The new rate card,which has been operational from
1 April 2004, has been well accepted in the market. New advertisers
like State Bank of India and Kodak have already signed up Rs
7.5 million and Rs 2.5 million, respectively for three months.
In the new rate card spot buy rates have been hiked to Rs 5,000
per 10 seconds (Rs 3,000 earlier) for prime time and Rs 3,000 per
10 seconds (Rs 2,000 earlier). The prime time band has been extended
by one hour - from 6:30 pm to 11:30 pm (7 pm to 11 pm earlier) to
help better spread advertisements.
There has been a 50 per cent increase in the rates for sponsored
programmes - from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 for prime time and from
Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,500 for non prime time.
However, it is for the stock branding and ticker branding, for
which there is a huge demand, that the increase is the highest.
The new rate is Rs 500,000 per month as against Rs 200,000 earlier.
The earlier offer of giving value addition to advertisers in the
form of free commercial time on DD Bharati continues.
"DD News was facing the problem of plenty. The most important
thing to be addressed was to devise a strategy to reduce clutter
of advertisements, especially in prime time programmes" says
Sanjiv Datta, Addl Director General (News). "Many advertisers
prefer packages only during specific events, otherwise they go for
prime time spot buys. So we can shore up our revenues through this,"
he adds.
The DD News rate card circulated in November last was introductory
in nature and meant basically to test the waters. However, the market
gave a resounding thumbs-up to the new channel of DD, and against
a revenue target of Rs 20 million, DD News was able to attract advertisements
worth Rs 90-100 million. DD News took in Rs 20 million around the
election coverage programming alone. On the qualitative front too,
DD News was successful in wooing top consumer brands - cola majors,
2-wheeler manufacturers, telecom service providers, including several
multi-national brands, into its fold.
Three Headlines Today anchors join DD News
Meanwhile, DD News has hit back in a limited way at Aaj Tak
by weaning away three anchors, including two ladies, from the Hindi
news channel's English sibling Headlines Today. According to sources
in DD News, all these three anchors, who joined within the last
week or so, are bilingual and would be used extensively for English
and Hindi programming on DD News.
Also Read:
Elections fetch DD News
Rs 20 m in revenues
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