Hindustan Unilever, Godrej join Indian Premier League bandwagon

FMCG majors Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) and the Godrej Group have jumped on to the IPL (season 2) bandwagon, even as Bajaj Allianz and realty major HDIL are terminating their deals with IPL teams.

The Godrej Group has just signed up as one of the co-sponsors for IPL (Season 2). HUL has joined the list of sponsors of the much-hyped sports event, scheduled for April 2009.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola India has turned associate sponsor of yet another IPL team, Delhi Dare Devils, for its flagship brand Coke. Earlier, the company had signed up as the associate sponsor for Kolkata Knight Riders for its Sprite brand.

Incidentally, IPL had only seven sponsors in its first season; the number has risen to ten in this (second) season.

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Sony back as Indian Premier League broadcaster in new Rs 8,200-crore agreement

The domestic telecast rights for the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will remain with Multi Screen Media (earlier known as Sony Entertainment Television). In a press release issued late on Wednesday, IPL announced that MSM and World Sports Group (WSG), the global rights holder, were now the official broadcast partners for the league.

Wednesday’s deal, worth a staggering Rs 8,200 crore—almost double last year’s ten year agreement—is valid for the next nine years through 2017 and provides MSM with the exclusive audio-visual rights for all 59 matches of the upcoming season, which is scheduled to start on April 18 in South Africa, the release said.

Telecast rights for the hugely popular cricket tournament have been in the news ever since Sony sued the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), owners of IPL, over the sudden termination of its agreement on March 15.

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Court binds BCCI until final order: NDTV emerges rights frontrunner

Even as the Bombay High Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a petition filed by Sony Entertainment challenging the termination of its contract to broadcast IPL matches by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the home ministry has said it had sent a revised tournament schedule to states for their comments. New Delhi, Jaipur and Visakhapatnam have been dropped as venues in the revised schedule submitted to the ministry on Tuesday.

In court, Sony lawyer Iqbal Chhagla stated that legal rights were yet to be established, as the notice given to Sony was not a termination letter. “The notice of termination, given on Saturday, a non-working day, would have come into effect only on March 16 (Monday),” he said. BCCI lawyer V Tulzapurkar countered this, saying that a termination letter had indeed been served. He also added that the contract with Sony was terminated because the “quality of broadcasting” was “bad”.

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With big bucks flying, Indian Premiere League just got bigger

The auction for the second season of the DLF Indian Premiere League (IPL) kicked off the usual drama and sensation.Although just about 17 players went under the hammer in the current season, and the bidders remained cautious while spending as the spending limit of all teams was set at $2 million(Rs9.8crore) each, it was not bereft of action.

The biggest action took place when the battle for capturing Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh all rounder heated up, between the Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders. The heated bidding started from $50,000 for Mortaza and finally KKR got him for $6,00,000, 12 times more than the base price. This climb set a new record after was Manoj Tiwary’s, bidding had seen a jump from $100,000 to $675,000 last year.

Another high of sorts was created when English cricketers Andrew Flintoff bagged by Chennai Super Kings and Kevin Pietersen bought by Bangalore Royal Challengers for Rs 7.5 crore each,

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Shilpa Shetty buys 12 percent stake in Rajasthan Royals

Raj Kundra, Essential General Trading LLC (Dubai) chief executive officer, and Bollywood celebrity Shilpa Shetty have bought 12% stake for Rs 73.92 crore in Australian spinner Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals team, champions of inaugural Indian Premier League , 2008.

As part of their strategic development of the Rajasthan Royals brand, the franchisee has lined up a slew of initiatives, licensing and merchandising plans to enable their army of supporters to uniquely connect with the team and the brand. Rajasthan Royals recently created and launched a five-tier Royals Army fan club membership programme by adopting global best practices and combined with elements that make the packages attractive for their community of fans, both locally and globally.

Manoj Badale, chairman and joint owner Rajasthan Royals said, “It is our pleasure to welcome our new investors Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty to the family.

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Revenue sharing row keeps IPL matches off big screen

The chances of enjoying IPL matches on 75 mm screen is almost ruled out after Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd (the new name of Sony Entertainment) and the major multiplex players couldn't settle the revenue sharing arrangement. The talks fell flat when Sony refused to grant telecast rights to multiplexes for anything less than 60% of the revenue earned through screening of IPL matches, according to industry sources.

In earlier stages, Sony had insisted on charging the multiplexes around 65 to 70% of the revenue, which the industry players found difficult to concede. Additionally, the multiplex owners would have had to pay a tax on a full house for showing the event. "Such is the tax structure, that in case of category of special event sunder which the IPL format falls, we have to pay taxes for a full house even if only five people turn up. After sharing 60% of revenue with Sony and paying a tax to government for full occupancy, what would we be left with?" said a source.

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It's Khan vs Khan today!

Last year it was Amitabh versus Shah Rukh on Star Plus as KBC 2 battled it out with KBC 3. This year the war has turned more complicated, with entertainer Shah Rukh taking on entrepreneur Shah Rukh, as Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain ( KAPPSTH ) on Star Plus duels with the IPL match on the Sony Max channel on Friday.

An industry source says Star has invested over Rs 10 crore promoting KAPPSTH on and off air, excluding the ad spots the channel gives from the quota of its own on-air time. On Kaun Banega Crorepati's (KBC) first launch, Star had spent Rs 5 crore on on air promotion and Rs 2.5 crore on off-air promotion.

Media planners are putting their bet behind KAPPSTH, saying historically well-promoted programmes have managed a good opening, if not a sustainable viewership. "It has been eight days of IPL already.
After a great opening in terms of viewership that IPL matches registered, the TRPs have declined in the weekdays and the viewership is expected to stabilise around Saturday. If one has to predict about this weekend, KAPPSTH definitely has brighter prospects than its counterpart. Traditionally also, well-promoted programmes get good openings," said Nandini Dias, COO of Lodestar Universal.

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Mukesh, Mallya, SRK now IPL team owners

Nothing exemplifies better the appeal of cricket in India than the disparate winning bidders for the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI's) Indian Premiere League (IPL) teams. They range from infrastructure and private equity firms to film stars.

While the organisers raised a whopping Rs 7,000 crore from the auction, franchisees will now market their individual teams and christen them in consultation with IPL. The rights last for ten years, starting from this year.

While GMR Holdings bagged team Delhi for Rs 336 crore, RIL won Mumbai for Rs 447.6 crore. India Cements snagged Chennai for Rs 364 crore, while UB Group picked up Bangalore for Rs 446.4 crore. Preity Zinta-Ness Wadia-Karan Paul-Mohit Burman won the Mohali team for Rs 304 crore, while UK's Emerging Media won Jaipur for Rs 268 crore. Hyderabad went to Deccan Chronicle Holdings for Rs

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