Leading broadcasters will continue to post strong ad revenue growth while the long tail will be severely hurt as advertisers tend to consolidate their spends in a cautionary environment.
Genre leaders will benefit as advertising monies get rejigged. It is the weaker performers that will not find support from advertisers; they will degrow.
The television sector will see a 13-15 per cent growth in ad revenue this fiscal while print will be pushed back in a slowing economy.
Star India, which has leader channels in most genres, has done more annual and network deals this year. Its top 10 clients, for instance, have done deals stretching from a minimum of 12 months to three years.
The Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) genre is on an upswing even as ad monies are moving away from cricket.
The Hindi movie channel genre is set to grow at 15-20 per cent. The news genre will, however, continue to struggle this year.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Sibabrata Das, Star India president ad sales Kevin Vaz talks about the changing equations in the television advertising space.
Excerpts: |
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Is India‘s leading broadcasting network ready to announce that the advertising economy is slowing down? |
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Even then it is a slower growth for the TV broadcast segment. Is Star beginning to feel the heat?
Genre leaders will benefit as advertising monies get rejigged. It is the weaker performers that will not find support from advertisers; they will degrow. |
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Aren‘t Star‘s top advertisers noticing a slowdown? |
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The fiscal first-quarter is indicating a slowdown for certain listed media companies. So isn‘t there a negative sentiment already prevailing in the market? |
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But aren‘t we seeing a small dip in FMCG spending in the first quarter?
In a toughening economy, advertisers tend to flirt less; they commit their spends to the bigger players and keep aside a lesser amount for shopping with the rest. |
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Are Hindi general entertainment channels going to benefit because cricket is not delivering due to India‘s poor performance?
It is important to note that cricket is losing out because of India‘s dismal performance; this has nothing to do with a slowdown. In fact, the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be tested next year; as ratings slip, there will be a churn.
So what is working well for us? Cricket and print are on the losing side this fiscal. |
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Are tentpole properties bringing in revenue spikes in GECs? |
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What about the Hindi movie channel space?
Star Gold will capitalise heavily as the channel is performing very well. We have cut the ad inventory time by 33 per cent with effect from 15 August to give it a Hindi GEC environment (Channel V saw a similar ad cut time from 1 January) and ramped up our investment on movie acquisitions. |
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How will the launch of a Hindi movie channel by Viacom18 impact the market? |
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In the Bengali and Marathi regional markets, it is becoming a three-horse race with Star performing well. So how will this fragmentation impact? |
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Now that Star is also handling ad sales of NDTV, how do you see the growth in the news genre?
Regarding NDTV, we are selling it along with the network. So we are bringing in a wider range of advertisers. |
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Do you see consortium selling growing as a concept? |
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Is the English entertainment segment under pressure? |
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So is TV gaining at the cost of print? |
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