ITV

Tag: DD-Nimbus

  • DD-Nimbus shines in all India homes, fails in metros

    DD-Nimbus shines in all India homes, fails in metros

    MUMBAI: Whatever may be the scene in C&S homes, in the all-India market Doordarshan rules. It has been no different for the ongoing ICC World Cup 2003.

    For the first three cricket World Cup 2003 matches, DD delivered consistently higher viewership as compared to MAX in the all homes segment, TAM data released by Nimbus says.

    A closer look at the ratings shows that DD hasn’t fared well in South India and metros in all India homes. It also fails to make a dent in the C&S households whereas MAX has made gains even in the all-India home markets.

    Nimbus Communications senior vice president – TV and sports Sunil Manocha was quoted in a press release as saying: “So far all our estimates and projections in terms of the audience shares and our revenue targets have been right. With the combined advantages of great and innovative scheduling, clear focus on cricket and a world class feed; Doordarshan is all set to emerge the clear winner on ratings and revenues in this cricket World Cup.”

    All India

    Date
    Match
    DD1 TVR
    Satellite channel TVR
    DD reach advantage in per cent
    9 Feb 2003
    South Africa vs W. Indies
    3.6
    3.4
    6
    12 Feb 2003
    India vs Holland
    6.9
    5.4
    27
    15 Feb 2003
    India vs Australia
    6.5
    5.1
    27
    Tam India, all homes, all individuals

    In fact, the India-Holland and India-Australia match featured on the ninth and tenth positions in the Top 100 programmes list for all India market 4 years plus. The India-Australia match on MAX was placed at the nineteenth position in the Top 100 list for all homes 4 years plus.

    DD has a total of 15 cricket related programmes in the Top 100 list whereas MAX had a total of nine programmes in the Top 100 list for all India 4 years plus homes. DD doesn’t feature in the C&S Top 100 list at all. In fact, the West Indies-South Africa, New Zealand-West Indies and Pakistan-Australia matches featured in the Top 100 list in addition to the matches involving India.

    The Nimbus release states that DD’s plans for telecasting the 16 ‘Big Gun’ live matches including all India matches and a match every weekend, has paid rich dividends in all the key markets like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Eastern India.

    – Doordarshan fares well as compared to the satellite channel in the prosperous markets of Maharashtra, UP, MP, Punjab and Gujarat, say Nimbus officials. However, TAM data says that DD is behind in the Gujarat market. 

    – South India, the market with highest C&S penetration – Doordarshan averages a 15 per cent higher viewership, claims a Nimbus release. However a closer look reveals that DD has taken a beating in rest of Andhra Pradesh 1 million plus towns including Hyderabad; in Tamil Nadu including Chennai; Karnataka including Bangalore. However, DD fared well in Kerala. 
    – Doordarshan wins the race over the satellite channel in Kolkata, states the Nimbus release. However, DD lags behind in all the other metros. However, in the India-Australia match, DD scored over MAX in Chennai bu lagged behind in the other two matches.
    All India 4 years plus India vs Australia

    Region
    DD1 TVR
    Satellite channel
    DD advantage in per cent
    North/West
    Maha rest
    15.7
    4.3
    265
    MP 1 mn +
    8.8
    1.8
    388
    UP rest 0.1 to 1 mn
    6.2
    1.8
    244
    UP rest 1 mn +
    7.2
    3.9
    85
    PHCHP 1mn +
    3.3
    2.8
    18
    Guj 1 mn +
    5.1
    5.6
    -8
    South
    AP rest 1 mn +
    3.0
    4.3
    -30
    AP rest 0.1 to 1 mn
    3.4
    3.9
    -13
    TN rest 1 mn +
    3.3
    5.7
    -42
    TN rest 0.1 to 1 mn
    1.7
    2.8
    -39
    Kar rest 0.1 mn to 1 mn
    4.6
    5.8
    -21
    Ker 1 mn +
    7.1
    3.9
    82
    Metros
    Kolkata
    11.1
    10.3
    7
    Delhi
    4.4
    4.4
    0
    Hyderabad
    4.4
    5.3
    -17
    Chennai
    3.5
    3.3
    6
    Bangalore
    3
    7.1
    -58
    Mumbai
    4.4
    7.6
    -42
    All India
    6.5
    5.1
    27
    Tam India, all India, all individuals for India-Australia match

