IPL may lack ‘Team India’ charm

When the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) announced the formation of a Twenty20 league late last year, it created a furore. Everything about the game seemed larger than life, whether it was the prize money of Rs 35 crore (the highest ever in the game’s history), or celebrities buying teams, or the unabashed players’ auction.

Starting April 18, the IPL tournament will go on air on SET Max on prime time, 8-11pm, on all days and 4-7pm for two matches. Initially, it was thought that the IPL telecast would be bad news for the general entertainment channels (GECs), which usually air their strongest properties 8pm to 11pm. Now, however, with the IPL matches about to start, this line of thought is not as confident as before.

The hype and hullabaloo

However, media observers such as Kajal Malik, vice-president, Interactions, a Lintas Media Group agency, believes that though the IPL is enjoying vast media coverage, it has failed to leverage mass media. She is of the opinion that in a game like this, mass media will play a crucial role. What has been running on mass media is the IPL campaign by the BCCI and SET Max.

“I don’t see the franchises leveraging mass media enough, considering that the team campaigns haven’t really kick-started,” says Malik. After stealing the thunder from the ICL, the BCCI is taking the concept to a bigger level with bigger players, but that hasn’t translated into bigger hype, apart from the media coverage it is enjoying, she says.

‘My India’ missing

Hence, the most challenging job for any of the team owners is to drive and excite the audience. Unless they are given a solid proposition, the viewer has no reason to be passionate about the game or the teams at this point of time. And sadly, the franchise owners have only about 10 days to ignite passion among cricket lovers.

In fact, the team owners are trying hard to create fan followings for their respective teams, but considering that the tournament will go on air on April 18, it’s probably too late. Each team has appointed an advertising agency to handle its marketing communication, complete with team anthem, team mascot and merchandise. Nevertheless, there is no clear knowledge about the teams, except for a few senior players; media observers believe this could go against the IPL.

The IPL is riding on a totally new concept, Twenty20, which, it is believed, will bring ‘club culture’ into cricket. “How much passion a club team will ignite in the audience remains to be seen,” says a senior media planner.

And when it comes to converting the same to television viewership, Praveen Tripathi chief executive, Hansa Consulting, predicts that it certainly won’t have the same effect that an India one day match would have. “When there is an India match playing, the entire nation watches. When there is a Chandigarh versus Kolkata match, one would expect the whole of Punjab to root for Chandigarh and the whole of Kolkata to root for Kolkata. And that’s a small fraction of the country,” he explains. He is of the opinion that people in most cities will cheer for their own teams.

Overall, the effect will be less than that of a one day match with India playing and more than a one dayer without India playing.

The IPL is expected to attract two categories of viewers – diehard cricket fans who watch cricket as a sport whether India plays or not, and amateur, cricket illiterate lovers from the cities which are playing. But again, this won’t add up to the whole of India. However, Tripathi hopes that if the cricket matches become more than just sport and have entertainment value added to them, they will be bigger hits.

Fight for the remote

Media planners also foresee a possible fight for the remote by family members in single television households, which are in a majority in India. The regular GEC viewer will now have to vie with the avid cricket fans at home. But everyone agrees that it is almost impossible that all homes will be tuned in to cricket all 44 days because most women can’t abstain from their daily dose of drama for that long.

“It will be hard for her, as that’s her ‘space out’ time after a hard day’s work and, being quite engrossed in the happenings in the serials, she looks forward to the next episode,” says Sandeep Lakhina, managing director, India, West and South, Starcom. He believes that even if some women have to give in to the IPL, they will watch their serials on the afternoon repeats, which means the afternoon viewership may pick up.

Prem Kamath, vice-president, marketing, STAR India, sees no reason to worry. “We are talking about two entirely different viewer experiences here,” he says. “The 8-11pm slot on GECs is ruled by daily soaps, which have been going on for long and have a big following.”

No doubt these programmes have built a relationship with the audience on an ongoing basis and the audience comes back to watch them every day. However, the hype and expectations around the IPL will lead to an initial sampling. “But on the whole, I don’t expect the GECs to be affected by the IPL,” says Kamath confidently.

Malik supports Kamath’s view. “The current stronger programmes don’t have too much to worry about, at least initially. Weaker programmes which are already on a slide will see viewership getting fragmented,” she says.

Viewership pattern

The IPL will garner varying viewership, depending on a variety of factors such as team composition, intensity of the match, etc. Malik believes that if a team’s composition is a little stronger with recognised players, it will command higher viewership. Lakhani predicts that matches featuring the Mumbai and Delhi teams might get higher viewership since these metros form a large percentage of the TV audience. He is obviously of the opinion that support may be led more by “my favourite player” than by city.

The most interesting match is expected to draw a TVR of 3.5, and the others, around 3, which is much lower than that garnered by any of the shows on STAR Plus on prime time.

GECs gearing up

According to media analysts, the GECs are gearing up to face the IPL challenge. STAR Plus has Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hai?, the show hosted by Shah Rukh Khan, which will go on air from April 25. It has launched another show called Joh Jeeta Wohi Superstar, a singing reality show, which will feature popular contestants from all the singing contest shows held till date across channels. Both these shows are weekend shows. Meanwhile, to boost its long-running saga, Kyunki… Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, the channel has got Smriti Irani, the original Tulsi, back on the show.

While Kamath denies that any efforts are being made to strengthen the weekday prime time offerings, Lakhina believes there is s strategy in place. “I have a feeling that STAR, Zee and others may shift some of their prime time programming to avoid clashes with the IPL,” he says. Zee already has Rock-N-Roll Family, which is a dance based reality show featuring families (three generations) and being judged by actors Tanuja, Kajol and Ajay Devgan.

On the whole, the GECs are taking a wait and watch attitude to the IPL platform. The consensus is that while this year, the IPL might manage to attract sports enthusiasts initially, it may not manage steady viewership over a longer period of time because of the already established properties on GECs. Perhaps it will be a different story next year once the game and teams are better known. As of now, the GECs have no reason to worry.