MUMBAI: Direct to home (DTH) operator Videocon d2h is looking at increasing its advertising revenues. In order to achieve this, the DTH operator will not just offer targeted advertising across its regional language and proprietary channels, but also launch new channels shortly.
In order to achieve the target, the operator has formed a new executive advertising team to be headed by Indian media sales experts.
The advertising initiative, which will target inventory opportunities on the Videocon d2h platform, comes in response to the positive feedback from the operators’ advertisers such as Volkswagen, Honda, Disney, Sony TV, Zee Group and Star Sports. Media buyers will also be able to advertise on Videocon d2h's home channel and info bar when changing channels.
The new Videocon d2h advertising sales team is led by media veteran Tanmay Srivastava, who joins the company after serving as MSM Network head, advertising sales. Reporting directly to Videocon d2h deputy CEO Rohit Jain, the operator has also recruited two other senior executives with extensive local advertising sales experience.
The operator began offering advertising on its platform only last year. The inaugural effort focused on its home channel and generated approximately US$1.5 million in fiscal 2015. With its expanded initiative, Videocon d2h is anticipating substantially bigger advertising revenue gains in fiscal 2016.
Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera said, "Today's announcement reconfirms our commitment to continuously identify growth opportunities for our shareholders. With the goal of generating new revenue through an expansive, targeted ad sales platform, we have assembled a solid team that is more than capable of moving this initiative forward for us. We look forward to being a part of their success in tapping Videocon d2h's reach of 65 million consumers with exciting, new options, and we anticipate the advertising program to expand even further as we launch our own branded channels in the future."
Silver Eagle Acquisition founder Harry Sloan further added, "During the recent NASDAQ listing process, we focused on advertising sales as one of the important high margin growth opportunities. As we look to roll out a bouquet of new branded channels we will be able to use the extensive reach of our platform to turn ad sales into bottom-line dollars. This is a programme that will benefit our growing consumer base, as well as those advertisers seeking their stake in the lucrative Indian TV market. Given the exciting growth in overall Indian advertising and the television ad market in India, we are very pleased to see the development of an effective advertising sales force implemented quickly and effectively."