  • SET closes with 6, DD-Nimbus 8 sponsors

    MUMBAI: There’s just over a week left for cricket’s greatest show to kick off in South Africa, and both terrestrial broadcaster Doordarshan and C&S rights holder Sony Entertainment Television (SET) have closed shop as far as sponsorship deals are concerned.
    Nimbus has confirmed that all four presenting sponsors (in the categories of TV, soft drinks, two wheelers and telecom) and four associate sponsors (in the categories of cars, lubricants, airlines and insurance) have been signed on.
    SET India on the other hand, which had earlier been talking of signing on seven sponsors, is finally going with six
    As far as DD-Nimbus is concerned, information available with indiantelevision.com indicates that the four presenting sponsors are LG Electronics, Coca-Cola, VSNL and either Bajaj Auto or TVS Suzuki. Media reports also indicate that Cadburys and Colgate are advertising heavily and exclusively on DD.
    As for associate sponsors, the names being mentioned are Maruti, Life Insurance Corporation of India and either Castrol or Indian Oil Servo. Nimbus Communications CMD Harish Thawani would not add anything further on the issue except to say: “Full details of the sponsor line-up will be announced by Nimbus on Monday (3 February), as brand activity plans are only being revealed by clients then.”
    SET has closed its sponsorships deals with one presenting sponsor (Pepsi) and five associate sponsors. “MAX and SET have signed six major sponsors for the telecast of the games. These presenting and associate sponsors would account for more than 50 per cent of the total value of the revenues generated,” says SET executive vice president, sales and revenue management Rohit Gupta.
    The associate sponsors are Reliance Infocomm, Hero Honda, Samsung, and Clinic All Clear and Close Up from the Hindustan Lever stable.
    When queried about the seventh sponsor that Sony had been trying to tie up these last few days, Gupta said that Sony finally settled for six.
    Adds Nimbus’ Thawani: “We can also confirm that all on air properties are sold out, such as “4s and 6s” package, “fall of wickets” package and both “action replay” packages; as also all end match properties such as “Master Blaster”, “Best Shots” (another four completes the list). As a result all nine properties are now sold out. All pull throughs are also fully booked as informed earlier,”
    Gupta had earlier said: “The live features are completely sold out. Extraaa Innings, which constitutes 10 per cent of the total revenues that would be generated are also fully sold out. Extraaa Innings has been sold as a sponsorship package and fixed buys basis and not as spot buys.”
    Sources say that these properties have been taken by companies such as HLL, Pan Parag, Bajaj Auto, Aristocrat, Hero Honda, Coca Cola, Sony Television, Yamaha bikes, SS Sanitary Fittings, Toyota, BPCL, TVS Suzuki, SBI Life, Hyundai and ICICI.
    The World Cup will drive revenues of Sony into the Rs 10 billion mark this fiscal, MAX executive vice president and business head Rajat Jain had claimed while announcing MAX plans for the World Cup.
    Media sources state that the current estimates are as follows: Sony has bagged around Rs 1.6 billion in sponsorships and an additional Rs 800 million in spot buys.
    DD-Nimbus has bagged Rs 1 billion in terms of sponsorships and an additional Rs 400 million in spot buys.
    For both DD-Nimbus and Sony, now it is really left to the Indian cricketers to perform. Informed sources say that if India manages to reach the the semi-finals, it would immediately release Rs 200 million in ad spend.
    And if India puts on a spectacular display and reaches the Finals? That would mean another Rs 100 million in the ad kitty, say the sources.
    So that’s the equation. Now for the sponsors, and the broadcasters, if the India team could just strut their stuff on the field instead of just in ad campaigns…

  • DD-Nimbus sells World Cup cricket presenting sponsorship rights

    MUMBAI: Hearing MAX and the DD-Nimbus combine tell it, it would appear that both sides are well on target to achieve their sales targets for the forthcoming World Cup cricket 2003. Nimbus chairman and MD Harish Thawani had earlier claimed that DD would get Rs 2.1 billion worth of ad sales.

    The Nimbus sales team seem to be projecting a confident face despite the initial reservations expressed by media planners that the target amount of Rs 2.1 billion seemed to be too optimistic. Media specialists had claimed that DD would get anything between Rs 1.5-1.8 billion. However, many including Lodestar Media’s executive director Shashi Sinha feel that the terrestrial channel will do better than expectations.

    Top media executives have confirmed that Nimbus has sent out a list of the properties that have been sold out as of 6 January 2003. Nimbus also seems to have addressed the concerns of media planners and buyers by reducing the number of spots available per match from 6,000 to around 5,400. Sony’s MAX will have commercial time of 4,500 to 4,800 seconds per match. The MAX team has been claiming that it has carefully designed the advertising sales package to ensure that advertisers will experience minimal clutter and viewers will have an enriching and satisfying experience.

    Nimbus chairman and MD Harish Thawani claims: “All our efforts in the pre-sales phase have paid rich dividends in terms of actual conversions. Without giving away any specific details, I can assert that we have received an enthusiastic response from the advertisers.”

    Nimbus has intimated the agencies that all the pull-throughs have been sold and listed out the other properties that were still up for grabs. Media sources say that Nimbus has closed bookings for the following properties.

