The Hindu Business Line : TV advertisement volumes post steady 33% climb in Jan-Sept

New Delhi, Nov. 7 Television advertising volumes continued to rise steadily during the first nine months this year, reaching a peak in the third quarter, possibly benefiting from the huge audience interest in the two cricket world cups hosted this year.

Up 33 per cent over last year, ad volumes for the first nine months this year showed a different graph. Compared to the high it reached during the first nine months of 2006, it was a somewhat straight steady climb this year, according to data from AdEx division of Tam Media Research.

Volumes measured in seconds, however, do not necessarily reflect advertising business growth, warns Mr Sundar Raman, Managing Director, MindShare. “It’s an increase on the supply side, or the number of new channels. It’s more a reflection of the clutter consumers are exposed to,” he says.

Inventory growth

Despite the number of channels, inventory is growing significantly, says Mr Paritosh Joshi, President, Ad Sales and Distribution, Star. “Traditionally, three to four years back, general entertainment had advertising that lasted from 10 minutes up to an hour, films had 12 minutes, and news 14-15 minutes. Today, news channels have advertisements that go up to 20 minutes and last up to an hour, film channels have 15-16 minutes, and general entertainment has over 12 minutes,” he says.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd, which is estimated to spend as much as Rs 700- 800 crore a year on TV, continued to be the biggest consumer of advertising spots this year, followed by the makers of Mortein and Dettol, Reckitt Benckiser.

Both Cola makers climbed up three notches this year — Coca-Cola was at number three, Pepsi Co was at sixth position. But the dizziest climb was that of Bharti Airtel, which rose more than 10 ranks to tenth position.

Social messages

The telecom major may well have been responsible for pushing its ‘Cellular Phone Service’ category from number five last year, to number one this year. What may come as a surprise to some is that it’s the social service category that it is displacing.

This year too, audiences continued to see many more seconds of social messages than soap, soft, drink, shampoo, toothpaste ads.

Category-wise Internet/SMS Services made its big leap, up 14 places, with a 102 per cent growth over last year. MindShare is betting on insurance being the big spender next year. Mr Joshi points out to Airhostess academies as an example of the new genre of big advertisers springing up from nowhere.

Sector wise, food and beverages consumed a 15 per cent share of overall TV advertising. The top ten sectors accounted for close to 60 per cent of ad volumes during January-September 2007, and there were ten per cent more advertisers this year too.

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