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Tag: ICC World Cup 2015

  • Cricket World Cup 2015 sets new viewership record

    Cricket World Cup 2015 sets new viewership record

    MUMBAI: The ICC World Cup 2015, till the semifinals stage, garnered 635 million viewers, which makes it the highest viewed event in Indian television.

     

    The unprecedented 635 million reach signifies that every second Indian tuned in to watch the biggest extravaganza of 50 overs cricket.

     

    A record 309 million Indians (TAM Panel CS4+ extrapolated to the universe using a standard conversion factor) tuned in to watch India’s semi-final clash with Australia on their televisions, as the two best teams in the world battled for a berth in the World Cup finals. The pivotal game was the most-watched cricket match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and bettered the blockbuster India versus Pakistan group stage clash in terms of reach. The match rated 15.0 TVR across the Star network including DD and 12.7 TVR on Star Network and 2.3 TVR on DD. (TAM data M15+ ABC)

     

    This World Cup was truly a ‘Cup for All’ as the tournament was showcased in six different languages – Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada, apart from English and Hindi. The regional feed strategy proved successful with Hindi and regional feeds contributing to 77 per cent of the overall viewership. 

     

    Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has been an epic event in terms of scale, reach and following. With over 600 million viewers, largest aggregation of advertisers ever, and one of the most talked about marketing campaigns, this edition has validated that there is nothing bigger than the World Cup for Indian consumers. Fittingly for an event of such scale, Star India took the game of cricket to the next level redefining the viewer experience. The fans’ unflinching faith and passion for the game has abetted our efforts to make this World Cup bigger and better than ever before.”

     

    Led by Star India’s disruptive campaign on India’s World Cup journey, the passion and fan following for cricket as a sport scaled new heights. The ‘Mauka’ campaign, which met with tremendous response online and on social media, was inundated with spoofs and iterations making ‘Mauka’ the buzzword during the World Cup. The campaign went viral with over 33 million views online making it amongst the most viewed campaigns ever on digital in India.

     

    On the back of regional feeds, this edition saw advertising options for brands looking to associate with the World Cup. With many first time World Cup sponsors advertising on this edition, the advertiser count for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has been the highest ever, 50 per cent more than the last edition held in India (2011).

     

    India was talking cricket online too with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 scoring strongly on social media dominating conversations through the tourney; a record 750,000 authors driving 3.6 million conversations with a reach of over 44 billion potential impressions.

     

  • DDB MudraMax-Experiential creates signature bat for LG

    DDB MudraMax-Experiential creates signature bat for LG

    MUMBAI: DDB MudraMax- Experiential has created a signature bat for LG, which is the official sponsor of the ICC World Cup 2015. 

     

    In a bid to rejig the kindling zeal of cricket amongst the Indians, a gigantic bat was created for cricket lovers to write their wishes for their favorite teams. 

     

    Further the bat was installed at strategic locations across Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida along with the ICC World Cup Cricket Trophy, which was kept on display for spectators.

     

    The bat pulled in the audience with its sheer size and gave them an opportunity to send personal good wishes and messages to their favourite team. The original World Cup trophy being on display brought back the nostalgia of winning the World Cup last time and geared up the audience to cheer India to win it back this year.

     

    The Mumbai location for the bat campaign experienced footfalls of over 50,000 audiences. More than 2,500 people signed on the bat and wished their team. The zeal multiplied with the presence of famous Indian cricketer Virendra Sehwag who addressed his fans at Gurgaon and Noida. 

     

    LG Electronics India head-corporate marketing Niladri Datta said, “We are extremely proud to be the official global partners of ICC for all these years and to be a part of 2015’s biggest sporting spectacle, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. With this activity, LG brought the game closer to the cricket fans and gave them a platform to share their wishes directly to their favorite team.”

     

    DDB MudraMax president Mandeep Malhotra added, “Cricket still remains the one unified religion of our country. Making the signature bat for seeking well wishes for the teams across the country was a brilliant idea, requiring operational excellence. We are glad that our campaign garnered lot of awareness and buzz right before the World Cup 2015. I believe that this campaign was quite instrumental to set the momentum rolling for the cricket season.”

