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Fifth take (Mumbai)
(15 February 2003)

Inside Dope spoke to some advertisers and media planners in Mumbai. Here are some juicy titbits:

* The most common refrain currently heard: 'Cricketers and TV channels have let us down'. The commentary team's on both DD and MAX are pathetic, say ad agencies and media personalities.

* Many advertisers, media planners and buyers have expressed anguish at the ads scheduling on TV. In certain cases, the ads have been cut short.

* The scheduling department exec's of the ad agencies have refused to pay for such ads and have asked their monitoring agencies to be more careful and report such glitches.

* One female viewer was extremely irritated by MAX's lack of empathy - the channel went for a commercial break when when a player was injured and game was halted. When she switched to the pubcaster, DD was showing the plight of the hapless cricketer.

* Several issues have been raised about the claims made by the sales and marketing teams of the C&S and terrestrial channels.

* A senior media director from a top agency says that the total spend on TV hasn't gone beyond Rs 3.1 billion. He says that MAX has managed to touch Rs 2 billion and DD has bagged Rs 1.1 billion.

* Another senior media director has gone on record saying that the TV pie is around Rs 4.5 billion; the print media share is around Rs 2.5 billion and the total expenditure around cricket would be around Rs 10 billion.

* However, this senior media director claims that none of the below-the-line spends are being monitored by the rating or research agencies.

* Female audiences are neither responding to Mandira Bedi nor to the other two Charlie's angels (Sandhya Mridul or Maria Goretti). A housewife in her early 50s seemed to be baffled by Mandira's presence in a cricket show.

* Meanwhile a female cricket enthusiast was quite disappointed with the buzz around the Extraaa Innings host's, apparently she had been looking forward to check out some trend-setting stuff display by the Charu's Angels - hair styles, fashion accessories, Indianised couture et al.

* Viewers are getting irritated as Extraaa Innings is hogging unnecessary mileage and important things like the 'Toss' are shown late.

* On one particular day, the male audiences enjoyed watching Extraaa Innings ' 'mass' act , the 'flats had been replaced by the 'curves'.

* A female media executive was sporting a scowling face the whole evening and night. She had reached home after work to find her husband, a self-employed professional operating from his house, ask her "Did you see Mandira 'Bedi's... recently???."

* However, such joys were short-lived as the damsels seemed to have sobered down soon after someone complained to the programming team about the sniggers and smirks which the new 'get ups' were evoking.

* A certain purist asked cricketer Srikanth to keep his mouth shut during the commentary. The same person asked DD's programming team to switch off the Hindi commentary and has requested the pubcaster to give him the commentary team straight from the world feed.

* The ESPN-Star Sport's commentary team (especially Sunny Gavaskar) has been appreciated by another young cricket enthusiastic. ESPN's programmes are getting viewed rather than the post-match programmes of DD and MAX.

* ESPN-Star Sports programmes Follow Through and Taking Guard are slotted in the post 11 pm and are getting rave reviews. The programme is being appreciated primarily because there is no rival for the programme as MAX and Sony don't screen any in-depth cricket analysis show in the same time slot.

* A letter to the editor of an afternoon paper has an aspiring chartered accountant saying: "I had doubts whether I should postpone giving my exams (to November) in order to watch cricket. But I have decided to give my exams this May itself as I cannot put with the jokers who are being passed off as commentators on Sony. They have played with our emotions while making a mess of the broadcast." Whew!

* ESS is also getting a good response for its interactive shows and SMS contests. The channel is planning more of the same in the near future.

* An elderly viewer wonders why Geoff Boycott is still in the UK when the greatest cricketing spectacle is being played in South Africa. He also wants to know why ESS is not showing Boycott's face and making him join the gang.

* However, the winners clearly are the music channels - especially MTV with the antics of Cyrus Broacha,'Lovejot Singh" and programmes such as Silly Point, Dada's Boys, Ball Talk and Full Toss.

* In fact, MTV's website www.mtvindia.com has an entire bunch of cricket-related trivia which is hilarious and more entertaining than the 'live' game itself.

* The pathetic display of the Indian cricketers has continued in South Africa. One viewer was confused by the fact that Kenya's score (against South Africa) was reading the same as India's score against Holland.

* Cricket zealots say that New Zealand shouldn't be given a chance to reconsider their decision of forsaking their game due to security reasons. They feel that New Zealand's defeat to Sri Lanka has changed the equation and the team will sink down under rather than climbing to the super Sixes stage.

* Some bookies were lamenting the fact they were not prepared to accept bets during the India-Holland match. They assumed that the match to be a nonentity from the betting point of view. As one of them said "When we ASSUMED, the Indian team made an 'ASS' of 'U' (read betting circles) and 'ME' (gamblers).

* The ups and lows of the Indian team would have kept their phones ringing as several gamblers wanted to bet on India to lose!

* On the distribution front, the war between the cable operators, broadcasters and MSOs (multi-service operators) is getting all heated up. In one particular area in Mumbai's suburbs, a certain cable association had a clash with a broadcaster and refused to air channels including cricket. The broadcaster immediately installed a 'dummy' operator and gave signals.

* The cable association and the MSO in charge were furious and they complained to the MSO federation. The MSO lobby informed the broadcaster that they would switch off the signals in other parts of the city if the broadcaster stopped supporting the 'dummy' operator.

* Meanwhile, the Mumbai Cable Operators' Federation has threatened broadcasters and MSOs that they would switch off signals during the World Cup unless their demands were met. Earlier, they planned to raise the issue post World Cup in order to avoid any inconvenience caused to viewers.

* Meanwhile, SET and MAX have taken the advice of the media analysts seriously. More than 10 per cent of the spots are being used to promote their in-house programmes (serials, shows and soaps).

* However, the general consensus is that females are still hooked to Star Plus. One housewife in their thirties says that Sony hasn't managed to come up with exciting and innovative fare to sustain their interest.

* On Star, the new twists and turns (Kyuunki...family moving to Australia) are still keeping viewers glued to the sets.

* In the case of housewives, cricket has overshadowed soaps during the Big Gun matches involving India and other top teams; if and only if they don't have control over the remote.

* Meanwhile, Dada and his boys are still making money. Ganguly's agents has entered into a deal with Star News whereby he will get paid for giving his views exclusively. ITC Group is sponsoring the daily capsule on Star News.

The show must go on!

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