It seems that the IPL has succeeded in developing city loyalties. After a thriller of a game between Mohali Kings XI and Mumbai Indians on Wednesday — which Kings XI won by just one run — Mohali captain, Yuvraj Singh took a pot-shot at the Mumbai crowd for being openly hostile towards his team.

Yuvraj Singh sarcastically thanked the Mumbai crowd, reminding them that some of his players played for Team India as well. The joyous celebration by Yuvraj Singh after winning the thriller in Mumbai wasn’t just to celebrate victory or even his team’s passage through to the semi-finals.

The Kings XI skipper was sending out a strong message to the Mumbai crowd, which had apparently been aggressive and even abusive towards his players throughout the game. “A crowd should not do this,” he stated categorically.
Source: iplnewsonline.com

Mumbai, May 22 It’s almost curtains for Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) – owned Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, that doesn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the SRK camp. Kolkata Knight Riders may soon don a new avatar of a full-fledged Sports company. Industry sources disclose that it will be on the lines of international football team Manchester United (MU), which is the world’s richest football club and valued in excess of 245 million pounds.

Joy Bhattacharya, CEO, Kolkata Knight Riders said, “We are planning a number of things around KKR. However, we will be able to disclose the complete plan after June 2. Right now, the entire concentration is on the on-going tournament.” Bhattacharya said that the idea was to make a complete franchise out of KKR, that will includes all the facets like merchandising, exhibition of Sports around the world, a Sports academy and possible tie-up with clubs around the globe. Earlier, both SRK and Sourav Ganguly had expressed this desire during a television interview. “The objective was never to stop after launching the team,” said Bhattacharya. Analysts say it will be a daunting task for team SRK as even MU can hardly rely on money from T-shirts, posters or footballs – they really have to sell football – in the ground and on the TV. So what Sports will SRK sell? Whether he will look beyond cricket and also embrace hockey, football or other Sports remains unanswered.

Right from its inception, KKR has always won an edge over others in terms of capturing the limelight. Be it the starry title-holders SRK and Juhi Chawla or for the blazing golden Viking helmet, or the team theme ‘Korbo, Lorbo, Jitbo Re’ created by Vishal-Shekhar – the team retained the hype and publicity.

Even the team has some of the biggest names in the global cricket arena including Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team.

The team also includes the Australian captain Ricky Ponting, allrounder Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Tatenda Taibu and wicket keeper batsman Brendon McCullum. The main bowlers are Shoaib Akhtar, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar and Murali Karthik. The team also includes Umar Gul, Mohammad Hafeez and Salman Butt and Australian batsman Brad Hodge.
Source: financialexpress.com

NEW DELHI: As the Indian Premier League (IPL) enters the crucial knock-out stage, official broadcaster Sony Max has bowled a bouncer at media buyers by floating an all-time high ad rate for the last three matches. Sony Max has floated Rs 10 lakh per 10 seconds for the two semi-finals and final matches, which will be played on May 30, May 31 and June 1 in Mumbai.

This steep hike comes despite a decline in television ratings for the tournament from the explosive start it had witnessed. According to TAM Peoplemeter data, the average rating for IPL has come down to 4.72% from 5.2% during the first two weeks.

Media buyers, while expressing concerns over the astronomical rates Sony Max has floated, admit that the broadcaster would find a select set of takers even at those rates. “We are not surprised that Sony is charging such astronomical rates. There will be a select few advertisers who would want to be visible on the channel, because ratings are expected to be a record high during the semi-finals and final. And since the hype seems set to last through the tournament, Sony is selling aggressively,” a media buying source told ET. Sony Max has kept aside about 200 seconds of inventory for each of the three matches.

If Sony does manage to close spot deals at Rs 10 lakh, it will better ESPN-Star Sports’ (ESS) existing record. Last September, ESS had sold 10-second spots for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup final at rates ranging between Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh — and that was just for the final India-Pakistan match.

Sony Entertainment Television (SET) president Rohit Gupta said the broadcaster was close to signing up a couple of advertisers at rates ‘almost’ nearing the Rs 10-lakh slab.

Declining to give out the names of the interested advertisers, Mr Gupta said: “Our inventory is limited to about 600-650 seconds for the semis and finals put together, and we will close deals with three to four advertisers for spot buys.”

Instead of selling 10-second spots on a one-off basis, Sony plans to sell the inventory as a package of 50 or 60 seconds per match. While it began selling spots at Rs 2 lakh for 10-second spots, the broadcaster scaled up the rates to Rs 2.5 lakh per 10 seconds after the first week of the tournament. This was jacked up to Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh for weekend matches.

