• 79.9 million people tuned into live cricket telecast in the All India TAM Markets. (Only live cricket match telecast- Does not include Extraaa Innings, Super Fours, Master Blaster etc. for All audiences 4 years and above. Channels considered are Max, DD1 and Sony).
  
• Out of the above, 36.5 million females tuned into cricket .
• India Vs. Zimbabwe was the top match for the week recording a rating of 9.95 on Max among individuals in cable & satellite households. This match also had the top viewership in DD recording a rating of 7.01 in DD1 among individuals in All Households (CS and Non CS).

The mammoth Sri Lankan performance resulted in a huge opportunity loss of broadcasters.

Top Notchers

On the basis of duration (on DD1, DD2, Sony and Max) the brands that have been able to make to the top slot on cricket world cup so far in the first two weeks are as follows:

Figure 1

Source: TAM ADEX

Is the cricket fever contagious?

TAM S-Group analysed the viewership trends among female audiences. If we compare the first two weeks of the world cup vis-à-vis previous six non-world cup weeks, females have spent more time on television during afternoons when the world cup matches are telecast.

Figure 2

Source: TAM People Meter System, TG: Females CS 4+, Daypart: 13:00-16:00 hrs, Mkts: Top 6 metros

In Figure 2 - Secondary axis shows how total TV viewing (green line) during afternoon time slot, defined as 1300-1600, hours shot up by 16% in the first week of the world cup. Primary axis shows the same kind of upward movement for Max (blue line).

"Is my target consumer TG interested in Cricket?"- Answering the advertiser conundrum.

Figure 3

The above construct by TAM S-Group is a simple and insightful strategic format that plots the time spent by the people that have viewed the India -Zimbabwe match in the top 6 metros (Match timing considered: (12:58-20:36). In the above construct, reach is the number of people that have walked into the match for at least 1-minute while time spent is the duration in minutes spent by the viewers in that target group. The key points from the above grid are:

• Upscale male audiences (SEC A 25-54 years) dominate the walk-ins as well as the duration that they spent watching the match. Upscale female audiences have high walk-ins, however the time that they spent watching the match is lower than that of males. This enthusiastic response by the upscale audiences is great news for product categories such as mobile phones, durables etc. that aim at audiences that have high buying power.
• One striking contrast in the viewership of males and female is that though the reach is high among both, males seem to be spending much greater time than females. (Other Males are SEC BCDE Males 25-54 years).
• Kids (4-14 years) seem to exhibit a fickle minded behaviour. Though the match reaches a large part of this target group, their time spent falls in the medium range.
• Youth (15-24 years) seem to be spending much more time than kids but lesser than upscale male audiences .
• Old Males (above 55 years) seem to be heavy viewers. Old females on the other hand seem to be the least passionate about the sport.

Plotting such constructs for all the matches would help an advertiser in decision making with regards to television advertising investments on the basis of the effect of cricket viewing on his segmented target audience.

Game of Uncertainties

They say that anything can happen in the game of cricket. Well, that's been proved again when Sri Lanka had beaten Canada in just 4.4 overs by making those 36 runs. But that was a real upset to all those media specialists too, who had their spots scheduled.

Figure 4 clearly shows the impact of such an unexpected result on the scheduled inventory:

Figure 4

Source: TAM ADEX Channel:MAX

A completed India vs. Zimbabwe attracted 4760 seconds of advertising. While on the other hand, the Sri Lankan whirlwind performance over Canada meant that only 2670 seconds of advertising were possible. As per the findings of TAM S-Group, Max could have had the opportunity to telecast approximately 118 commercials in these 2090 seconds. To calculate the number of commercials, the average duration of the commercials on Max in this world cup was considered, that is 17.6 seconds per commercial.

Conclusion:

Apart from female viewership and target group skews, the uncertainty surrounding a world cup telecast and investment has an enormous impact on the fortunes of all the investors. TAM S-Group will continue to surprise you with interesting findings…so long till next week!

Atul Phadnis
Director
S-Group
TAM Media Research
All figures used are courtesy TAM TV ADEX

Note :-
1. TAM Viewership data used for Viewership Share.
2. TAM ADEX data used for Revenue Share.
3. Though the rates in TAM ADEX are 'Peak Rates', the chart plots Channel Genre level share trends which will be broadly in the same direction as the actual revenue earnings by individual channels within the set considered above.

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