Saving follow-ons

Amid warning bells, the second season of the IPL battens down the hatches, writes Arindam Mukherjee in Outlook. Movie star-stud Akshay Kumar will be missing in action, as may be Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif, and even those fully-clad international cheerleaders. Get ready for a no-frills IPL.

Advertisers that took big IPL exposures last year—and even resorted to IPL budgeting thanks to the big opening—are now going slow. For instance, LG Electronics, one of India's top advertisers, has cut down advertising spending by 35 per cent. Spending on IPL, that too at a higher cost than last year, is a clear no-no. V. Ramachandran, LG India's director marketing, says: "Many of us—with frozen or reduced budgets—are not coming on board, thinking it's not worth it." Companies are looking at avenues that are more likely to influence sales.

In the latest edition of India Today, Sharda Ugra says that for a serious event, about serious money, and more importantly, serious cricket, there is something almost unintentionally comic about the IPL.