  • Yepme launches TV campaign with West Indies cricket team

    NEW DELHI: Featuring leading lights of the West Indies Cricket Team, Yepme.com has come out with its latest campaign that will be aired during the World Cup telecast on Star Sports and all other channels.

     

    The campaign features players like Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels and Captain Jason Holder sporting the Yepme collection of #freshfashion and sharing their take on how it goes with the famed West Indian flair.

     

    The new campaign will play alongside the #freshfashion campaign starring Shah Rukh Khan.

     

    Yepme has sponsored the West Indies team in the ICC World Cup 2015 that is currently underway in Australia. The West Indies Cricket Team will play sporting the Yepme logo on their jerseys.

     

    Yepme.com founder and COO Sandeep Sharma believed that West Indies cricket stars like Gayle, Sammy and Andre Russel are known for their effortless style and have a massive fan following in our cricket-crazy nation.

     

    “We are extremely proud of this association and look at this as an opportunity to spread the message about Yepme being the destination for the latest fashion with cricket lovers across the globe,” Sharma said.

     

    Yepme.com has gone all out in attracting attention of cricket lovers during this World Cup. Recently, the brand announced its ‘Fly To Australia and cheer for West Indies team’ contest, wherein 50 winners who downloaded its app and answered a question on Fresh Fashion are given tickets to Australia and a chance to watch the West Indies team live, along with three days and two nights’ accommodation.

  • Star Sports incurs Rs 290 crore annual loss by sharing signals with DD; SC reserves order

    Star Sports incurs Rs 290 crore annual loss by sharing signals with DD; SC reserves order

    NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati today categorically ruled out the possibility of running separate channels for showing ICC Cricket World Cup matches live.

     

    This assertion was made in the Supreme Court, which later reserved orders on the appeal by Prasar Bharati against the order of the Delhi High Court, which had earlier this month directed Doordarshan not to share live signals of the matches with cable operators.

     

    The apex court had on Tuesday asked the pubcaster to give its response on the possibility of launching a separate channel.

     

    Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose extended the interim order allowing Doordarshan to telecast the matches.

     

    Senior advocate P Chidambaram on behalf of Star Sports said Prasar Bharati could create a mirror image of the World Cup telecast, which does not go to cable operators.

     

    Star Sports said its experts could help Doordarshan in showing entertainment programmes on its channel at the time when World Cup telecast is on.

     

    Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi on behalf of Prasar Bharati said that this was technically not feasible.

     

    Rohatgi denied a contention made by Chidambaram that DD had in fact set up a separate channel at the time of the last Commonwealth Games. He said the channel had merely donned new colours in keeping with the Games.

     

    Star Sports and Prasar Bharati filed their respective additional affidavits as directed by the Court on 17 February.

     

    Star Sports said in its affidavit that it had incurred loss of Rs 290 crore last year for sharing sports signals with Doordarshan and was expected to incur a further loss of Rs 120 crore for the World Cup telecasts alone this year.

     

    In its judgment, the High Court had refused to strike down the must carry clause of 2000 under which cable operators have to carry signals of Doordarshan, and also the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

     

    A bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva passed the order on the plea of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), ESPN and Star who had contended that cable TV operators were getting live feeds through DD channels free of cost, resulting in loss of revenue for them.

     

    In the order, the Court had said, “The appeal as well as writ petition (civil) 8458/2007 are allowed to the extent that the live broadcasting signal shared by ESPN/STAR by virtue of the Sports Act with Prasar Bharati, shall not be carried in the designated Doordarshan channels under the must carry obligation cast by the Cable TV Network Act on cable operators. This shall operate prospectively.”

     

    In its directive, the Court had observed that while the advertisement revenue received by DD in respect of the shared content of the sports channels was to be shared in the ratio of not less than 75:25, “it still does not cater to the loss of subscription revenue” by ESPN and Star.

     

    BCCI, Nimbus Communications Ltd and the two sports channels (ESPN and Star) had challenged the High Court’s single judge November 2007 order rejecting their pleas that no cable television network, Direct-to-Home (DTH) Network, multi-system network or local cable operator could broadcast such sports events without a licence from the content owners.

  • RIO to affect Star’s sports and niche channel distribution: MPA

    RIO to affect Star’s sports and niche channel distribution: MPA

    MUMBAI: Star India’s new distribution approach has been the talking point for the industry. And now highlighting the same is Media Partners Asia (MPA) in its new report.

