IPL-5: Premier league lagging behind!

Advertiser interest in the upcoming fifth edition of the IPL is down, mainly because IPL-4 saw poor viewership. So, official broadcaster Set Max is scrambling to revive this sponsor interest. CNBC-TV18's Pavni Mittal reports.

For the average advertiser, the fourth season of the Indian Premier League left a lot to be desired. The event got an average rating of 3.91, against 5.51% the previous year, viewership fell 29%.

So, advertisers and media buyers are driving a hard bargain as official broadcaster Set Max prepares for IPL-5.

Punitha Arumugam, CEO of Madison Media Group says,"Last year lots of advertisers said, IPL, I need it, let me buy it. This year the chances are advertisers are going to say, yes I need IPL, but can I get it at an affordable cost."

While Set Max is not giving a minimum viewership guarantee, it is putting together special deals to get the cost conscious advertiser on board.

Rohit Gupta, president of MSM says,"We have to be innovative to find packages where we are able to satisfy most of the advertisers by coming out with smaller packages so they are still associated with IPL. So, it is not earlier we used to say for spot buys you have to buy all the games. Now, we have you know you can buy half the number of games. You can buy 25% of the games."

The league kicks off only in April, but Set Max plans to begin aggressive promotional campaigns from February.

IPL 5 will be a litmus test not just for advertisers and sponsors, but for the broadcasters, and the team owners as well. And these stakeholders are going all out to bring the viewer and the advertiser back to the crease including an opening ceremony that promises to dwarf earlier ceremonies.

Set Max is also banking on the fact that there is no world cup or big cricketing event to spike its guns this year.