    Flexi-buys
    Nimbus had earlier claimed that advertisers could avail of ‘Flexi-buys’ wherein they could pick & choose the matches; top it up with individual match buys and even specify position in matches.

    The current status is as follows:
    1) Out of the three available match clusters namely the pool, Super Sixes, semi-finals and finals, everything has been sold except for one-two matches of the Super Sixes. Advertisers buying 100 seconds or more in these clusters have obtained an overall volume discount ranging betrween 7.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent in addition to the pre-negotiated rates.

    2) Out of the ‘pick-n-choose’ option, the only matches that have failed to click seem to be the India-Namibia match (Sunday, 23 February 2003) and India-Holland match (Wednesday, 12 February 2003).

    Broadcast sponsorships
    Out of the total of ten broadcast sponsorships; four presenting broadcast sponsors (Rs 108.8 million per sponsor) and six associate broadcast sponsors (Rs 78.4 million each), Nimbus seems to have sold six sponsorship positions including all the presenting broadcast sponsorship positions.

    The categories who seem to have taken the above properties include the following: two-wheelers, TV manufacturers, soft drinks, telecom, banking and insurance and automobiles. Clearly, the brands such as Hero Honda, LG Electronics and Pepsi would feature in the above list. One would recall that LG Electronics had chosen to go with DD during the recent Champions Trophy in September 2002 as it wasn’t getting cost-effective rates from MAX.

    Nimbus’ Thawani, however, refused to divulge any specific names: “There is cut-throat competition in certain sectors such as the banking/insurance sector and the telecom sector. We wouldn’t like to release any details of the marketing plans and initiatives of these sponsors. Most probably, the plans would be unfolded by the companies as soon as they are ready with the support activities,” Thawani adds.

     

    MAX has already roped in Pepsi, Hero Honda and two of Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) brands as sponsors. SET ad sales head Rohit Gupta, however, has not revealed the name of the two HLL brands.

    “HLL will finalise and let us know within a week which of the two brands they want to advertise on our network during the World Cup matches,” Gupta has been quoted as saying in media reports. Thawani maintains that HLL has been speaking to DD-NImbus and is confident that the FMCG giant can’t afford to ignore the mass penetration of DD.

    “We have already consumed 60 per cent of our inventory,” said Gupta. He confirmed that five out of the six live properties including action replays, fall of wickets, pull throughs, fours and Master Blaster have already been sold to various sponsors. “Sixes is the only one in the ‘live’ properties that is open for sponsorship,” he added.

    Extraa Innings will be sold separately in order to rope in the one-off advertisers who might have mega-budgets to spend on the ‘live’ matches. “We might look at several sponsors and encourage non-regular categories to adopt the off-beat and innovative programming. Telecom, four wheelers, television and white goods are the categories we are targeting for this segment,” said Gupta. Another SET official claims that the categories sold by both the parties would give an indication of how each channel is viewed by the advertisers and media specialists.

    The media sources also state that the Nimbus team has not managed to get a good response for the pre-match programming on DD. Nimbus officials had earlier claimed that the world feed would start 15 minutes before the ‘live’ match. DD is developing a 1-hour capsule prior to the ‘live’ match and a 30-minute capsule after the match. MAX has nearly two hours of pre-match and post-match programming.

    Buoyed by the enthusiastic response, the Nimbus sales team seemed to have gone on an extended leave for the New Year. None of them were available till 6 January. The MAX team also seems to be confidence-personified. However, the media specialists and advertisers seem to be the ones playing the waiting game till rates become more cost-effective!

    World Cup Cricket 2003: DD and Nimbus claim victory…in advance!!!
    MAX confident of selling inventory by mid-Jan ’03
    Interview with Nimbus chairman and MD Harish Thawani
    Interview with MAX executive vice president and business head Rajat Jain
     
  • MAX confident of selling inventory by mid-Jan ’03

    MAX confident of selling inventory by mid-Jan ’03

    MUMBAI: Indecisive advertisers and ad agencies had better watch out as there might not be any available spots during the World Cup 2003 cricket matches being aired on television! MAX officials have claimed that it will be able to sell 75 per cent of its World Cup cricket inventory by the first week of January. Nimbus officials have also claimed to have sold 91 percent of their total inventory.

    SET executive vice president, sales and revenue management Rohit Gupta confirms: “We are very much on target as far as the sales of inventories as well as the revenues are concerned. The large sponsorship categories will be finalised by 5 January 2003. The remaining inventories (around 25 per cent) relating to the small-spender categories will also be finalised by mid-January 2003.”

    Gupta also confirms that five out of the six major properties such as Action Replays, Fours, Sixes, Fall of Wickets have already been sold. “Predikta, the interactive game, had various levels of sponsorship. Pepsi is the principal sponsor of Predikta, whereas the other advertisers will offer prizes,” he adds.

