MxMIndia

Category: INDRANI SEN

  • Considering the emerging importance of the sector in shaping the digital future of India, telecom companies should get together and form a stronger association to lead interactions with TRAI and the Telecom Ministry for forming the rules and regulations

    Indrani Sen: Wanted a stronger industry body for Telecom

    By Indrani Sen

    About two months back, on July 11, 2018 the Telecom Commission (TC), the highest decision-making body in the telecom ministry, approved TRAI’s recommendation on net neutrality rules that prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from discriminating between their web traffic. This decision ensured that internet for Indians will continue to remain free without any discrimination or restriction.

    BBC said earlier that India has “the world’s most progressive policy on equal internet access for all” and we continue to hold that status. India’s reaffirmation of net neutrality has come at a time when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US repealed its free internet rules in December 2017 and allowed internet providers to charge more for certain content or giving preferential treatment to certain websites through commercial agreements.Recently, on August 31, 2018,California state lawmakers passed a bill preventing internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking traffic or providing so-called fast lanes. For the bill to become law, it has to be approved by the Governor of California by the end of September.

    The telecom operators in India are not very happy with this decision of the Telecom Commission as they feel that they need to have some control to manage the traffic going through their infrastructure for which they have made investment of crores of rupees. They also think the ruling would curtail the scope of innovation on the medium as ISPs cannot offer any fast lanes for content providers who are ready to pay for the privilege.Young talents within the Advertising & Marketing industry engaged in designing and implementing delivery of content, particularly on various OTT platforms will also be disappointed with the limitation on the scope of innovation.

    This decision also means the ruling that service providers cannot make any agreements with services like Facebook’s ‘Free Basics’ or Airtel Zero (services banned later by TRAI) offering only a set of services or websites for free, stays on. However, some critical services and emerging technologies like remote surgery and autonomous cars requiring high-speed internet lanes have been kept out of the ambit of net neutrality rules.

     

    The telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajaninformed the media that a committee formed by the Department of Telecom will shortly draw up a list of the technologies that will be allowed the exception and theTelcos will be allowed to use traffic management practices to maintain the quality of service for them as and when required. CDNs (content delivery networks) will also be treated as an exception and will be out of the ambit of the restrictions of net neutrality. It is not clear how the government proposes to regulate the operations of CDNs in India.

     

    Some of the media reports mentioned about Government’s plan for spreading WiFi hotspots to rural India. Hindu Business Line reported that “An official, who was part of the meeting, said that the TC has also approved installation of around 12.5 lakh WiFi hotspot in all gram panchayats with viability gap funding of around Rs 6,000 crore by December 2018”.(https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/net-neutrality-telecom-panel-approves-trai-recommendations/article24389534.ece). The Commission also cleared the new“National Digital Communications Policy 2018” for approval by the Union Cabinet at the same meeting.

     

    Subsequently on August 19, www.livemint.com  reported about TRAI starting consultation for traffic rules for net neutrality – “The telecom regulator will soon start consultations over a framework for traffic management practices as well as the structure of a multi-stakeholder body outlined in the net neutrality principles, according to a senior TRAI official”. (https://www.livemint.com/Industry/cvf8xlYB4PpBy5NT25AmsI/Trai-consultation-soon-on-traffic-rules-for-net-neutrality.html).

    Currently, there is a need of a strong industry body for the telecom sector. In 1995, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)https://www.coai.com/about-usbut unfortunately the association does not function as the spokes person of the industry, nor does it take a leading role in negotiating with TRAI and the Telecom Ministry. There is strong competition among the telecom companies and currently the sector is facing a financial crisis largely triggered by price wars since Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio’s entry. However, considering the emerging importance of the sector in shaping the digital future of India, the telecom companies should get together and form a stronger association to lead the interactions with TRAI and the Telecom Ministry for forming the rules and regulations.

