ESPN master plans for Champions League Twenty20

Ashish Khurana - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
The 12 teams taking part in the upcoming Champions League Twenty20 tournament named their respective 15-member squads on Tuesday evening and for the first time in months, league chairman Lalit Modi made an emphatic announcement sounding the arrival of the 15-day event.

If Modi had been treading cautiously all along, there was a reason to it. After all, this very tournament had been termed as 'jinxed' when it was cancelled at the last minute in 2008 because of the Mumbai terror attacks. "With just 30 days to go, today's announcement is another important milestone as we build towards the first match on October 8." Modi said.

Now, hoping that all goes ahead as planned, the industry is finally beginning to react. "We are in advanced talks as far as sponsorships and advertising is concerned. Just the paperwork remains and in the next four-five days, there will be announcements." emphasises RC Venkateish, managing director, ESPN Software India to Televisionpoint.com.

As of now, sponsorships have been few and far between. Telecom major Airtel as title sponsor for Rs 160 crore over a period of five years is only the big deal to shout about. The economics work out to be higher than what DLF had paid Indian Premier League (IPL) for title sponsorship. DLF had bought IPL title sponsorship rights for Rs 200 crore for five years, but for 59 matches.

ESPN bought the commercial rights of the tournament for a period of 10 years for a whopping $ 900 million and an additional $ 75 million for marketing the tournament, which makes it the highest-valued tournament on per-game basis.

As much as there is an opportunity to gain from the deal, rights bought at such high costs also puts the broadcasters under tremendous pressure to rake in profits from their investments. ESPN Software is targeting revenues of about Rs 400 crore from ground rights and on-air ad sales though media buyers say the target is ambitious in the current scenario.

Unlike the IPL, which is a BCCI product franchised to Indian companies and played by all the big Indian stars, the $ billion Champions League happens to be a tournament where only three teams owned by Indian franchises are in fray.

"The rest nine are foreign teams. Except for Cape Cobras, and to an extent Victoria Bushrangers, none of the other teams have players that Indian viewers - other than regular cricket enthusiasts - can relate to. That wasn't the case in IPL because there was a lot of masala in it because of a fair mix of Indians as well as top foreign cricketers." says Ajit Varghese, managing director, Maxus.

Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director, Madison World, presents a positive outlook. Balsara says, "It is a 15-day tournament and will most likely hold viewer interest. After IPL, expectations will obviously grow. But advertisers are being cautious and will look for the best returns on investments."

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