Elections '98 are a temporary high; news channels aren't attracting the advertising they hoped for
"It's a passionate subject, like sex or religion. Everybody has strong beliefs about it; people speak about it with conviction; and it is the topic of discussion in office corridors, bus rides and drawing rooms."—Samir Verma, GM, Ammirati Puris Lintas
WHAT do Elections '98 have in common with the Femina Miss India contest, an Indo-Pak cricket match, a Michael Jackson show or the Screen Videocon Awards? They are all commodities sold by the proliferating TV channels, packaged by advertising agencies, bought by corporate bigwigs to reach out to buyers of their products. "The heightened level of interest in politics at election time presents a good marketing opportunity for advertisers to reach their target audience," says Sanjoy Chakrabarty, associate vice president, HTA.
But. And there are some very big buts. Are there too many channels competing for the advertisers' money, at too high a cost, at the wrong time of the year? Does the market have the appetite for so much news? Are TV companies being realistic in their estimates of the market potential or are they being carried away by the hype they themselves created? Will advertisers provide enough revenue to turn Election '98 into a successful marketing event?
The Programming Overkill: Star TV has a new 24-hour news channel. Zee's EL channel has metamorphosed into a 24-hour news channel called India TV with news bulletins and plenty of election programmes anchored by the likes of Chandra Shekhar and M.J. Akbar. TVI is now a full-time current affairs channel and even hardcore entertainment channel Sony has roped in Vinod Dua and Mark Tully to do a daily election programme besides the 72-hour live coverage of results from March 2 onwards. TV Today would be doing around 100 hours of election coverage for DD. Plus the regional channels. Is there enough advertising to sustain so much programming?
Of course, the channels say the picture is rosy. "We're getting 20-25 minutes of prime-time advertising per day on the news channel at almost twice the price EL TV charged. Several advertisers are buying 50-200 spots over one to two months; many are looking to stay on even after the election," claims Sainath Iyer, vice-president, Zee network. But media planners and advertisers are sceptical.
Pricing tangle: So far as the advertiser's first choice, DD, is concerned, TV Today may have been caught in a web of its own making.It has committed to pay Rs 3 crore to DD for its Hindi telecast and another Rs 75 lakh for 23 hours of English programming on DD2. With cost of production about Rs 4.5 crore and another Rs 1 crore to the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for election data, the company will need around Rs 10 crore of advertising just to break even.
This has seriously constrained TV Today's bargaining power with advertisers. It's charging Rs 1 lakh for a 10-second slot on DD1. "This means Rs 4 lakh for a 40-second spot and given that you need eight to 10 spots a day over the 72 hours to attain a certain visibility level, we're talking of a Rs 1 to 1.5 crore budget for election advertising. Who's going to shell out that kind of money for minimum visibility?" asks Gopinath Menon, media director, Chaitra Leo Burnett. With the same money, you can buy around 100 spots on Zee, 200 on Sony and 400 on ESPN. TV Today incidentally would have the largest reach—75 million households—and time advantage of a minimum 45-50 minutes in relaying the poll results owing to the NIC tie-up. "Advertisers will buy, especially mega spenders like Nestle et al but if TV Today needs Rs 10 crore to break even, then it has a job none will envy," says another media planner.
As for the satellite channels, intense price wars are on. "There's a lot of arm-twisting going on—clients to media buyers and media buyers to TV channels," says Verma. "Media buying is becoming much like the Niki Tasha kitchenette. Anything's possible," says Menon. As a result, margins are under severe pressure. "Star may have got the backing of the BPLs, Castrols and Bridgestones, but at what rates is the question," says a media expert. Apparently, some tough negotiators have been able to cut the asking ad rate by up to 90 per cent!
And then there are some other factors too:
Wrong timing: Not only have Elections '98 come without warning, their timing at the close of the financial year is ill-suited for those needing ad revenue. Firstly, most corporates would've exhausted their ad monies for the current year. Secondly, the Union budget will come only after the new government is formed. So companies aren't so sure of their future plans. "Had the election been in March, things would've been different," says G. Krishnan of TV Today. Thirdly, even if corporates have some spends left, they'd rather spend it in trade-led advertising which usually sends cash registers ringing at the end of every financial year, rather than a political event. "There'd be little incremental money coming into elections. Companies would rather redistribute than put additional money into this sudden opportunity," says Sandeep Goyal, president, Rediffusion DY&R.
Quality of programming:In the absence of any basic difference in election programming, channels are banking heavily on their anchorpersons to get viewership. But barring a Prannoy Roy or Vinod Dua, most presenters are print journalists-turned-anchors-in-a-hurry. That too poses a problem. Says a media planner: "Because of its anchorpersons, Star's become a channel of the English-speaking classes and attracts only a certain category of clients as is evident in its ad portfolio of international liquor brands and premium goods." Sony may have achieved a casting coup with Dua and Tully but it's essentially an entertainment channel which may see some tactical ad revenues during polls. "News programming quality will have to go a long way before it sees anything more than tactical advertising," says Goyal.
Limited viewership: Even in the '96 polls, the TRPs for election programmes was 2 for non-prime time, peaking at 5 in prime hours, compared to an 18-20 TRP for a Hindi film. "And this time, when a hung Parliament is almost certain, the interest of most people will be limited to who forms the government. So for a media planner it makes sense to put his client's money only in the last leg of counting when interest level peaks," says Menon.
High costs: On an average, a news bulletin of about half-an-hour costs the producer anything between Rs 60,000 to Rs 80,000. Considering that a 24-hour channel is doing at least eight hours of news programming per day and relying on repeats rest of the time, it would be spending Rs 3-odd crore a month on production costs alone. Add to this the cost of additional manpower, cost of marketing the programmes and ensuring distribution, and a channel would spend at least Rs 50 to Rs 60 crore a year, if it were to continue after the election is over. "The main viewership for the 24-hour news channel is in the evening when news is pitted against popular programmes on other channels. Moreover, the audience for news is restricted generally to males and in the 30-35 plus category. Therefore, the audience cache remains small," says Sajal Mukherjee, media director, R.K. Swamy/BBDO.
So, news may be no goldmine waiting to be tapped. Channels may be in a race to outdo each other or test waters. But the market's bent upon chastening the player. The mood's already sombre. "We'll be happy if we recover costs," says Krishnan. The new lesson: it may not be such good news to be in the business of news.