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Close on the heels of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) paper to regulate ad duration, Zee News is changing its advertising policy.
Effective from April 2, the Hindi news channel has decided to cut down its ad inventory by 30 per cent and raise rates by 40 per cent.
The advertisement run has been decreased to eight minutes from 11 minutes in a half-hour bulletin.
TRAI in its paper points out that free-to-air channels should not carry ads exceeding 12 minutes an hour (this includes 10 minutes of commercials and two minutes of self promotions) and pay channels not more than six minutes of ads an hour.
Speaking to Business Line , Mr. Dinesh Garg, CFO, Zee News said, “Zee News, while moving to an eight minute format, will strive to generate the same revenue that it did earlier.”
He added, “Advertisers too prefer news channels that are uncluttered with more focus on content. So, for us, it has been a business call and an effort to be at par with Government guidelines.”
Mr Garg said that he expected other channels to follow suit.
Star India CEO, Mr Uday Shankar endorsed the move, saying, “Star has consistently reduced inventory and hiked rates in the last two years. Hopefully, this is the trend to watch out for.”
Mr Gopinath Menon, CEO, Melon Media, gives this move by Zee a thumbs up. “I think it was long overdue, with advertisements cluttering the news channels. Now will be the real test for credibility of content possibly leading to viewership loyalty.”
According to a senior broadcast professional, “There would be more discipline in the industry after digitisation, once the subscription revenue starts to flow in and carriage fee comes down.”
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