Special Report |

Star Sports-Sony spar over World Cup, IPL performances

MUMBAI: Even as the national sides are battling it out on the pitches in Australia-New Zealand to decide who will take home the World Cup in the quarter final stage, a behind the scenes slugfest is taking place between two rival broadcasters, which have both laid big bets on the sport. We are referring to Star India and Multi Screen Media (which runs the Sony Entertainment Television network in India).

The former is telecasting the World Cup and has the rights to India cricket internationally, while the latter is gearing up to telecast the cricket league – the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the next two months, apart from Euro 2016 qualifiers, FIFA International friendlies and various Fight sports. At stake is close to Rs 4,500 crore that is likely to be spent by advertisers on sports television this year. Of this ginormous pie, approximately Rs 2000-2,200 crore is estimated to be spent on the World Cup and IPL. It’s no wonder then that the two are resorting to sledging within the confines of advertisers’ and media agencies’ cabins and to journos.

Star India began its World Cup innings just about three weeks ago - rather shakily. A Sony spokesperson reveals that the Star ad sales team had just about managed to raise Rs 100 -150 crore or so in ad and sponsorship deals before the once-in-four-years tourney began. “They were really desperate,” he says. “India were performing abysmally on their tour overseas.”

The Star spokesperson is quick to respond, “In the first two weeks only, the advertiser as well as sponsor count for the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was 50 per cent higher than 2011 edition as well as the IPL.”

The Sony spokesperson’s rejoinder to this is that India’s stupendous display against Pakistan in their opening encounter helped bail out Star Sports. Advertisers flocked to its doors, cash in hand ready to pay premium to air their TVCs. Estimates are that Star India will raise anywhere from Rs 800 - 900 crore from this year’s contest, which ends late in March.

And even as Star has been screaming that this year’s edition has generated the highest ratings ever, and in its trail ad revenues, Sony’s spokesperson has been rubbishing the numbers. Says he: “The ratings in this edition have seen a substantial decline when compared to the 2011 edition. Moreover fans had to wait for a week to witness an India match; the decline is constant in the non-India matches too. Whereas in IPL, each and every match is entertaining and is showcased on prime time.”

He adds, “After 31 matches, the bouts involving India are generating 6.1 TVRs, which was 10.3 during the 2011 edition and the decline is constant in non-India matches too wherein it has dropped from 3.6 TVRs to 1.3 TVR.”

Terming those figures as absolute no-balls, the Star India spokesperson asserts, “The cumulative reach of the ongoing World Cup touched 534 million viewers after the first 29 matches (TAM data CS4+ extrapolated to the universe using a standard conversion factor). In terms of TVRs, the India vs Pakistan match garnered 14.9 TVR, India vs South Africa got 12.7 TVR, and India vs West Indies managed 13.1 TVR and the non-India match ratings are fluctuating from 2 to 2.5.”

Media observers also point out to the fact that the reporting of the ratings has also changed since 2011. “In those days, LC1 towns were not factored into the ratings. Hence, a pure comparision is also not possible,” says a media expert. “It’s like comparing apples and oranges.”

The Star India spokesperson in turn takes a dig at MSM’s telecast record of the IPL, saying the trend is clear. “The IPL reach has declined continuously since season one and sharply in the last three years. Post World Cup in 2011, the tournament suffered as both foot fall and engagement dropped.”

Terming these allegations as “baseless,” the MSM official shared the cumulative reach of IPL since its inception.

The official also added, “Not only in terms of cumulative reach every year but also in terms of ad revenue we witnessed an eight – 10 per cent increase.  IPL is an established entity and considering the fact that the tourney has survived through many ifs and buts in past years, the asset is now beyond question.”

The Star spokesperson says that MSM has a major challenge on its hands over the next few weeks. It is going to telecast the IPL very soon after the World Cup ends; at a time when the sports ad spends appetites of some advertisers may have been satiated courtesy the World Cup. However, to MSM’s advantage is the fact that most big spenders are beginning new financial years (the year end for most large corporates in India is 31 March) and hence will have fat wallets. Nonetheless, Sony has to raise anywhere from Rs 900 to 1,200 crore to make this year’s IPL outing pay off.

