a big improvement over the ratings that the non India matches got for the Champions Trophy in 2004. In that tournament as well India was eliminated early in that case by Pakistan.

    R Gowthaman, Mindshare MD South & West and Unilever South Asia, which handles media buying for Pepsi and Hero Honda, two of the ICC’s global partners, was not so positive however. He says that the Champions Trophy has disappointed in the cost per ratings point (CPRP) area. A lot of the matches finished early. For instance the match between West Indies and Sri Lanka finished in 50 overs.

    “This means that by 6:30 pm when viewing should be on the up the match is over. So you cannot air spots in the most impactful time. Then the ratings were not as high as had been hoped. The ratings should have been more even for the non India matches given the fact that Extraaa Innings is meant to build up momentum. Cricket is a hyped up property. You hope that it will do well in the ratings area but its performance has been below par just like the Indian teams. If you look at it, cricket’s ratings have been on the decline over the past couple of years.”

    Another problem for Pepsi is that it used a very specific cricket centric campaign (the Blue Billion). The aim was to express support for the Indian team which then failed to perform. This raises the question of whether or not it should continue with that campaign which has now become irrelevant with India exiting the event.

    LG marketing head Sandeep Tiwari on the other hand is satisfied at the response to the event. He points out that since LG is a global brand there will be a benefit no matter which teams win the event or makes the final. So if Australia wins then LG’s visibility down under will increase, he says.

    That of course is not the case with an Indian brand. Also LG did not use cricketers in its campaign. It used Tom and Jerry to celebrate the Diwali festival. So it is not unduly concerned about India going out early as it has not used cricket in the campaign to build an emotional connect. He adds that if you look at the Champions Trophy and the World Cup together, then while the former delivers a 30 per cent impact the latter delivers a 70 per cent push for the brand. That big push of course will come next year in March when the World Cup takes place in the West Indies.

    Interestingly despite reports about stadiums not being full for the ongoing Champions Trophy Tiwari is satisfied at the turnout. He points out that the England Australia encounter had 50 per cent occupancy which he as a marketer feels is adequate to get the brand message across. On television too the delivery is what was projected prior to the start of the tournament for him.

  • Hutch lines up host of offerings for Champions Trophy

    Hutch lines up host of offerings for Champions Trophy

    MUMBAI: Cellular provider and ICC Global Partner Hutch has lined up a host of offerings for its subscribers at the ICC Champions Trophy in India.

    Hutch is providing live scores, analysis and live commentary in Hindi and English, SMS updates and Hutch alerts for fans to stay in touch with the action at the Champions Trophy.
    Hutch’s services during the ICC Champions Trophy include: On mobile portal PlanetHutch – Free live scores as well as other paid content like games, wallpapers and themes; also a reverse auction of tickets for the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 Finals; video replays of all ICC Champions Trophy 2006 matches; and coaching techniques with India captain Rahul Dravid.

    On voice portal – Expert analysis in Hindi of all matches by former India player Arun Lal; the same in English for selected matches by former India player Sanjay Manjarekar & Arun Lal. 

    Live commentary – Audio streaming – Live scores and cricket commentary of all matches in English and Hindi; subscribers to this service also get SMS-based alerts of all wickets and every 10 overs.

    On SMS – Subscribers can get the score by sending CKT as a SMS to 123 and get the detailed scoreboard by sending DET as a SMS to 123.

    On Hutch Alerts – Cricket alerts for the latest breaking action.

    In addition to these services, Hutch is beginning a promotion on 15 October with all prepaid subscribers that refill with Rs 250 getting alerts as well as who buy a new Hutch postpaid connection for all cricket matches for the next one month free of cost.

    The promotion starts from the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and continues for six months, until the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Also, new subscribers – prepaid as well as postpaid – can enter a contest and win an all expense paid trip to see the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in the West Indies and ICC merchandising. These offers follow a cricket quiz Hutch ran during September with the winners getting tickets and accommodation to the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in Mumbai on 5 November.

    This quiz was available over Hutch’s voice portal – available in 10 India languages – on SMS and on mobile portal PlanetHutch.

    Hutch is one of the ICC’s four Global Partners, along with LG, Pepsi and Hero Honda. The ICC also has four official sponsors, Indian Oil, Cable & Wireless, VISA and Standard Chartered Bank.

  • Max goes the Extraaa mile for Champions Trophy

    Max goes the Extraaa mile for Champions Trophy

    MUMBAI: Cricket weds entertainment! With the Champions trophy in cricket kicking off in less than a month’s time on 7 October 2006, Max is adding more muscle to its wrap around show Extraaa Innings.

