As India is preparing to witness state elections followed by General Elections in 2018-19, news channels too are gearing up for the period by offering innovative election coverage. Like always, elections set an upward trend in news consumption, which encourages advertisers to spend generously on news channels. In India, TV continues to be a key medium for media advertisers due to its unmatched reach. Television takes the largest share of ad spends at 40 per cent, followed by print at 34 per cent and digital at 15 per cent. Avinash Pandey, COO, ABP News Network, speaks more about the network's coverage plan and growth in news genre: Election programming Desh Ka Mood, the leading election programme of ABP News, released the survey results on November 2, done by CVoter, the timeline of the survey was October 2018 with over 15463 respondents spread Pan India. “All the channels under the network are doing election coverage, starting from monthly poll on all the news channel of the network. Regional channels broadly do daily election coverage around 5pm and 8pm every day,” informed Pandey. Taking the highest election recall programme of ABP News- ‘Kaun Banega Mukhyamantri’ forward, the network launched Siyasat Ka Sensex. The one- hour show is hosted by anchor Neha Pant from Monday-Friday between 8pm-9pm. The show will aim at giving viewers opinion poll data of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan during the upcoming elections. “We have also started Siyasat Ka Sensex which is a daily poll on these states and big opinion polls on these four states are coming right after Diwali,” said Pandey. Election Coverage over the years Pandey explained, “If you look at the elections, the way it was five years ago, it is becoming more interesting with strong viewpoints and change of political dynamics both in the terms of ideology and ground realities. There is a fundamental shift which is creating lot of buzz in the people on the ground and thus all news channels, at least the top four, are doing quite well in terms of election coverage.” Pandey shared that most of the news channels are booked for the entire season till December mid in terms of ad inventory. “As a network, on ABP News, ABP Majha and ABP Asmita, the changing political scenario is creating lot of news. Majha will be dedicated to Maharashtra, our Gujarati news channel, Asmita, is more focused on the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan elections. The channels has got good round of election programming which has resulted in a decent rate growth and advertising booking of the inventory lasting until December.” Ad growth during General Election As the country is moving to the General Elections, Avinash Pandey believes that the most of the advertisers today are booking in advance. He said, “The clients want inventory commitment till the end of the General Elections which is around May 15, 2019. Most of the deals are being negotiated.” Pandey believes that most of the news channel will deliver double digit growth during the poll period with the Hindi news genre expected to grow by 15-25 percent. Speaking about revising the ad rates for the network, he shared, “We have taken a jump of close to 10 per cent this festive season. Further hike would happen during the counting and polling of state elections, which can be close to 15 percent and third round of hike will happen when the General Elections will be announced and the rates can go upto 20 per cent.” On an average for a season the rate varies from Rs 3,400 to Rs 10,000 for 10 seconds depending on the time of purchase and the time band brands are buying, which is the same for the top three channels. He said, “However for the state election counting day, ABP News starting 10 sec slot rate is minimum Rs 20,000, which will only go up every single passing day.” Avinash Pandey added, “The regional channels rates will be decided closer to the election day but if somebody wants to take all the three channels of ABP News Network, which include Majha, Asmita and ABP News, they can buy at the rate of Rs 27,000 but if someone wants to buy closer to the counting day the rate will be above Rs 1 lakh for a 10 sec slot.” Categories spending more "Media advertisers’ ever growing interest in spending on television ads has made this medium poised for a substantial growth in revenue generation on the back of sectors such as FMCG, automobile, consumer goods, mobile handset and telecom that are trying to leverage the expected increase in news channel viewership. Apart from FMCG, automobile and mobile handset are spending more compared to previous years," said Avinash Pandey. National vs Regional news “Regional news channels cover minute details of local tehsils or Zila whereas national channels cover broader topics. The interest of a national viewer is very different from that of a regional viewer. Hence, both are doing very well in election coverage. Like in West Bengal, ABP Ananda's viewer base was double of all the channels put together in terms of overall eyeball.” Plans to launch new channels Avinash Pandey informed, “We have plans to launch new channels but we have to see the market environment in order to go ahead with that. Maybe in the next financial year we will be able to announce it. Currently it's too early to comment on it."
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Avinash Pandey ABPAvinash Pandey CEO, ABP News Network (formely Star News), Views expressed in tweets are personal and any retweet is not endorsement of views . ArchivesCategories |