The Sony spokesperson quickly reverts that this is a given. “While we don’t comment on internal financial figures, we will meet and maybe even beat the revenue target we have set for this year’s IPL,” he says. “Advertiser interest is rising thanks to the excitement that is building around cricket.”

Even as they are taking digs at each other’s performances, the fact remains that both broadcasters are well aware of the importance and valuation of the two flagship tournaments. Moreover the fact that Star's Hotstar platform is the digital partner of IPL and Max was the destination of the World Cup not long back, proves that the two desire both the tournaments equally. Star India probably is hungry for growth in sports. Its CEO Uday Shankar has outlined the broadcast network’s intentions very clearly: it wants to pitch in a big way to grow the sports ecosystem in India. And in the process, also bring in mountains of revenues for his network.

When the next bidding process for the IPL begins by next year or so, you can be sure Shankar and his team will be on the frontlines making a definitive attempt to acquire its rights. Of course MSM’s NP Singh will be up front too. The rivalry will continue.

CEAT hops on as segment sponsor for IPL 2015

MUMBAI: CEAT has hopped on board as one of the central sponsors for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015. 
CEAT will be the prime sponsor for the Strategic Time Out segment in Pepsi IPL. CEAT and Pepsi IPL association leverages on common values between both the brands i.e. premium and dynamic. The association also acts as a perfect marriage between two brands that are youth centric.
 
CEAT as a brand has always been associated with cricket, which includes CEAT Cricket Ratings amongst others and recently launched CEAT Cricket gear. The tie up with Pepsi IPL will make CEAT’s association with cricket even stronger. The partnership with Pepsi IPL will leverage CEAT as a global brand, increasing its brand awareness in key markets. 
 
CEAT will also be leveraging the partnership with Pepsi IPL through multiple on-ground and digital activations during the upcoming season. For its Facebook and Twitter followers, CEAT has planned contests around Strategic timeout. The contest will comprise tricky questions around strategic timeout creating buzz around this segment for cricket enthusiasts.

 
Additionally, this property will also allow the brand to be actively visible on various platforms for entire IPL period. CEAT will also be launching an app on cricket that will have elements of the IPL theme.
 
CEAT managing director Anant Goenka said, “We have signed a three year deal with BCCI by picking up the sponsorship of Strategic Time Out for Pepsi IPL. Pepsi IPL has emerged as the biggest cricket property in India and given CEAT’s long term association with cricket this became the perfect platform for us to come on board. This property allows us to bring saliency around the brand through which we hope to build value for our customers over the next three years. Further, this allows us to be synonymous with Pepsi IPL in the tyre category and bring excitement to both our internal & external customers.”
 

Sony admits it is investigating its India operations

MUMBAI: Sony Corp has admitted that investigations are on at its India unit – Multi Screen Media (MSM) - for alleged corruption in business practices.

In an email sent out to media, Sony Corp today stated that "this investigation is ongoing… Sony Pictures is strongly committed to business ethics and the investigation of allegations of wrongdoing that might arise anywhere in the world. If wrongdoing is identified, we take appropriate action."

The Sony Pictures Entertainment email was sent out in response to a Bloomberg report on alleged business malpractices at MSM based on emails leaked following the hack on the electronics and entertainment giant's IT infrastructure late last year.

The Bloomberg report stated that the leaked emails revealed that Sony ordered an investigation, led by Ernst & Young, to look into its India business practices, which in turn revealed evidence of wrongdoing. And the hacked emails revealed that E&Y had allegedly uncovered fraudulent business practices in the case of the Sony and Discovery Communications joint venture (TheOneAlliance). Cases of fraudulent bids, kickback and excessive handouts to government officials came to light in the investigation by E&Y, said the Bloomberg report.

It may be recalled that the Sony-Discovery JV company - TheOneAlliance - was allegedly dissolved on 1 January, 2015 due to the new regulations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which stated that distributors could no longer bundle channels from different broadcasters while selling content to various platforms such as cable operators and direct-to-home (DTH) companies.

Additionally, as per the Bloomberg report, an email from Sony Pictures Entertainment senior vice-president and compliance counsel Cindy Salmen  in early October stated that “further investigations be conducted, employees be re-trained and that some workers face disciplinary actions, including termination.”