    Max executive VP and business head Albert Almeida notes that Max turned cricket into an entertainment property. This way it was able to hook in women and kids as well. This time he says that the Extraaa Innings content has been beefed up. For starters, in addition to the hosts Mandira Bedi and Charu Sharma, whom Max calls the first couple of cricket it has roped in television stars Rohit Roy and Shonali Nagrani as well. Roy will co-present various segments of Extraaa Innings. Nagrani will be the roving reporter. “Having said that Extraaa Innings will continue to be a judicious mix of serious cricketing action for the hardcore cricket buff and wholesome entertainment for the family,” Almeida adds.

    They will be joined by many experts on the game including former English opening batsman Geoffrey Boycott, former Indian cricket coach John Wright who will provide an insider’s touch, Navjot Singh Sidhu, who should add spice to the show, Barry Richards and Ian Chappell. On each match day Eztraaa Innings starts at 12:30 PM There will be a two-hour pre show, a show during the lunch break and a one-hour post show.

    A dual feed: Sony COO NP Singh says that this time around there will also be a Hindi feed on Sab. Three India matches, the semi finals and final will be aired on Sab. Maninder Singh, Atul Wassan and Saba Karim are among the commentators for this feed. The aim is to reach out better to places in the North like UP.

    Almeida says that Extraaa Innings haws been beefed keeping in mind factors like Indians increasingly becoming technologically savvy, they see cricketers as celebrities who do other things (like Sachin has his own restaurant).

    Max will organise a talent hunt using Extraaa Innings to promote it. The hunt looks for a roving reporter who will join the team to cover World Cup in the West Indies next year. There is also an interactive game Predict 2 Win, which allows fans to win prizes. The Gully Cricket initiative has been turned into a mobile game, which can be played by visiting the mobile portal 2525. Then the mascot of Max the tiger Deewana will now be a part of Extraaa Innings. There will be Deewana’s countdown of her game, his ratings of the game, players etc. Then there is also a Max Makeover.

    Here one will see fashion experts comment on the style quotient of the players.

    Of course features that were there before will return.
    These include Q&A. Here fans get to ask questions to the panel through SMS. Then there is Voice of India.

    Here Max’s expert panel will ask the audience to voice their opinion on issues. Answers can be sent through SMS or the internet. Message Board is a platform where viewers can send in goodwill messages to the Indian team through SMS. Another section India On tour offers a sneak peak into the daily routine of the Indian team. This will take them behind the scenes to the nets, practice matches etc.

    The DTH Plan: Sony CEO Kunal Dasgupta says that Max is talking to both DTH platforms Tata Sky and Dish TV regarding putting in interactive features. One feature will allow viewers the option to choose one of four angles to watch the match. Max also plans to offer highlight packages.

  • Star’s portal indya.com partners with ICC

    Star’s portal indya.com partners with ICC

    MUMBAI: In a bid to create greater visibility, Star’s portal indya.com has tied up with the International Cricket Council (ICC). Indya.com will be the internet partner for both the Champions Trophy that kicks off next month in India and for next year’s World Cup in the West Indies.

    Indya.com has developed and will maintain the site www.iccchampionstrophy.com.

    The site will allow net users in India and globally access to audio and video packages. There are country specific packages will allow internet subscribers to buy a match pack. This will give them live clips of ongoing games, deferred live highlight packages and archives of previous editions of the Champions Trophy. For Indians though there is no subscription fee.

    The site will have a feature called Matchcast. This allows viewers to watch live scores, ball-by-ball updates, player profiles, team profiles etc. The other contenders for ICC web partner were cricinfo.com and Yahoo! Star CEO Sameer Nair noted that Star’s parent News Corp is getting increasingly active in the internet arena. A case in point is the leading community social networking site Myspace. News Corp through Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) has worked closely with the ICC. The site he said can among other things provide an alternative to viewers in those countries who find cricket too expensive to buy on television or in regions that do not have access. The site he says allows indya.com to continue its goal of providing superior and distinctive content.

    One interactive feature that the site will have is called Voice Of The World Cup. The contest requires participants to provide commentary to a piece of archived footage which has had its commentary removed.

    The winners will be judged by a public poll as well as by experts. Two winners will get to go the West Indies for the World Cup. They will get the chance to officially commentate for the site. The site will also have daily contests when the Champions Trophy is on. There will also be a fantasy based game.

    Nair says that indya.com gets around 40 million page views a month. He expects this to at least treble when the champions Trophy is going on. For the World Cup the figure will be much more. When asked about sponsors for the site he said that indya.com is negotiating with certain parties. He said that indya.com is looking to learn from what Myspace and News Corp’s other net properties are doing. He noted that at the moment lack of bandwith is hampering the growth of broadband in India at the moment.

    ICC CEO Malcolm Speed noted that the net is an important communication tool that is growing. As it is a source of information to millions of people globally partnering with indua.com gives the ICC the chance to provide high quality coverage of the Champions Trophy through another medium.