Heightened security concerns may have forced the government to turn its back on the Indian Premier League (IPL). Now, a peeved IPL
panel is turning its back to the entire political class.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) IPL Committee has decided not to allow any political advertisements during the telecast of IPL matches, to be held this time in South Africa.

An existing IPL clause would have automatically prevented any political ads during telecasts. However, in view of the general elections happening side by side this year and because of the pressure from various political parties, BCCI was considering amending it. That plan has been now shelved.

“The clause barring political parties from advertising during IPL matches has not been lifted. Had IPL been held in India, the clause may have been re-worked,” a BCCI official, who didn’t want to be named, told ET.

Confirmed IPL broadcaster Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) president (network sales) Rohit Gupta: “We are not allowed to accept advertising from political parties.”

Another BCCI official close to the development said the IPL committee is upset that they were forced to shift the tournament out of the country. Hence, the question of allowing election-based advertising during the matches did not arise, he said.

The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held between April 16 and May 13, and the IPL between April 18 and May 24.
Given the record TV ratings IPL 1 had garnered, the Congress and the BJP, among other parties, wanted to make a splash during the matches.

Representatives of some political parties had initiated discussions with MSM, and were learnt to have even allocated budgets of Rs 15-20 crore each for the same.

For the Congress, for example, advertising during IPL would have meant it could have reached out to the electorate with ads featuring youth icon Rahul Gandhi.

For MSM, it’s an opportunity lost to earn incremental revenues. The broadcaster could have earned anywhere between Rs 50 crore and Rs 60 crore from election-based political advertising.

The Congress, on its part, has bought airtime on a mix of channel genres through its media buying agency, Group M-owned Mindshare. “Since the Congress campaign is targeted at the masses, we have looked at a channel mix that gives us maximum reach. The Congress campaign is being aired on general entertainment channels, Hindi news channels, some music channels and Hindi movie channels,” said Mindshare partner (client leadership) Chirantan Chandran.

The Congress’ total communication spend is estimated at Rs 150 crore. It has split its advertising between two agencies — JWT for electronic media and Crayons for print.

Total spend on election-based advertising is expected to be in the range of Rs 600-700 crore this year.
Source – economictimes.indiatimes.com