     

     

  • Veteran adperson & academic Indrani Sen looks at ways to tackle the sexual harassment malaise

    A 4-tier formula for curbing #MeToo complaints

     

    By Indrani Sen

     

    A lot has happened during the last couple of weeks after the #MeToo movement started in India. I was holidaying among the tranquil hills in Himachal, blessed often by connectivity problems and it took me a while to catch up with the tide of events on my return to the plains. This website www.mxmindia.com has been most vociferous in supporting the #MeToo movement since its floodgates opened in India. Ranjona Banerji has posted three articles on the issue within a week, “Stop the silence about Sexual Abuse” on October 5, “Speak up and support” on October 9 and “All sexual assault is assault. And it needs to be condemned and action taken” on October 12.  Sanjeev Kotnala wrote on October 9 “Are you too guilty of silence?” and proposed #MeTooGuilityofSilence and #NotMe after evaluating your own behaviour. Shailesh Kapoor wrote “Time for men to shut up and listen” on October 12.

    I wholeheartedly support the views expressed by the three fellow-columnists. Banerji has done a great job and I am sure she will continue to fight for the cause till the industry leaders come up with a tangible solution. I doubt if Indian men will respond to the excellent suggestions made by Kotnala. There has always been a strong sense of belonging to the “Boys’ Club” among male executives across industries, so those who are not guilty of sexual harassment would hesitate to openly condemn the guilty boy and throw him out of their club. Kapoor’s call to men asking them to shut up and listen is most appropriate and we can only hope that out of the silence some sense and sensibility will emerge.

    I personally do not have any #MeToo stories to relate, but during my time in the industry I did witness some incidents where I always counselled the victim and tried to either speak to the predator or his boss which ever seemed to be suitable under specific circumstances.  In the process, I often picked up fights which definitely were not my own, but never baulked or regretted my actions. Recently a friend shared with me a column by writer Geetanjali Arora  on the issue. While I do not agree with all her views, I would like to quote a line which reflects my own belief “The Shakti does not wait for a later date to speak up; she silences the evil on the spot…”

    Women of the industry are lending all their support to the cause. Network of Women in Media in India (www.nwmindia.org ) is giving wide coverage to the issue and extending a helping hand to all women journalists.  A number of senior women executives of Indian Advertising issued an open letter to all ladies working in advertising on 10th October through Economic Times’ Brand equity https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/advertising/dear-ladies-this-open-letter-from-senior-ad-women-is-all-about-hope/66150679 which was subsequently carried by all social media networks. Brand Equity followed up with an article assessing and reporting on the effects of the #MeToo movement and the reactions of different advertising and media agencies on 12th October https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/advertising/metoo-times-up-for-indias-mad-men/66134945.

    So, where do we go from here? Will the exposures through #MeToo campaign stop the menace of sexual harassment in workplace from now on? Can we be assured that work places would be safe for all young girls aspiring for a career in Media and Communication Industry in India? Can we promise them that they would not be haunted any more by any male predator in their workplaces? No, it is not going to be so simple. There will be a lull following this social media storm, but the roots of the problem would stay buried under the debris of the scandals and unwanted mushrooms of sexual harassments will spring up in future. What we need is a continuous solution, an internal forum to address such complains and to take actions against the guilty men in order to assure the safety of our women at work places in media and communication industry.

    Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has been talking about a committee of judges to address sexual harassment issues but most victims in our industry would hesitate to get involved in such a complicated long drawn affair. I suggest a “four-tier formula” for addressing the issues of sexual harassment in workplaces in Media & Communication Industry. Firstly, our Industry bodies need to ensure that all their members adopt the “Vishakha Guidelines 1997”and the subsequent “Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013”. Secondly,  all organisations must make it mandatory to mention in their appointment letter their policy for prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace and the consequences of such behaviour. Thirdly, there should be a dictate issued by industry bodies to all member organisations for conducting  workshops for all employees on the above Act from time to time and discuss the issues openly, a move that Hindustan Times has taken already as reported in exchange4media last week https://www.exchange4media.com/media-print-news/metoo-hindustan-times-to-organise-mandatory-workshops-for-employees-92499.html.  We can hope that these workshops will encourage women to report immediately about any sexual harassment which they may be subjected to in the workplaces. Fourthly, each member organisation should have a high level internal committee for looking into such complaints of sexual harassments by their employees. All such committees should have representation of women and in case the organisation does not have a suitable senior woman to take up the responsibility, they should invite senior industry ladies as honorary members of the internal committees. The committee would review the complaints and take suitable actions against their male employees if found guilty of any misconduct.