    Media sources claim that these smaller categories include credit card companies, banks, insurance companies, cement companies, food companies and batteries, among others. Such companies need not necessarily have large budgets and could make do with buying lesser spots.

    MAX’s Gupta insists that the channel has carefully designed the advertising sales package so that advertisers will experience minimal clutter and viewers will have an enriching and satisfying experience. MAX has 4500-4800 spots whereas DD has around 6000 spots.

    Channels    Qualifying stage    Super Sixes stage
    DD    210 spots    170 spots
    MAX    140 spots    60 spots
    However, the MAX team is pretty bullish on expanding the base of advertisers for the cricket matches. MAX has devised an entertainment package that comprises several ‘softer’ and ‘not-necessarily cricket’ programmes.

    Says Gupta, “Although the purists will be interested only in viewing the matches, there could be others who could be interested in knowing more about South Africa; the culinary delights of South Africa; or the personal details of cricketers and other celebrities. “

    Gupta also feels that ‘out of home’ (OOH) viewing will increase substantially during the forthcoming World Cup. “Research agencies must make an effort to monitor the viewing patterns. These findings must eventually be shared with media planners,” he adds.

    Industry sources claim that MAX is poised to garner nearly Rs two billion out of the possible Rs 3.7 billion ad spend during the forthcoming World Cup.

    Meanwhile, Nimbus chairman and MD Harish Thawani has also claimed that the DD-Nimbus combine is on course to attaining its determined target. He however refused to give away figures of the revenues garnered thus far.

    Media planners claim that C&S channels have traditionally bagged 82 to 87 per cent of the total ad spend, whereas DD has bagged 13 to 18 per cent, a trend that has stayed constant in the last four years.

  • MAX debunks DD-Nimbus’ claims on cricket ratings

    MAX debunks DD-Nimbus’ claims on cricket ratings

    MUMBAI: MAX executive vice president and business head Rajat Jain has lashed out at the viewership claims made earlier this week by DD-Nimbus for the Champions Trophy tournament. Jain questioned the claims of the DD-Nimbus combine, stating that apples and oranges were being compared.

    He made references to the earlier releases that MAX had sent out to the media on the conclusion of the Championship Trophy to prove his point, saying that more analysis was being done by his team to give the real picture.

    The earlier MAX release in October had stated that the average rating of India matches on DD was 1.4, compared to MAX’s 8.6. 
    The average rating of the lone non-India match on DD was 1, compared to MAX’s 4.4 for the semi final involving Sri Lanka and Australia, it had claimed.

    Jain also claimed that the extremely successful performance of MAX during the Champion’s Trophy had vindicated the ratings that had propelled MAX to the top of the channel viewership heap in the week ended 28 September 2002. 

    He added that the statistics pertaining to the finals of the Champions Trophy had broken several myths. 

    The release had then said that MAX had made inroads in all TV homes, where Doordarshan usually has the numbers. The match shown on DD garnered a TRP of 9.52 on 29 September while the next day’s play got the pubcaster a TRP of 8.75. MAX, on the other hand, managed a TRP of 8.42 in all TV homes for play on 29 September and a TRP of 7.56 for play the following day.

    TAM analysis made at that time also showed that MAX had matched the pubcaster’s TVRs of 6.5 in SEC ABC 4+ (all India) related to the simulcast of the five matches. 
    The release had also added that the exciting India-England tie on 22 September helped MAX rank number one in the ratings stake with a TRP of 11.83, while Kyunkii…, the reigning number one, stayed stable at number two with a TRP of 10.2. Kahaani…, the next favourite, followed a close third with a TRP of 10.19. 

    MAX, in fact, had bagged four of the top ten spots in the all-India C&S 4+ category surveyed by TAM, a feat unachieved by the channel till then. The India-England match also figured at number five, while the India-South Africa match bagged the eighth and tenth spot, the release had added then.

    Interestingly, the channel’s programming around cricket, Extraaa Innings, was at the 17th and 18th spot, proving that while a section of the media had trashed Ruby Bhatia and the “masala” that the channel had drawn up, the viewers were quite willing to lap it all up.

    Master Blaster, Bajaj Boxer, Total Knockout and Super Fours, were the other cricket-based shows that registered their presence in the Top 100.

    In all, the channel had managed to corner 13 of the top 100 spots for shows in cable and satellite households in the country. MAX also managed entry into all TV households in the country, with the India-England match debuting at number 18. Seven of MAX’s shows featured in the Top 100 of the all-TV households category. 

    The channel had also mentioned that MAX’s cumulative reach had ballooned to 90 million C&S household individuals during the tournament then.

    MAX officials affirm that if the Champions Trophy is seen as a trial run for the World Cup in March 2003 and if the Indian team performs as well as it did then, the channel is likely do well once again.