The last decade has seen a tremendous increase in the number of satellite channels and thereby the increase in their viewer ship with the high income group as well as in urban India. But terrestrial channels still rule the roost with the low income groups as well as in rural areas. The difference in the target viewer between satellite and terrestrial channels affect the ad spend trends of various categories. This leads categories targeting higher income groups to spend more and frequently on satellite channels whereas categories targeting the masses tend to spend more on terrestrial channels.

Categories like television, cars/jeeps, cellular phone service and paint whose target markets are the urban as well as high income segments are top spenders on the satellite channels whereas they lag behind when it comes to top spenders on terrestrial channels. Lifestyle categories like branded jewellery and cellular phones also rank 25th and 48th resp. in the top spending categories list on satellite channels whereas they fall to the 101st and 89th position resp. on terrestrial channels.

Categories targeting the masses in the low income group as well as in the rural areas like two wheelers, hair oils, toilet soaps, milk beverages and mosquito repellents emerge as top spending categories on the terrestrial channels whereas they are comparatively low key on the satellite channels. Corporate/brand image category also is a winner on terrestrial channels and falls back on satellite channels.

 

October being the month of festivals, spends for durable categories jump on both, satellite as well as terrestrial channels. The categories like cars/jeeps, refrigerators and washing machines which otherwise prefer satellite channels increase their activity greatly on terrestrial channels in the months of sep-oct (as seen in the below table, August 2003 spends are indexed to 100.)

The spend trends for categories like cars/jeeps, cellular phone service, two wheelers, refrigerators, televisions, corporate/brand image and washing machines for the last four months show that categories like television and refrigerator shoot up on satellite channels during the festive month of October.

(An AdEx India analysis)