    Post the announcement of Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) deals by Star, most multi system operators (MSOs)in order to keep both content cost and churn under check, opted to carry Star’s key Hindi channels on the base pack, along with free-to-air channels and lower RIO rate channels such as Nat Geo. In certain markets, 1-2 relevant regional channels have been bundled in the base pack.

    Not only this, many of the niche channels (English cluster) have been moved to higher or expanded basic tiers or available on a-la-carte basis.

    “This will adversely impact channel reach and viewership. However, the revenue losses on these channels will be partially compensated by reduction in carriage fee costs,” says MPA in its report.

    MPA, however sees a bigger risk, potentially to Star’s sports channels, as sizeable investments have already been made to creating non-cricket sports leagues leveraging Indian soccer and badminton.

    “These leagues are still in their infancy and require maximum distribution reach,” points out MPA.

    It further goes on to say that in cricket too, Star will broadcast the ICC World Cup in February 2015. However, according to MPA, with all India matches, semis and finals also available to viewers on public broadcaster Doordarshan, Star may have to rethink its incentive schemes in order to maximise its distribution of sports channels.  

    MPA estimates that the commercial rollout of package could take at least two to three months (completing in the early half of Q1 2015) and in the meantime, the delay will put pressure on the distribution of Star’s niche channels.

    “New channel launches for Star could also become equally challenging as it loses the luxury of having 100 per cent sampling on the cable platform,” it reports.

    In conclusion, Star’s new distribution strategy, will be a true acid test of consumer demand for its portfolio of channels. Viewership trends over the coming weeks will reflect such demand.

    “On a positive note, the outcome will help Star to prioritise and rationalise its content budgets, which have swelled across multiple genres, in recent years,” opines MPA.

  • ESPNcricinfo gets ready for ICC World Cup 2015

    ESPNcricinfo gets ready for ICC World Cup 2015

    MUMBAI: Digital cricket brand ESPNcricinfo has announced that that Ricky Ponting is joining the portal both as a columnist and video commentator. Ponting will offer his insights and comments on the key cricket action of 2015 including the ICC Cricket World Cup and the Ashes.

     

    ESPNcricinfo editor in chief Sambit Bal speaking on the different initiatives  said, “With three marquee events – India vs Australia, the World Cup and Ashes – coming back-to-back over the next 12 months, Ricky Ponting is a massive signing for us. Apart from being a legend of our game, and a World Cup and Ashes hero, he is also a keen and articulate student of the game. His insights and intimate knowledge of the contemporary game will be an invaluable addition to our coverage.”

     

    The signing of Australia’s most successful Test captain and triple ICC Cricket World Cup winner forms part of ESPNcricinfo’s wider ICC Cricket World Cup coverage and content plans. It recently launched its 100 day countdown to the start of the tournament with a completely responsive microsite dedicated to World Cup 2015 which will include an ICC Cricket World Cup trivia section, an editorial and blog features covering the teams, players, and venues alongside video and photographic content along with a comprehensive World Cup travel site highlighting key information for anyone wanting to attend any of the match venues during the ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

     

    Ponting commented, “I’m really excited to be joining the team at ESPNcricinfo.  I’ve been an avid consumer of the site for many years and now can’t wait to share my insights as a contributor especially as the next 12 months will have so many highlights and gripping contests.”

     

    ESPNcricinfo will also give global cricket fans the World Cup timeline section which deep dives into each of the previous World Cups, including galleries, quizzes, overview and videos from each of the World Cups. World Cup Vignettes, a new video series, will allow fans to relive 50 landmark moments from the ten previous World Cup tournaments. From exceptional individual performances to the raw emotion of the crowd, each vignette will feature interviews from players, umpires and journalists and be accompanied by a written article.

     

    Additionally, Mark Nicholas will present Men of the Finals, a series analysing the individuals who have produced exceptional performances to help their country win cricket’s most coveted international trophy. Hearing from the players themselves and those who witnessed their exploits first-hand the backstory and performance will be critiqued during each episode of the series. Users in the United States, Canada and the West Indies will be able to watch actual match clips for both World Cup Vignettes and Men of the Finals.