Sources said Sony Max is on its way to achieve the target of Rs 300 crore from the first IPL season. Last year, Sony had made nearly Rs 400 crore from the World Cup and Champions Trophy put together. Sony has been selling IPL rates at about 30-40% higher that what it sold last year’s World Cup matches. India’s early exit from the World Cup did not help the broadcaster’s cause then.

Sony had acquired IPL broadcast rights along with World Sports Group (WSG) for a steep $918 million. As per the deal, WSG has acquired the global broadcast rights for 10 years. Sony holds the rights for a five-year term.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

New Delhi: First it was the skimpy outfits of cheerleaders, then the Bhajji-Sreesanth slap row and then the Ganguly-Warne spat — it seems as if controversies and the Indian Premier League go hand in hand.

It has not even been a few weeks since the slap row died down, that the cheerleaders have raised another stink in the already clash-ridden league. This time, it is over their skin tone.

Two cheerleaders from London were allegedly asked to leave the Mohali ground by event management company, Wizcraft, because they had a darker skin colour.

However, Wizcraft denies the charge. The CEO of Wizcraft, Sabbas Joseph has told CNN-IBN that the girls were contracted for just one day of work.

One of the cheerleaders, Ellesha Newton, allegedly told The Telegraph: “It was okay when we reached the stadium. It was when we were going to take our positions that some of Wizcraft’s employees asked us to leave. We were surprised and asked them why and they told us it was because of the colour of our skin.”

The Telegraph quoted the director of Fierce Performance Production, Jorge Aldana as saying that the incident took place before the Kings XI’s first match at Mohali on April 19 against the Chennai Super Kings.

Fierce Performance Production is the company that had brought the girls from London.

Aldana was quoted by The Telegraph as saying: “I found Ellesha and Sherinne Anderson — whom I had recruited as part of a team of 12 — in tears when I reached the ground.”

“Sherinne and Ellesha were in a state of shock and crying outside the ground. I called them and asked them what was the matter and they told me that a guy from Wizcraft had forbidden them from entering the ground,” Aldana was further quoted by The Telegraph as saying.
Source:ibnlive.com

SPORT: It plans to take the tournament to the Gulf and also rope in film stars to play In order to counter the heat generated by the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) launched by BCCI, the rebel cricket body — Indian Cricket League (ICL) — is all set to take its tournament outside the country.

Not only will the Subhash Chandra-owned Twenty20 tournament go to West Asia in September, its prize money will also go up. ICL will also launch a high-voltage multi-media campaign beginning August-September other than considering roping in film stars to not only own cricket teams, but to play the Twenty20 matches.

The bottom line is that the Essel Group is gearing up to take on the Indian Premier League which has kept television viewers glued to Sony’s SET Max channel.

Says a senior Zee executive: “The ICL is now very big on the agenda for the group. Several steps are being taken to increase the interest of both the viewers and the advertisers when the tournament starts in September-October this year. Don’t forget, we saw the big potential in the Twenty20 format much before anyone else did.”

To lend freshness to the game, the ICL executives are looking at several international cricketing venues in the Gulf. The belief is that the company may finally zero in on Dubai or Sharjah as Taj Television, the holding company of Ten Sports that shows the matches, is based in Dubai. Zee owns a 50 per cent stake in Ten Sports.

However, in the face of competition from IPL, establishing ICL as a vibrant television property will be an uphill task for the Essel Group.

“IPL is a successful television property with consistent ratings of about 4-5, similar to any popular show on a general entertainment channel. The initial tournaments of ICL got ratings of 1-2. To attract the viewers to another Twenty20 tournament will be a tough challenge for the ICL team,” says a senior media planner. Winning against IPL will be a challenge on other counts as well.

For a start, IPL is an official tournament with the backing of the International Cricket Council (ICC) while ICL is a rebel league comprising either retired international cricketers or not so known cricket players from both within and outside the country.

Also, the ICL matches aired on Zee Sports and later on Ten Sports as well, managed to attract viewers for 6-12 minutes on an average. The average time spent on Set Max (for IPL) has been over 40 minutes.

Himanshu Modi, business head, ICL, however, is unfazed. In an emailed response to Business Standard earlier, he said: “It is important for everyone involved or following the league to understand that in terms of product life cycle we are in the introductory stage. Like any other sporting product, the ICL will need time to build its support base…”

IPL has become a phenomenal television success, agree advertising experts. “If any one has to even match its intensity in future, they will have to put in something ‘extra’,” a senior executive in an advertising agency concludes.

International venues and celebrities may work wonders for the sub-continent expats, but for the viewers back home, much more may be required,” a senior executive in a Gurgaon-based advertising agency concludes.
Source:business-standard.com