Indiantelevision.com Team

(14 June 2010 8:45 pm)

MUMBAI: Neo Cricket has sold 80 per cent of its inventory for the Asia Cup which kicks off tomorrow.

Neo Sports Broadcast executive VP ad revenue Raju Udupa says that five sponsors have come on-board. "We have HUL, Tata DoCoMo and Airtel DTH as co-presenters. Lemon Mobile and Tata Motors are associate sponsors. We have sold spots for Rs 225,000 per 10 seconds and are targetting revenues of Rs 1 billion."

The target of Rs 1 billion looks highly ambitious and would be difficult to achieve, media analysts said. The soccer World Cup is currently going on and the TV viewership for the event in India is going to increase considerably from the previous World Cup.

Neo is holding back 10 per cent should India make it to the final. There are seven matches in total. "We also have spot buyers including Micromax, HCL, Perfetti, Nissan Auto, Godfrey Phillips, Piramal Healthcare and K Lakshmi Cement. This time a full strength Indian team is playing. So advertisers are confident on the event's delivery".

Micromax is the ground title sponsor. The broadcaster has also roped in Tata Motors Manza, Seagrams Royal Stag and Yamaha as on-ground sponsors. The broadcaster is spending Rs 25 million on marketing activities, says Udupa.