THE Deccan Chargers won just two of their 14 games last season in the Indian Premier League, but they are a much better side than their results suggested.
They will be captained by legendary Australian wicket-batsman Adam Gilchrist. He was one of just six players to have scored a century (109 not out) in the inaugural tournament, making 436 runs from 14 innings at an average of 33.53 and strike-rate of 137.10.
With players like Gilchrist, South African Herschelle Gibbs, Aussie Andrew Symonds and VVS Laxman of India — who can all take any bowling attack apart on their day — the Chargers will definitely not be thin in the batting department.
With the ball they have several world- class bowlers in Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas, India’s RP Singh and West Indian Fidel Edwards.
Singh took 15 wickets in his 14 games at a healthy average of 29.46 last season.
Allrounders like Symonds, Black Cap Scott Styris and the Windies’ Dwayne Smith will take the rest of the overs.
The team will be coached by former India international Robin Singh, and is owned by the Deccan Chronicle.
Source – thetimes.co.za
With the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament and coming general elections set to dominate media space for the next 45 days, the entertainment industry is expected to lose up to Rs 200 crore worth of business in April-May.This is primarily due to non-availabilty of significant content across media platforms like television, multiplexes, home video, and theatre, among others.
No new films will be released in this period, partly due to the ongoing tussle between multiplexes and Bollywood producers. This may result in a loss of about Rs 150 cr for the major multiplex chains, that otherwise would have hoped to get some returns by running new films every Friday, said a film trade expert from Mumbai.
By industry estimates, at least 80 per cent of box office collections for Bollywood films comes from the 850-odd multiplex screens in the country. Last year, the gross box office collection for Bollywood films during IPL season stood at about Rs 110 cr, the lowest for these in the 2008 calendar year. This year, the multiplexes have already factored in the months of April and May as the period when returns may be the lowest for this calendar year.
However, Joydeep Ghosh Roy, general manager, marketing and sales, PVR Cinemas, says there are always lean periods for multiplexes, when theatres run on lower occupancy and blockbuster films are not released. “We can always run special festivals on our screens. Plus, there are films in the pipeline, including the Hollywood films that will keep coming even in April and May…On an annual basis, we do tend to make up for it from the good months, like the December-January period when Ghajini and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi were playing on 95 per cent theatre occupancy.”
Also, there are few takers for about 15 films lined for release on DVDs, say the home video companies. This may lead to a loss of about Rs 20-30 cr for these companies.
Says Hiren Gada, director, Shemaroo Entertainment, a company that releases films on DVDs and on home videos: “From 2006-07 to the current fiscal, the home video and DVD segment has witnessed a drop of 10-15 per cent in terms of value. We get a sense from the market that consumers are not too keen on spending on DVDs and home video, specially in the next two months.” Shemaroo will, however, release the DVDs of Slumdog Millionaire, Billu and Chandni Chowk to China very soon.
With general elections also overlapping with the IPL season, advertisers have divided their ad budgets between SET MAX, the host channel for IPL, and a clutch of news channels that will air election-related programming, leaving no room for ad spends on any other genre of television channels.
Media planners put this perceived monetary loss to entertainment channels due non-availability of additional ad spends at about Rs 20 cr for the period.
Source – business-standard.com
The general election may have won the battle, but it looks like the Indian Premier League (IPL) will win the war—for eyeballs.Viewership studies by two media buying firms say the Twenty20 cricket league that begins on 18 April, will attract more viewers than the election coverage.
The general election begins on 16 April and will be conducted in five phases till 13 May. The counting of votes will happen on 16 May, the day when election coverage peaks on news channels.
The final of IPL is to be played on 24 May in Johannesburg.
The government’s fear that it would not be able to provide security for both the elections and IPL forced the tournament to move to South Africa. If an IPL match and election coverage happens at the same time, approximately 60% of the viewers will prefer to watch cricket, says a dipstick study of 120 people done across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore by Maxus, a media buying agency that is part of GroupM India Pvt. Ltd.
A similar study by Mediaedge:cia Worldwide Ltd (MEC), another media buying agency from the GroupM stable, which surveyed 1,500 viewers across 10 cities—Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Jaipur—also found that viewers are likely to vote for IPL matches over election coverage.
“The average TRP (television rating point, a measure of viewership) a news channel would bring in during elections a range between 0.6 and 0.7,” says Anisha Motwani, chief marketing officer, Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd. “…IPL delivered TRPs of 6-7 on an average (last year).”
Max New York pulled out as an associate sponsor of IPL this year, but has bought significant number of television spots during the coverage of the matches out of fear of losing out on an opportunity to reach out to consumers.
History shows that IPL does draw more viewers than elections.
Estimates by media agencies suggest that in 2008, IPL, over a course of 44 days generated around 300 gross rating points (GRPs)—another measure of viewership, this is the aggregate of TRPs over a period of time—whereas the daily GRPs garnered by 25 news channels that covered the results of the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 were around 93.
To be sure, comparing viewership generated over 44 days with viewership garnered over a day may not seem fair, but media buyers argue that IPL was telecast for only 3 hours and there was only one channel telecasting it, whereas in the case of elections, there were 25 channels involved, and they covered the declaration of results around the clock.
Source – livemint.com
As the excitement builds up towards season two of the IPL, what could one be looking forward to? Maybe the big sixes. Maybe the cheerleaders. Maybe a dash of controversy. Or maybe the First Ladies Club of the glitzy league that has shattered the myth that cricket is an all-men club.
She has only jumped onto the IPL bandwagon this year, but Shilpa Shetty is making an appearance in the arc-lights quite often, dancing to the tunes of a new video one day and unveiling the new outfit for the Rajasthan Royals on the other, increasingly comfortable talking cricket.
“I only want to wish the players a safe journey and hope they play well and put their best foot forward,” she says.
Shilpa Shetty’s Bollywood rival Preity Zinta is now a veteran at talking cricket. The owner of Kings XI Punjab is quite a ‘hands on’ boss as was seen last year. But she too can make quite a song and dance about her boys. So the African Safari this year seems to agree with her.
“Last year it was fantastic to see everyone get together for the first time,” Zinta says. “I think this time it’s only going to be bigger, better and stronger because everyone knows each other now and it’s a lot of fun.”
The other Bollywood diva with a finger in the IPL pie, Juhi Chawla, isn’t heard often, instead letting co-owner Shah Rukh Khan do most of the talking for the Kolkata Knight Riders. But she and a few others are sure to be seen cheering their teams on in South Africa.
“It’s quite different from any other matches taking place anywhere else in the world,” says IPL commissioner Lalit Modi. “We have a lot of entertainment and top-quality cricket at the same time. I think it is going to be non-stop carnival atmosphere from the start to the end.”
The IPL’s First Ladies Club will clearly be worth keeping an eye out for.
Source – cricketnext.in.com
IPL Inc. said it secured three new contracts totaling about C$5.5 million to manufacture Waste Handling products.
The company stated that production would take place at the Saint-Damien facility.
The first contract is for the production and distribution to 14 municipalities on Montreal’s West Island, of up to 60 thousand wheeled carts to be used in the collection of recyclable materials. Deliveries will be made between the end of April and the end of August 2009.The second contract was awarded by the city of Whitehorse, Yukon. The mandate consists of the production of about 12 thousand wheeled carts to be delivered by the end of the current month.
The company noted that the final contract authorizes the production of nearly 7 thousand wheeled carts to be used in the collection of waste and recyclable materials in Williams Lake, British Columbia. Cart deliveries are scheduled for April 2009.
Source – rttnews.com