| MUMBAI:
Sony Entertainment Television India (now known as Multi Screen Media) expects
to reap a 40-50 per cent jump in revenue from the second edition of the IPL, a
sign that the Twenty20 cricket format is untouched by global recession and the
shift in home to South Africa. A
hike in advertising rates and a higher consumption of the inventory will help
Sony ride the rough waves as advertisers shrink budgets in a slowing economy.
"We expect
the revenue to be 40-50 per cent higher than last year. With IPL being a proven
property, the ad rates are higher this time. The inventory will also be fully
consumed unlike last time when the first few matches were not totally sold out,"
Sony COO NP Singh tells Indiantelevision.com, while refusing to provide further
financial details. IPL
repeats on Sony Sony
Entertainment Television, the Hindi general entertainment channel, will air repeats
of the IPL matches in the mornings while Max will be telecasting live the entire
tourney with a Hindi and an English audio feed. "We
had repeat programming on Sony. We will also be replacing telebrands content with
repeat telecast of the IPL matches in the mornings," says Singh. As
reported first in Indiantelevision.com, Channel 8 will show the matches of the
Kolkata Knight Riders, the semi-finals and the final. Sony, which had acquired
the Bengali movie channel, believes that the IPL content will widen Channel 8's
reach and viewership. Opening
ceremony to have Hollywood stars The
opening ceremony will have Hollywood heavyweights Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman
and Matt Damon, besides Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan. There will also be
extravagant song and dance numbers. "Carnivals
will start on the 16th in South Africa to give the IPL a big buzz before the kick
off on Friday," says Max business head Sneha Rajani.
Extraa
Innings adds zing
Max is adding zing to its wraparound show Extraa Innings. Mandira Bedi, who has
been a cricket presenter on the channel for the last six years but who was absent
from the inaugural season of the IPL, will make her T20 debut on the channel.
The other presenters of Extraa Innings are Samir Kochhar, Indian idol 4 host Melyang
Chang and VJ Gaurav Kapoor. Max
has roped in Shankar Ehsaan Loy to compose the title track for Extraa Innings.
Also, most of the show will
be from the different grounds in South Africa, while a small amount of time will
be spent in the Mumbai-based studio. Max
will have a line up of 16 commentators including Ravi Shastri, Mark Nicholas,
L Sivaramakrishnan and Danny Morrison. They will offer expert views and opinions
on Extraa Innings in addition to the live commentary. "Some
will be based at our Mumbai studio. You will see a smooth rotation of experts
being used. This time for the IPL we will have 34 cameras, as compared to 24 last
time,” says Rajani. Marketing
budgets up The
marketing budget will go up significantly as Max plans to penetrate its campaign
for the IPL much deeper this time. The campaign has been based on the theme
Ek Desh Ek Junoon.
“Last year most of the focus rested on the metros. Now we have gone into
the Hindi heartland. This year there has been an attempt to penetrate the South.
We have used radio and print a lot to achieve this goal. We want rural India to
also get excited about the IPL up North and down South as well. We have advertised
on a lot of regional channels.” | 