She cited four areas of concern in a memo, the Bloomberg report states. The first related to TheOneAlliance as a distributor of television channels to cable TV or DTH operators. The second to carriage or retransmission fees.  The third was linked to potential gifts and entertainment to government officials.  And finally the fourth referred to customs payments.  All these were investigated by E&Y.

And on the first area of concern, the probe revealed that the process of appointing vendors for distribution through competitive bids was suspect. In some instances some of those who bid did not exist and those who won had ties to those who lost. Employees were aware of the practice, the Bloomberg report has the memo saying.

E&Y stated that it received allegations that both MSM and MSM Discovery were receiving kickbacks from cable TV operators and distributors ranging from 10-15 per cent of carriage fees.  This apart, MSM Discovery recruited employees who were fired by other rivals for receiving kickbacks. 

On the third probe, the memo pointed out that government officials were given expensive IPL tickets and laptop bags, much beyond the MSM Discovery limits.  As far as payments to customs by MSM Discovery’s marketing group were concerned, the memo stated that E&Y found some communication which was questionable.

Sony Pictures senior vice president for global investigative and forensic services Raymond Smith had called for an investigation with regards to the alleged malpractices and policy violations in September. Emails from him revealed that he was planning to travel to India along with his colleague Mike Ornelas (executive director for global investigative and forensic services) to investigate the matter in October 2014, said the Bloomberg report.

The report added that the leaked emails disclosed that “alleged” corruption at MSM as well was being investigated. This followed  an anonymous email to Sony Pictures Television worldwide networks president Andy Kaplan and to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment boss Man Jit Singh who headed  the India venture until last year.  The email alleged that MSM India deputy president Sneha Rajani was allegedly routing all movie acquisitions for the channel via an external agent namely Manish Shah of Goldmines Telefilms, which in turn raised the cost of buying by as much as 35 per cent. The email further alleged that Rajani also communicated to movie producers, who wanted to sell satellite rights for their films, to route their proposals through Shah.

MSM officials no one was willing to come on record. But a senior manager called the allegations against Rajani as a total fabrication or motivated by a disgruntled fired employee. 

Goldmines Telefilms owner Shah stated that “it was a bunch of crap. Let the investigations continue. I have been dealing with all the broadcasters not just Sony. So I am not worried. We have been very transparent.” (read accompanying story: “Goldmines Telefilms Manish Shah denies hanky-panky deals with Sony India”)

No one was available to comment from MSM Discovery at the time of writing the report.

With heavy charges of malpractice and company policy violations, it remains to be seen what the outcome of the probe throws up and more importantly, what it means for the people, whose names are involved.

BCCI issues ITT for Pepsi IPL media rights

MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has published an Invitation To Tender (ITT) for certain media rights relating to the Pepsi Indian Premier League (Pepsi IPL), for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons.

The media rights package available (as defined in the ITT), is as follows:
(a)  Indian Subcontinent: Internet and Mobile Rights.
(b)  Rest of the World (Certain Territories): Television, Audio, Internet and Mobile rights.

BCCI hon. secretary Sanjay Patel said that the upcoming seasons of the Pepsi IPL will be broadcast across the world through every technological medium available, thus reaching out to an even larger audience. The digital medium, for instance he said is rapidly gaining in terms of popularity and usage, with more and more fans relying on digital devices to follow their favourite teams and players before, during and after the matches.

“The IPL will aim to enhance the viewing, digital and interactive experience for cricket fans across the globe, by introducing diverse consumer-friendly innovations that will bring them closer to the action in their favourite sporting league," he added.

The ITT document will be available at the BCCI Headquarters at the Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium, ‘D’ Road, Churchgate, Mumbai 400020, from 11 am to 5 pm (from 11 am to 2 pm on Saturdays, and excluding Sundays), from Thursday, 22 January 2015 to Monday, 2 February 2015, at a cost of Rs 2,00,000/- (non-refundable and non-adjustable), to be paid vide a demand draft drawn in favour of “ Board of Control for Cricket in India,” payable at Mumbai or Chennai (“Tender Fee”).

Bids have been asked to be submitted in person at 12 pm on Tuesday, 3 February 2015, at a meeting of the BCCI Marketing Committee, at which time it is intended that the bids will be opened, evaluated and the tender awarded in the presence of bidders.

