How advertising revenue on TV is set to return

© Provided by The Financial Express
While advertising revenue nosedived during lockdown, broadcasters registered a rise in subscription revenue

Advertising on television which had declined, seems to be gradually gaining steam. According to the Pitch Madison Report 2020, advertising expenditure registered a 39% decline in the first half of 2020, shaving off almost Rs 14,000 crore from the ad pie. However, now with unlock 2.0 in effect and the starting of the festive season, advertisement on television has bounced back. “In April-May the adex went down by almost 70%. In June the adex started reviving and now in September we have seen 80% recovery of adex,” Ashish Sehgal, Chief Growth Officer-Advertisement Revenue, ZEEL, said. He was speaking at the inaugural edition of BrandWagon Conclave 2020, held virtually. The panel was moderated by Ajay Trigunayat, founder, Movies NOW, Romedy NOW, AQT and Point Break.

While advertising revenue nosedived during lockdown, broadcasters registered a rise in subscription revenue. According to Sehgal, the subscription revenue which was not contributing more than 20% to overall revenue pie of the broadcast is now contributing much 30-35%. “The subscription revenue is a steady stream of revenue which acted as a lifesaver for all broadcasters during the lockdown as advertising dived to its lowest. But I think there is still more potential revenue as we are not rightly paid,” he explained.

For Sapna Arora, CMO, OLX, during lockdown most of the digital only advertisers explored their need to try advertising on the TV medium. This was primarily because of the lower ad rates. Hence, TV registered the entry of many categories and brands such as online gaming and hygiene products. “Over the years, the way marketers go about media buying has changed and subsequently, so has the measurement of ROI. With the advent of digital, there is a lot of comparison between TV and online. There are a lot of new measurement tools that are catching up to provide better analytics to the consumers,” she added.

However, with the start of the Indian Premier League and the upcoming festive season, industry experts pin hope for a true revival of the advertisement industry. There was a lull in TV advertising during lockdown but now with unlockdown and IPL, a lot of advertisers are coming back on the platform. “The festive season combined with IPL presents marketers with the optimum opportunity to advertise on TV and spend their allocated marketing budgets,” Arora exclaimed.

Vikram Sakhuja, group CEO, Madison Media and OOH, revealed that the adex of H2 of this fiscal is expected to be higher than H2 of last fiscal. Yet he had reservations on IPL being the harbinger of adex. “On one hand there is not enough marketing money in the market yet with IPL, the ad inventory is pretty close to being sold out even though their ad rates are higher than last year. This is a paradox which I can’t seem to decode,” he stated.

Read Also: BrandWagon Conclave 2020: Why the pay-per-view model is here to stay on television

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