ITV

Tag: Media Ants

  • KBC 12 and the sponsorship puzzle

    KBC 12 and the sponsorship puzzle

    MUMBAI: Sony TV’s Kaun Banega Crorepati is one show which has stood the test of time. In its twentieth season in India, the game show is still popular and appreciated by people of all ages. KBC has always been synonymous with knowledge; it is a platform where contestants’ brains have got them big winnings year-on-year. And, of course there is the iconic host of the show upon whom India dotes, the thespian Amitabh Bachchan. SET has already released the promo for this year.

    However, this year, KBC is going to be different. To start with, the contestant selection process has gone digital owing to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the country. Interestingly, SET shared the first glimpse of the KBC’s newly constructed set where the shoot starts from today. It has been reported that there will no audiences during the shoot, but only one member with the participant will be allowed to be present in the seating area.

    The broadcaster has already signed two premium co-presenting partners for the game show – Tata Salt and Vedantu. The race for lining up other sponsors is on; however no new names have been released by the broadcasting team, until the filing of this report.

    Media planners and buyers opine that Sony is currently charging Rs four lakh for a 10-second spot, which would be aired on the standard definition and high definition feeds. The industry view – in the best case scenario – is that KBC being a flagship property, will see those rates holding and, in the worst case, getting shaved by five to 10 per cent on the upper side.

    “All big properties have opened at similar to last year’s rates,” says Shripad Kulkarni & Associates principal Shripad Kulkarni. “Nobody is expecting overall ad spends to be more than 80 per cent of the last festive season. Moreover, IPL will suck away a big chunk of the budget, so all the big properties are staring at a 15-20 per cent lower yield. Other television genres would see a bigger hit in net yields,” mentions Kulkarni.

    Media Ant founder Samir Chaudhary also echoes a similar sentiment and suggests that the rate card for KBC is similar to what it was last year. “In the usual scenario the channel would have booked 80 per cent of the inventory in advance and only 10 percent would be left for spot selling. The situation has changed now due to festivities and the IPL. Since all of these are getting bunched up in terms of timing, the spends will get distributed,” he avers.

    Chauudhary adds that the network does not have too much time before the show comes on air, so it might have to do both sponsorship and spot sales simultaneously, unlike prior years when it first got the sponsors in and then sold FCT at a premium.

    KBC has always been a premium property that has attracted brands from across the categories. In 2019, Vivo V11 pro and Mahindra Marazzo were the co-powered sponsors along with additional associate sponsors. The game show has the ability to cut across all ages and the brand equity of the legendary actor Bachchan has helped it make a grand success over the years.

    Havas Media buying national head R. Venkatasubramanian believes that KBC will finally get support from advertisers and sponsors even though that looks like a challenging task currently. Says he: “This is a high investment property and clients will choose a vehicle on which they are getting ROI and KBC does offer that.”

    According to ex- Madison Media chief operating officer Anita Bose, as agencies and clients are not meeting, one can see a big difference between closing a deal face to face versus doing it online. She notes that even if KBC is a successful property with a great track record, clients are not willing to spend that kind of money that’s being asked. It is one of the reasons why KBC got postponed, she shares, adding “starting a reality show will be challenging because of the pandemic, the client portfolio will also be different now. They are being very cautious.”

    The pessimists and naysayers are of the view that due to the fact that cases of Covid2019 are continuing to rise and the IPL is coinciding with the festive season, television is not finding the going easy. Their view is that IPL may end up eating 40 per cent of viewership, which could lead to a drop in GEC viewership, with the movie and news genres continuing to hold strong. Red lights may start blinking for the entire TV sector if the festive season doesn’t live up to its promise and expectation, setting TV channels back for the rest of the year.

    Bose further reveals that due to the economic slowdown, clients are hesitant to spend. As far as discounts or incentive plans are concerned, she thinks there will be no cash price offs from channels. “I think there will be other value offers which will make sense to clients. The channel will not reduce the price, as it is a matter of prestige but what makers can do is to give more value addition on the network and that is how the selling will happen. Also, depending upon the client’s requirement they can tailor it accordingly.”

    She adds that since KBC is a format which follows the original, there are lots of dos and don’ts which advertisers have to adhere to, unlike other shows where the flexibility is more.

    Venkatasubramanian highlights that the show will also get support from mobile, consumer durables, automobiles, and tyre categories that are more than willing to pick up a slot on the 12-strong KBC sponsor rack. He believes that “ecommerce brands will probably go in for spot buy deals with edtuech companies stepping on to the podium.”

    We can only wait and watch and see if his predictions will come true.

  • Will GECs score big this IPL & festival season?

    Will GECs score big this IPL & festival season?

