MUMBAI: When it comes to getting brand exposure for clients in India, print has always played the king.

However, 2010 seems to be foretelling a different story altogether as industry players believe that the television segment growth for the year will outpace print.

Says Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd chief revenue officer and head niche channels Joy Chakraborthy, "Television will outgrow print this year. The recession helped advertisers to look closely at cost efficiences of all the mediums. While print has de-grown over the last few years, television has seen robust growth."

Countering the upgraded predictions that ZenithOptimedia released in its latest forecast for India, Star India president, ad sales Kevin Vaz suggests that the ad spend on television is expected to grow at a minimum of 15-20 per cent this year. 
 
Upgrading its forecast for India, ZenithOptimedia said that television would accelerate to 11-12 per cent growth this year, compared to a 6 per cent growth in the earlier year. Meanwhile, Print would see a 7-8 per cent annual growth through to 2012, pacing up from a 5 per cent growth in 2009.

Vaz further states, "Also, TV will move at a faster pace and move ahead of press this year. This is because, in the last few years, television had been outpacing growth and even despite recession, showed growth last year. On the contrary, print actually re-grew in 2009."

Vaz elaborates that the growth will be witnessed across categories. While FMCG will show a sharp upward ad spend, the advent of new telecom players and handset manufacturers will boost the growth further. Financial investment advertising will also show a comeback.

Meanwhile, talking in the same breath, Madison Media Group CEO Punitha Arumugam opines a similar judgment. "Print revenue has dropped over the year and its 2009 revenue is almost equivalent to 2007," she says. "So, television has surely become a threat to print."

According to Arumugam, print saw a major hit in revenues in 2009. "About 50 -60 per cent of the total ad revenue in print comes from the English publications and the categories that head for this genre did not spend much last year. Meanwhile, regional papers did quite well during the year."
 
Mediaedge:cia India MD T Gangadhar affirms that television is sure to grow faster than print this year, but believes that in terms of absolute numbers television will still take a couple of years to catch up.

"The total advertising industry currently stands at roughly Rs 220 billion wherein TV and print form about 80-81 per cent of the total bulk. Out of this, print stands at about Rs 100 billion. So, television has still sometime to catch up," Gangadhar explains. 
 
According to him, the seasonal lineup of tent pole events this year and next will be the imperative reason for television to witness a trajectory growth.

"2010-11 has an active event calendar which is bound to be one of the primary reasons for television advertising growth. Also, with the live broadcast element attached to television, the platform will surely see a leap."

Gangadhar believes that print will continue to face persistent challenges from new media.

"2009 has been a rough year for print and this year it still continues to be so," he says.