Rain has been dominating force in the 2019 edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup with four games already being affected washed out. Reportedly, broadcaster Star Sports and big advertisers such as Coca-Cola, Uber, OnePlus and MRF Tyres might face a Rs 137.5 crore blow on the cancellation of the India vs Pakistan ICC World Cup match.
Three games are fully washed out in the first two weeks of the World Cup in England and Wales, which have dealt a severe blow of Rs 180 crore to the insurance companies as they had to pay to various stakeholders in terms of compensation. Now, the threat looms large on several more, including the most precious India-Pakistan match on Sunday.
India’s third match of the campaign against New Zealand was called off with out the toss taking place in Nottingham on Thursday.
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Tickets for the key clash were sold out within minutes of the ticket window opening. In fact, some of the tickets are reportedly being resold for up to Rs 60,000. Moreover, the advertisement slots for the upcoming game are being sold at a 50 per cent premium.
Star Sports is reportedly expected to earn Rs 137.5 crore from the India-Pakistan match alone through advertisements. Around 40 top advertisers including Uber, Coca-Cola, Amazon, OnePlus, MRF Tyres and PhonePe have already signed up for the advertisement slots.
The channel has about 5,500 seconds of total inventory, which is the time slot they can sell to the advertisers. Now, the rates for these slots are usually in the range of Rs 1.6-1.8 lakh per second. However, for India vs Pakistan match, the cost has shot up to Rs 2.5 lakh per second and there’s actually a rush among the advertisers for the slots.
Those who are supposed to play their ads on the live programme and not the analysis and highlights suffer the most. The time slot they have purchased gets carried forward to another match, but quite obviously the reach of an India vs Pakistan match cannot be compared with any other match.
A clause in their contract ensures the carry forward of the time slot. “The broadcaster tries to use the missed inventory in the matches scheduled for later dates, on a like-to-like basis. This means that if an India match is cancelled, the advertiser can opt to use that free commercial time (FCT) on another India match, and same goes for a non-India match, FCT can be booked on another non-India match, provided there is inventory available on later matches,” Carat India’s senior executive, Vinita Pachisia told Business Today.
Insurance companies are ending up the biggest losers in the economics of the washed out and rain-affected games in the ICC World Cup 2019. So much so that the insurance premium has increased by up to 300% and the companies are reluctant to take risk, as reported by Insidesport.
Reportedly, weather forecasting platform AccuWeather has predicted chances of rains in Greater Manchester on June 16 where the Old Trafford Cricket Ground, the venue of the India-Pakistan match is situated.
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