The festive season is upon us. Media buyers say that around 40% of the advertising spend is between Ganpati Puja and New Year’s. Obviously, this is a very important period for advertisers of all color.
A part of this advertisement will also reach to television channels of all genres. While all other genres use the viewership data released by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India to sell ad spots, news channels continue to operate without ratings.
The data for the news genre was suspended after the Mumbai Police last year named Republic TV in an alleged TV Rating Point (TRP) manipulation case. Two non-news channels were also named, but BARC decided in October to suspend ratings of all news channels to “improve their statistical robustness”, an exercise that is expected to take 8–12 weeks. Was. However, the rating remains suspended.
People familiar with the matter said that the process of amending the methodology was over some time back, but the board has not yet approved it. BARC did not respond mintQuestions on resume news style ratings.
It is strange that no one is ready to comment on the delay in the release of news viewership figures and its impact on the industry. Not even big ad networks.
Members of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) are also silent on the issue. However, the News Broadcasters Federation (NBF), formed a little more than two years ago, met Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur and highlighted the need for an immediate restart of audience ratings for the news genre as it would affect viability. was doing. of channels. NBF has more than 70 national and regional language news channels as a member.
Barun Das, chief executive officer of TV9 Network, which is part of NBF, said the suspension of ratings for news itself was vague, but their continued deferment is also surprising. “The suspension of just one genre cannot be explained. Revenue has been hit as some of the big advertisers have stopped using the news style. Active customers are made to refer legacy ratings to keep their media money in the news,” he said.
“The suspension of ratings is, perhaps, only helping the cause of a few national channels whose competitive rankings fell just before the ratings shutdown. This is really unfair as those old brands have captured their price advantage while the channels which were coming in pecking order are not able to take advantage of the increase in viewership,” he added.
TV9 is operated by Associated Broadcasting Company Pvt Ltd. Ltd., which owns six news channels in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi.
What is even more shocking is the lack of noise from advertisers and media buyers in agencies. “It’s been 11 months since ratings were withheld. Advertisers are shooting in the dark.”
Interestingly, the news channel’s ad volume has not declined despite prolonged ratings blackouts. According to TAM AdEx data for January to June 2021, news genre advertising volumes were on par with general entertainment channels (GECs) at 28%. During the same period in 2020, GECs were ahead with an advertising volume share of 31%. Of course, news channel spots sell for a little bit as compared to entertainment channels. Nevertheless, the sheer volume size is notable as the share of news genre audiences does not exceed 7–8% of total TV viewership.
Not all advertisers are protected from TRP controversy or rating blackouts. Krishnarao Buddha, Senior Category Head, Parle Products, said that their brands Parle G and Parle Marie Biscuits quit news channels for the first time last year due to toxic ingredients. The company has not returned in style as there is no data available for reference.
“I would like to believe that many brands have quietly exited the news channels and lack of viewership is definitely one of the reasons. Many male-skewed brands continue to use them, though,” he said.
A revenue official of a news channel said on condition of anonymity that multinationals in food, beverage and personal care have also left news platforms, while many others have reduced their spending. “The companies, however, will not accept the exit from this.
BARC measures over 180 news channels and it is still not clear how long the data will remain in cold storage.
Shuchi Bansal Mint Media, Marketing and Advertising Editor. The simple post will look at pre-assing issues related to all three. Or just fun stuff.
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