Star Plus and Sony retain viewership in week 3

MUMBAI: It was a bad week for the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) genre as most of the channels saw a dip in viewership. In week 3 of the TAM TV ratings, only Star Plus and Sony Entertainment Television (SET) maintained eyeballs.

Thus, Star Plus at number one continued to lead at 613 million GVTs followed by Colors at number two with 485 million GVTs (down from 510 million GVTs). At number three stood Zee TV with 417 million GVTs, down from 433 million GVTs followed by Life OK at 316 million GVTs, down from 339 million GVTs.

Sab too lost some numbers and generated 318 million GVTs, down from 328 million GVTs. Last but not the least Sony retained its numbers at 235 million GVTs.

On the other hand, Big Magic too observed a drop from 62 million GVTs to 57 million GVTs. Zindagi too saw a fall from 30 million GVTs to 24 million GVTs. Sony Pal was gained this week from 28 million GVTs to 29 million GVTs. Epic continued its winning spree with 8.3 million GVTs, up from 7.6 million GVTs.

“The market is expanding faster than expected and more brands are going digital”

As 2014 comes to an end and as the media and entertainment industry bids adieu to the year, company executives are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to listing down the achievements it has attracted throughout the year. 

On the same lines is Vdopia, a programmatic buying and selling platform for mobile and online video advertising. It tags itself as a pioneer in mobile and online video advertising, enabling major brands to engage their desired audiences in premium content environments around the world. 

Vdopia SVP-APAC Preetesh Chouhan pens down the major digital happenings in the year 2014 for Vdopia and the entire industry and also the future of digital platforms in the coming year.

Major digital happenings…

Digital Video Revolution - 

•             Video viewing on PCs has almost doubled in three years in India. (source - comScore)

•             India now has over 59 million video viewers. (source - comScore)

•             73 per cent online audience now watch digital video. (Source - eMarketer)

•             The share of video in internet data traffic is expected to rise from 41 per cent in 2011-12 to 64 per cent in 2016-17. (Source - Assocham and Deloitte)

Emergence of specialised apps -

•             App downloads in India likely to cross nine billion by 2015 (Source - Assocham -Deloitte)

•             Mobile TV registered a 400 per cent growth rate in viewership. 

m-commerce revolution India -

•             India has reached 50 million digital buyers. (eMarketer)

•             1 out of 3 customers of Flipkart arrive via mobile.

•             33 per cent of Flipkart revenue originates via mobile based transactions. (Flipkart)

•             60 per cent of all orders received by Snapdeal originate on mobile phones. (Snapdeal)

Micro-video multiplied -

•             Micro-video ads can transcend the mobile, tablet, PC and even TV gap, could eventually result in micro-video becoming the most portable video format across screens.

Television is going digital:

•             Television content is no longer being consumed only within the four walls of the viewer’s living room.

•             TV remains one of the primary modes of communication reaching out to 60 per cent of the population, online videos are witnessing a steady surge in consumption even as internet penetration in India currently stands at about 16 per cent.

Coke Studio, for example. While the latest season of the show on MTV received lukewarm response on TV, it went on to garner more than 54 million views on YouTube and across social media platforms.

•             By 2018-end, India’s internet user base is expected to touch 494 million as against 938 million TV viewers.

Marketers in India are leveraging digital marketing -

•    96 per cent of the Indian marketers have high confidence in the ability of digital marketing to drive competitive advantage. It is among the highest in Asia-Pacific APAC with only Australia leading with 97 per cent.

•    Indian marketers believe that the key driver to adopting digital is a growing internet population (70 per cent in India against 59 per cent in APAC).

The big achievements for Vdopia…

•    Launched Chocolate, a global programmatic buying and selling platform exclusively for mobile video advertising. 

•    After major metros and cities, Vdopia’s reach has expanded to tier 2 cities, tier 3 cities and small towns.

Lessons learnt…

•    The market is expanding faster than expected and more brands are going digital. The demand has grown for new category of content and rich media video ad formats for better engagement. Like, travel, auto, humour, lifestytle, how-to videos etc.

•    With 70 per cent growth in Asia Pacific, programmatic is the future. 

Future of digital platforms in 2015…

Digital India program - The Indian government’s $17 billion ambitious Digital India programme has the potential to be a game changer for the country. (Source - Forrester)

P.S. - Currently, nearly 74 per cent of the population has mobile phones, most of which though is in the hands of urban India. 

