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TV festive ad spend to reach Rs 8000 cr; experts divided

Published

9 years ago

October 27, 2016

MUMBAI: The festive months of October and November are welcome months not just for you and your family, but for most Indian brands as well. After all, they eagerly wait for this early window when consumers loosen up their purse strings and put their Diwali bonuses to good use, aka, shopping.

Thus, it is almost a tradition in the marketing world to budget separately for the third financial quarter, and sometimes allot a majority share of their marcom budget to campaigns during this period. New trends emerge each year from consumer behaviour, which, in turn, decide how brands invest their advertising budgets. Unlike last few years, media experts have mixed opinions on what this year’s festive season means for the advertising industry as a whole.

Many within the industry believe this Diwali isn’t lighting up as bright as they had wished. Brands aren’t spending ad dollars as enthusiastically as they had in the last few years. “The festive season itself has shortened this year. Instead of stretching out to November, this year Diwali is wrapping up by October, leaving a 15 to 20-day period for Diwali campaigns. Barring the bigger e-commerce players, we did not see many brands advertise before the 2nd week of October. Even when it comes to print, which usually commands the lion’s share of festive ad spends, there were very few jacket ads that were spotted,” pointed out Havas Media Group India CEO Anita Nayyar.

This year’s most noticeable trend would be polarised points of view on how the e-commerce players are spending. According to several media reports, e-commerce players have cut down their media spends on television this year and are concentrating on print instead.

“Compared to their spends last year, the spend on print has pretty much remained the same. They (the e-commerce players) have also had multiple sales promotions instead of just one major sale day and the print has dominated the promotion budget of these sales. When it comes to their spends on digital, most of them are performance related than pure innovation or advertising. It is directly tied to purchase,” observed a media planner requesting anonymity.

The expert also correlated the category’s marketing spends strategy to the consolidation that has happened in the sector in the last one year, including major developments like Jabong being bought over by Flipkart’s Myntra.

“In general, it wasn’t as great a year for e-commerce players as last year. The accountability is much higher on performance than it was in the previous few years. Most of their current spends are to make sure they have enough sales,” the planner adds.

Nayyar too believes that e-commerce players have become very cautious of how they spend this year. “Not just in TV, but over all even throughout the year, e-commerce brands have toned down. Most of these companies are in their 5th and 6th year, and that is when returns have to show up.”

What does that mean for the television industry? Have the ad revenues dropped because of this? “Not at all,” reassured another senior executive. According to him, “E-commerce spending on television has actually increased in the range of 60-65 per cent,” He acknowledges that ‘print pie is always the highest considering the tactical nature of festival communication with its local and regional role that it plays.”

It could be because, “while the total number of players in the e-commerce have relatively reduced or opted out of spending increasingly on TV this year, the big players such as Amazon, Snapdeal, and Flipkart continue to spend a lot on TV,” shared Dentsu Aegis Network chairman Ashish Bhasin.

With the festive season just around the corner, Droom, India’s pioneering online automobile transactional marketplace, is taking the celebrations up a few notches by allocating INR 10 crore to its marketing budget.

Snapdeal earlier announced that it would spend Rs.200 crore on a 360-degree campaign spanning over 60 days in the run-up to the Diwali festival. eBay India marketing director Shivani Suri too recognises this period as the ‘most important time of the year, where they expect to do the most sales.” Online automobile marketplace Droom too had promised Rs 10 crore of its marketing budget to the season.

According to Bhasin, the total festive season ad ex of the market across media is estimated to hit a whopping Rs 20,000 crore this year, which is a 10–12 per cent hike from last year. “Of this, Rs 8000 crore can come from television, is the estimate,” Bhasin shared.

Another analyst who did not want to be named pegged this year’s TV ad-ex at Rs 3000 crore.

When it came to analysing festive season advertising by categories, FMCG and automobile once again stole the show, especially when it comes to being the biggest spenders on the medium of television.

“Automobile Category continues to spend the highest in festive season, followed by real estate. Then comes e-commerce. With similar contribution levels across categories, 30-50% increase in spends if you compare similar period of last year vs. vis-à-vis this year,” a planner shared.

It should be noted that sales at the leading passenger vehicle makers, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra and Hero MotoCorp, had risen by 15 per cent this year to 253,007 units from 216,352 a year ago, as per an early September report.

“Telecom is another important sector which has made its presence felt this festive season. With Jio’s launch acting as a catalyst for other competitors in the sectors to also up their marketing ante,” Bhasin added.

Apart from the conventional players, categories such as electronic devices (read smartphones), home decor and accessories have also garnered could traction. As reported earlier in several leading dailies, Oppo and Vivo are spending close to Rs 80 to Rs 100 each on marketing this year, almost doubling their budget from last year. Other electronic segments aren’t far behind. As recently reported, Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic has raised its festive marketing budget in India to Rs 85 crore.

Thus, while this year’s festive season may be short-lived for both, brands as well as consumers, celebration in India is definitely neither conservative nor curtailed.

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Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.