MUMBAI: The Ashes is passé. Get set for some riveting action on the 22 yards strip as Australia takes on not England but another cricketing great, South Africa, in a test series starting tomorrow on Ten Cricket.
Being aired live along with ball-by-ball commentary in English, the tourney has big names associated with it, what with Micromax and Fogg as co-presenting sponsors, Royale Aspira, Clear and Asian Paints as associate sponsors, and spot buys taking place in the course of the series.
Ten Cricket, which is looking at making anything between Rs 10-12 crore in ad revenues, is pushing the series mostly on the digital platform and through promos on its network.
Speaking to indiantelevision.com ahead of the telecast, Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi said: “Globally, Australia and South Africa are the world’s two best test playing nations, so it will be a clash of the titans and is poised to be an interesting proposition for the viewers. We have created eye-catching promos and have been aggressively promoting it through our network.”
Billed as Australia’s challenge to South Africa’s supremacy in test cricket, the series’ promos have been created in-house by a team of 15-odd members.
For the test matches, ad slots have been sold at Rs 10,000 for every ten seconds whereas for the T-20s, they’ve been sold at Rs 20,000 for every ten seconds; revealed Sethi. “We are in a comfortable position with over 95 per cent of our inventories sold for the three T-20s and for the three tests, they’ve sold for more than 80 per cent,” he said before adding, “The content is not that aggressively priced and hence the spot rates are decently priced.”
A media analyst offered his perspective on the channel’s claim saying: “Big sporting events such as these generally sell out 80 per cent of their inventories and make the most of the remainder of the same. Ten Sports on its part has surely garnered a sizeable amount for the series.”
Sethi’s concluding remark was: “Since this series is as big as the Ashes in terms of the level of competition, we would expect to witness good traction among the viewers and we have generated a buzz on the social medium as well.”