Focus on mobile content - In 2014 out of 885million mobile users, 185 million are mobile internet users. (IDC and India Digital Review). It's a changing world, and businesses absolutely need to focus on ways they can give their marketing efforts a mobile component.

Focus on Content - Content has been an integral part of digital marketing strategies for a few years now, but with so much of it out there, your content needs to be better and smarter. Content that's relevant and interesting isn't just a good idea, it's a requirement. 

Programmatic advertising will be understood by the majority of marketers – More than two-thirds of marketers are now using programmatic in one form or other shows programmatic might have become mainstream over the course of 2014. It's a safe bet that this trend will continue in 2015 as more marketers realise the benefits of programmatic in their paid media programmes (Media Week).

Clients will dictate the future of programmatic - Fundamentally, we believe the future of programmatic market landscape will be driven by the clients’ diverse characteristics and needs. Clients are either transactional or not, large or small, international or local, e-merchants or brick and mortar, large media spenders or not.

Spending on RTB display advertising will accelerate - Spending on real time-bidded display advertising will accelerate at a 59 per cent compound annual growth rate through 2016, making in the fastest growing segment of digital advertising over the next few years. (IDC)

Government to issue advisory over usage of social media

NEW DELHI: The government is expected to issue an advisory/circular with respect to government usage of social media over the internet.
 
This was indicated by additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain in the Delhi High Court during the hearing of a public interest litigation by former Bharatiya Janata Party leader K N Govindacharya challenging the use of private American-based sites such as Yahoo and Gmail for sending out government information.  
 
Jain said, "Service categorised as sale of time and space for advertisements over Internet was earlier in negative list but with effect from 1 October 2014, it has been put back on the positive list and is now a taxable service."

He said that he would on the next date of hearing on 28 November  make a categorical statement with respect to taxation issue raised in the petition.
 
Meanwhile, the Court has asked why the use of private email accounts like Yahoo and Gmail by government officials should not be stopped as it would lead to public/official records being taken outside the country which is a violation of the law.

Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul said, "Public records are going outside India. Are you (Centre) willing to say there is no difficulty in government documents going to US servers? You should stop usage of non-NIC email accounts by government officers.

"On the one hand we are complaining against National Security Agency (of US) snooping and on the other hand, we are allowing it (public records) to go out."
 
The court, however, took on record the submission of additional solicitor general (ASG) Sanjay Jain that "immediate steps will be taken to ensure there is no violation of Public Records Act with a view that all electronic official communication is not taken out of India, insofar as email communication of public records is concerned".

The ASG also submitted in court that a draft email policy of the government has been finalised for presentation before the Cabinet in two to three weeks, and it only needs approval of the minister concerned.

The submissions were made in response to the query regarding the status of the government's email policy and what would be the interim measures that would be put in place to prevent official records from going outside India till all the government departments are provided accounts in servers run by National Informatics Centre.

The ASG also said that they have increased capacity of NIC servers to handle one million accounts from the earlier limit of five lakhs and would be further expanding the same.

The Court agreed with contention of advocate Virag Gupta, appearing for Govindacharya that the Public Records Act does apply in the present case. "You cannot have it (public records going outside India), its against the law," the bench said to the ASG.

Govindacharya in his PIL has sought that the government be directed to use only NIC servers for sending official emails, instead of using the services of foreign sites like Google and Yahoo.

The petition has contended that government departments like Delhi Police and the Indian Railways are not entitled to create accounts on social networking sites.
 
It has also sought recovery of taxes from the websites on their income from operations in India.

The petition has also alleged that the sites have no mechanism for protection of children from online abuse, claiming that children below 18 years are entering into an agreement with the social networking sites to open accounts, which is against the Indian Majority Act, the Indian Contract Act and also the Information and Technology Act.

Facebook and Google had earlier submitted affidavits in the court detailing the protective measures available on their sites to ensure their product is not misused. They had said their statement of rights and other terms and conditions prohibit children below 13 years of age from registering an account and creating more than one personal account.

They had said they also have strict policies in place to delete any objectionable or misleading content they come across on their sites.
 
The petition has alleged that due to non-verification of users, more than eight crore of Facebook users across the world were found to be "fake", which the website admitted before a US authority.