MUMBAI: It’s disadvantage Mumbai Indians. Even before the Indian Premier League’s (IPL’s) first season draws to a close, all indicators seem to suggest that Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai Indians could be a write-off as far as the first year goes. Whether on or off the field, the Mumbai franchise has been unable to make its mark in its debut year.

With Harbhajan Singh banned for 11 matches—which means he will sit out the rest of the IPL season—Mumbai Indians have lost one of their best players. Sachin Tendulkar, who’s injured, has not played at all. The franchise owners are now scouting for another player to replace Harbhajan. Bhajji, who was bought for $850,000, will now only be entitled to a fee for just two matches. This essentially means Mumbai Indians will get $758,572 back into their kitty of $5 million to purchase another player.

Sachin, the icon player for the franchise who has not played a single match owing to his injury, has proven to be one of the biggest liabilities for the team. As the icon player, Sachin will be paid 15% more than Sanath Jayasuriya (the highest paid player in the Mumbai team), which stands at $11,21,250. Despite Sachin’s non-performance, the team owners will have to make the full payment, which is a net loss for the franchise.

With not a single victory at hand, the Mumbai Indians are not exactly shining, and the Bhajji-Sree Santh spat has only made things worse.Indiawin Sports director Kaushik Roy told ET: “The first season has essentially been (a) learning (experience). From next year, we will be better equipped and will know how to price matches, how to structure our teams and get more out of our partnerships. This time, we were undecided until the last minute whether we should ensure that Reliance Industries gets the maximum mileage or whether one should look at partnerships. We did not want to sell out cheap and would have done better if we had started out earlier.”

Mr Roy added that they were also choosy about which partners they would associate with, since “we cannot be seen having associations with parties that we are not comfortable with”. Mumbai Indians only managed one founding sponsor in MasterCard.
That’s not all, Mumbai roped in Hrithik Roshan as its brand ambassador. According to sources, the deal is close to Rs 4-5 crore. There has been no significant rub-off from that association either.

“Financially, the franchise seems to have overspent. Apart from two players out, Mumbai has also paid a lot for its brand ambassador and not managed to leverage it, which is a bit surprising. It has clearly re-strategise for the next season,” said an official close to the dealings of the Mumbai franchise.Mr Ambani paid $111.9 million for the franchise, making it the most expensive IPL team. The only saving grace for Mumbai has been its packed stadiums. However, ticket sales alone will not do the trick.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: IPL just lost some more cheer. GMR, the franchisee of Delhi Daredevils, has decided to ‘‘do away’’ with cheerleaders for the rest of the IPL season. ‘‘The focus should be on cricket rather than entertainment. And the entertainment should be such that it blends with cricket,’’ said a GMR official.

In what is being seen as a reaction to the recent protests in Maharashtra by some political parties against the presence of the ‘‘obscenely dressed’’ cheerleaders in IPL games, the franchisees mulled over the issue for two weeks before arriving at the decision.

As a result, the cheerleaders, who were flown in from London and other parts of Europe before the start of the tournament, are being sent back to their respective countries. But GMR hopes that although it had to do away with the cheerleaders for this season, it will get them back next season.

However, fans who throng Ferozeshah Kotla on Wednesday night for the Daredevils-Royal Challengers match, will not be completely deprived of action on the cheerleading front. Because, according to sources, Washington’s Redskins, the Bangalore team’s cheerleaders, will perform during the game.

‘‘As time passed by, we realized cheerleaders were perhaps not needed. We want people to come and appreciate only cricket and not anything else. But I also hope that we can get them (cheerleaders) back for the next season. And hopefully they will play a bigger role next time around. This time we didn’t have much time to draw up an itinerary for them,’’ said Shriram Ramdas, in charge of entertainment at GMR.

Source: ipl.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Mumbai, April 29: Blame it on Mahi magic or SRK’s song-and-dance routine or simply the frenzy of a cricket-crazy nation, advertisement rates for the Indian Premier League have soared to a record high.Armed with an average TRP rating of 5.5 even for weekday matches, SET Max hopes to touch Rs 5 lakh-Rs 5.5 lakh for a 10-second slot during the IPL semi-finals and final, a channel source said.

Companies that took their chance and invested early, like Coke and Vodafone, are grinning from ear to ear. Those that missed the bus by opting to wait and watch are busy queuing up.The question now is whether the IPL will dilute the ad spend on ODIs and Test matches.“No,” said Syam Shankar, president of India Media Exchange, the media-buying arm of the Publicis Groupe.