    MUMBAI: 2020 has been a different year, what with the pandemic totally putting things out of kilter for the economy, for business. And it continues to be different even as the festival season comes up in India.

    Normally, the fiefdom of India’s general entertainment channels which launch new seasons, and shows to indulge their viewers and attract a large chunk of the advertisers’ dollars and their own annual revenues,  August to November, this year features a party pooper, in the shape of India’s biggest sports extravaganza, the  Indian Premier League (IPL).

    Set to take place in the UAE between 19 September and 10 November, the league – which is usually held between April and May every year  – corners close to Rs 2100 odd crore of ad spends and is expected to better those numbers in its 2020 season .

    Hence, the question being asked is: will the IPL’s overlap with the festive season lead to  a drop in viewership for the GECs and to advertising dollars being sucked out from them towards the league?

    OMD MudraMax EVP & principal partner Navin Kathuria believes that viewers who are looking for refreshing content will find that in the IPL.  Says: ”Due to Covid2019, only 17 per cent of the total sports events took place and that too pre-Covod2019. Secondly, there is a fatigue in viewers due to the plethora of mythological programmes, overdose of Covid2019 news, repeat movies etc.”

    He says what will aid its viewership is the fact that majority of the working population will be at home during the IPL as many organisations will not be fully functional or will be working with shortened hours / reduced staff strength / alternate days of the week. “With bars and clubs shut, people will be watching more from home, reading to an  upsurge in home viewing.”

    The Media Ant co- founder Samir Chaudhary echoes Kathuria. Says he: “The lines were clearly demarcated that April-May would be for cricket and festive seasons would be for GEC, but as IPL is coming now the viewership of GECs will be impacted.”

    “The audience is hungry for IPL and cricket so the performance in terms of ratings could be unprecedented or amongst the best in the recent seasons,” shares regional language network Enter10 chief operating officer Deep Drona.

    The belief is that with matches scheduled at 3:30 pm and then at 7:30 pm, single TV homes – of which India has a majority – will opt for the IPL, with GEC shows being watched between the match breaks or viewers tuning into them when the matches end.

    Zee TV business head Aparna Bhosle does not support this viewpoint.

    According to her, Hindi GECs have over many years has managed to sustain viewership and even grow despite the IPL. She says, “Long running fiction or non-fiction shows have, by and large, not seen an adverse impact on viewership due to existing fan bases and the loyalty channels’ command in terms of appointment viewership.”

    She further adds: “The viewership of television has increased by 34 per cent during lockdown. There is a growth of 10 per cent in average daily reach as well as 22 per cent growth in average daily time spent. (Source: BARC| 2+| HSM (U+R)| Wk 12-20’20 vs Wk 1-11’20). With the best of content across our primetime, we want to ensure that our shows act as a great binder that brings families together during this period of social distancing.”

    In fact, so confident is she of it being business as usual, that Zee TV is gearing up to premiere four big-ticket family targeted shows during the festive season.

    Ditto with the Enter10 network. It is planning to have a robust line up starting from the end of August until November end with a slew of original new series planned.

    Estimates are that marketers signed checks to the tune of Rs 24,000 crore during the festival period last year. The pandemic and the lockdowns over the past six months have resulted in Indian advertising expenditure shrinking by as much as 39 per cent over last year. Soothsayers predict that 2019’s festival adex of Rs 24,000 crore will not be breached this year. 

    Not everyone agrees. Havas Media CEO Mohit Joshi says, “There has been a revival of sorts from June, July with spends going up gradually. We expect brands to press the accelerator pedal in September-October-November.”

    Drona believes the fact that the IPL and GEC launches are coinciding, will lead to an overall expansion of the ad pie in the festive season, benefiting both. According to him spending has been subdued for a large part of the year, and this will be the time when it will be all systems go for categories such as FMCGs, ecommerce sites, gaming platforms, the OTT sector and what have you. “Yes, there will be a scramble for marketing and ad budgets but that will lead to a growth in the overall spends,” he added.

    Chaudhary points out that may not come to be true as budgets have been slashed and with smaller budgets, advertisers would prefer to park it with a big bang event. Says he: “Disney Star India has priced its spots at Rs 10-15 lakh per 10 seconds. Only the big companies can afford these price points. So they will mostly park their spots with the IPL, leaving aside smaller spends for the GECs.”

    Will the GECs then be forced to shave their FCT and sponsorship rates? Kathuria would like to wait and watch. “Normally, GECs don’t discount big properties,” he says. “The challenge they face is that consumer sentiment has been subdued due to Covid2019 and it has impacted consumer spends. And hence the propensity by brands to spend big.”

    Clearly, for both the IPL and GECs, the festival season 2020 is bringing with it interesting and testing times.