Sony may have made Rs 300 cr in first IPL season

Mumbai: With 24 million people tuning in IPL, initial reports suggest that television broadcaster Sony may have made Rs 300 crores in the first season of the IPL.

Lapping up the final IPL match were 24 million viewers and preliminary ratings by daily online rating agency aMAP show that the finale clocked an average rating of 7.7, peaking at 10.2.

It was the perfect script for the DLF IPL finale. Underdogs Rajasthan Royals that cost team owners emerging media just 67 million dollars beat India Cements' 91 million dollar Chennai Super Kings in a nail biting last ball finish!

While official TAM ratings are awaited by the end of the week, the tournament that started off with a TAM rating of 7.2, has maintained a rating of four to five throughout the series. And the semifinals clocked about the same with aMAP.

The tournament was expected to end on a high with the final match, but the aMAP rating seems lower than expected. Especially when you compare this to previous TV records - the ICC T20 Worldcup match between India and Pakistan hit a high of 15 while, the opening episode of KBC 2 with Amitabh Bachchan hit 19.1 according to TAM!

With this win, the Rajasthan Royals the underdogs who beat more expensive teams with their dogged determination, will reap rewards for team owners next season, as emerging media will be able to charge a premium for season 1's performance.

The final stacking order has belied expectations, the teams that cost the least, that is the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab seem to have delivered the most revenue at least for sponsors like Kotak Mahindra that signed on with Kings XI Punjab.

“A lot of marketers did not wake up to the IPL potential in time. We realised that there was a brand fit with the Punjab Kings XI,” says VP, Group Communications, Kotak Mahindra, Shael Sharma.

However, more than the teams and their sponsors, it is official broadcaster Sony that will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Sony, which had set a target of Rs 200 crore of ad revenue, says it has beaten its expectations and raked in 300 crores.

Sony had sold spots for 2.5 lakh per ten seconds initially in the tournament but that rate went up to 4 lakh for the last stage and reportedly up to 10 lakh per 10 seconds for the final 3 matches.

Media planners say the real windfall for Sony too will come next season as the channel can charge at least 50 per cent more than this year in Season 2.