“Although the IPL is a new category altogether, most companies had budgeted for it earlier in terms of the spend on sponsorships and so on. The ad spend on TV spots do not make a large chunk of an advertiser’s budget,” he said.“And only a few late entrants will be buying at that high rate. So the high rate of ads on SET Max will in no way affect the advertisers’ spend on cricket as a property.”SET Max had flagged off the auction for the IPL ad spots at the same rate as a cricket World Cup or T20 World Cup. The 10-second spots that initially sold for Rs 1.5 lakh-Rs 2 lakh doubled as the TRPs for the first Calcutta-Bangalore match touched 8.21.

Saas-bahu serial ad rates were left trailing at an average of around Rs 70,000 per 10 seconds.A source in Coke said the company had been able to offset the high rates for IPL adspots without upsetting its marketing budget.“We have gained because we began early. We got the cheapest rates, though they were high by any standards. But the IPL has the potential to become India’s answer to the Super Bowl and we gained through an early association,” he said.

But the high rates have not scared the late entrants away. Companies like J&J and Heinz have begun re-allocating ad expenditures and shifting investments from soaps to the T20 extravaganza.“SET Max has about 150-200 seconds of inventory left. It plans to sell the next 15-20 matches at Rs 3.5 lakh-Rs 4 lakh per 10 seconds, and the last 10 matches at about 30 per cent more for 10-seconders,” a Sony official said.The sources iterated that this was not likely to affect the ad rates for India’s international matches.

“The rates for the IPL are special as it is truly manoranjan ka baap, meant as entertainment for the entire family. It is like the Super Bowl. The current ad rates for IPL will not be a benchmark for Team India’s other international fixtures,” said Manish Porwal, chief executive officer, Percept Talent Management.Big spenders like Hindustan Unilever, Colgate and P&G, however, chose not to hop on to the IPL ad bandwagon.A Hindustan Unilever source said the company did not see any cost efficiency in investing in the T20 extravaganza because the IPL brand was more powerful than the brands riding on it.

Source: telegraphindia.com

Indian fast pacer Harbhajan Singh had extended an ugly and immodest behavior to his colleague Sreesanth on the field during Punjab Kings Vs Mumbai Indians match in Mumbai. The incident created hullabaloo in the cricket arena when Bhajji slapped Sreesanth in witness of all. A day before the final judgment, Preity watched the exclusive video with Sreesanth.

There were about 30 cameras and among those only one camera captured this unceremonious event. Sony has the exclusive rights to it and before the final verdict; the video was released to respective persons and Preity, Ness Wadia and Sreesanth watched the video. Though Harbhajan patched up with Sreesanth in the dressing room and Sreesanth also refused to lodge any complaint against him, BCCI did not let the matter go off without verifying it.

After the board reviewed the entire incident, Harbhajan was found guilty of physically assaulting a player and he was dismissed from the IPL losing Rs. 3 crore of bidding. The Mohali team was crowned victorious in that particular match.

Source: bollywoodmantra.com

Never before has cricket generated so much of radio buzz. Mostly limited to live commentary on radio, cricket has assumed an entertainment avatar, thanks to the ongoing DLF IPL T20 Tournament. Latest to join the fray is Big FM Kolkata, which has thrown its weight behind the Kolkata Knight Riders with a new programme.

Big FM has begun airing a new show, ‘Mojar Adda’, as part of its breakfast slot, Big Chumuk, from April 26. The programme has been conceptualised to create a connect with cricket lovers in Kolkata.On each day of the IPL match well-known names from Tollywood, veteran broadcasters, and select members of the Kolkata Knight Riders team are invited on air to interact with the listeners. This apart, some lucky listeners also get to win tickets for the Kolkata Knight Riders matches held in the city.

A special character Googly Ganguly adds comic relief to the show by making hilarious astro predictions, funny comments about the matches and a talkathon describing his obsession with Kolkata Knight Riders.Speaking on this initiative, Soumen Choudhury, Regional Head-East and South, Big FM, said, “Googly Ganguly is a unique offering of Big FM, who would not only regale the listeners through a ‘mojar adda’, but also forge their bonding with the station. The signature fun quotient that Big FM promises is sure to go up during the IPL matches.”

He further said that this initiative had received a ‘fabulous response’ from all Big FM listeners in Kolkata.

Source:exchange4media.com