Mumbai: With 24
million people tuning in IPL, initial reports
suggest that television broadcaster Sony may
have made Rs 300 crores in the first season
of the IPL. Lapping up the final IPL
match were 24 million viewers and preliminary
ratings by daily online rating agency aMAP
show that the finale clocked an average rating
of 7.7, peaking at 10.2.
It was the perfect script
for the DLF IPL finale. Underdogs Rajasthan
Royals that cost team owners emerging media
just 67 million dollars beat India Cements'
91 million dollar Chennai Super Kings in a
nail biting last ball finish!
While official TAM ratings
are awaited by the end of the week, the tournament
that started off with a TAM rating of 7.2,
has maintained a rating of four to five throughout
the series. And the semifinals clocked about
the same with aMAP.
The tournament was expected
to end on a high with the final match, but
the aMAP rating seems lower than expected.
Especially when you compare this to previous
TV records - the ICC T20 Worldcup match between
India and Pakistan hit a high of 15 while,
the opening episode of KBC 2 with Amitabh
Bachchan hit 19.1 according to TAM!
With this win, the Rajasthan
Royals the underdogs who beat more expensive
teams with their dogged determination, will
reap rewards for team owners next season,
as emerging media will be able to charge a
premium for season 1's performance.
The final stacking order
has belied expectations, the teams that cost
the least, that is the Rajasthan Royals and
Kings XI Punjab seem to have delivered the
most revenue at least for sponsors like Kotak
Mahindra that signed on with Kings XI Punjab.
“A lot of marketers
did not wake up to the IPL potential in time.
We realised that there was a brand fit with
the Punjab Kings XI,” says VP, Group
Communications, Kotak Mahindra, Shael Sharma.
However, more than the
teams and their sponsors, it is official broadcaster
Sony that will be laughing all the way to
the bank.
Sony, which had set a
target of Rs 200 crore of ad revenue, says
it has beaten its expectations and raked in
300 crores.
Sony had sold spots for
2.5 lakh per ten seconds initially in the
tournament but that rate went up to 4 lakh
for the last stage and reportedly up to 10
lakh per 10 seconds for the final 3 matches.
Media planners say the
real windfall for Sony too will come next
season as the channel can charge at least
50 per cent more than this year in Season
2.