    We can hope that if such a four-tiered formula can be implemented in our media and communication industry, then we will be able to provide a safe working environment to all our women employees in future.

     

     

  • Trying to estimate spends is like story of the blind men and the elephant, writes Indrani Sen

    Just how much do we spend on media for Diwali ad campaigns?

     

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Trying to estimate the traditional media expenditures during the three months, from August to October, is like the age old story of the blind men with the elephant. Each blind man made a guess based on which part of the elephant he was touching! In this case, please read it as based on the media agency or the advertisers own experience with rate negotiation for Diwali campaigns. The estimates put up by TAM India for Adex is therefore corrected accordingly.

     

    Well, TAM India estimates Adex for Print, TV and Radio which is based on monitoring of large number of media vehicles during the stipulated three months. As we all know, Adex is calculated on the basis of market rates and not on the basis of actual negotiated rates. Industry insiders are also aware of special discounts offered by media houses over and above their negotiated rates with media agencies/ advertisers for the Diwali campaigns. It is important for the leading media houses to get a fair share of the Diwali budget, the once a year bonanza for which most of them are prepared to bent backwards!

     

    The scheduling off course depends on the actual date of the Diwali festival, which falls on a date between mid-October to mid-November in the solar calendar based on the calculations given in advance about the auspicious dates in our lunar calendar published in our almanacs. So, it is debatable if we should look at the three months August to October or redefine the period as 12 weeks before the Diwali. For example, this year Diwali is on November 7, 2018 and we have been seeing lot of frenzied advertising activities in all traditional media as well as digital and social media since October 1. Obviously, if the TAM Adex reports compare August to October 2017 with August to October 2018, then a large chunk of the pre-Diwali advertising will not be reflected in the analysis.

     

    Last year TAM India published in their newsletter a comparison of pre-Diwali Adex for 2016 and 2017 https://www.tamindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/tam_newsletter_04.pdf and concluded that there was drop in print and radio expenditures in 2017 compared to 2016. Diwali festival in 2016 was on October 30, 2016 and in the next year the date fell on October 19, 2017. There is usually a huge drop in advertising traffic immediately after Diwali across all traditional media. Last year, therefore the Adex naturally dropped after October 19 while 2016 enjoyed the full thrust of Diwali advertising till October 30. Obviously the lull over the last ten days of October painted Print and Radio at a disadvantage in comparison with the same period in 2016.

     

    It is my earnest request to TAM India to change the period for comparing Diwali expenditures to 12 weeks before the festival instead of the standard three months August to December. Their calculations will still be on market rates, but at least the estimates would be comparable across the different media. We generally see a long diminishing tail of TV media after Diwali which are part of free spots or bonus spots which generally feature in the rate negotiations. Ideally speaking, the same TV spots should not be added to the overall cost of the particular advertisers’ Diwali campaign.

     

    TAM India is working on publishing a Digital Adex shortly, which will complete the process of estimating Diwali media expenditures by adding to traditional expenditures, digital and social media expenditures. There has been a trend since 2014 to link Diwali campaigns with social needs and year on year we are finding more advertisers climbing into that band wagon. Needless to mention, a considerable chunk of their Diwali advertising budget is being utilised through the new media channels.  We need to end this game played by blind men and have a robust estimates of how much we are spending on Diwali advertising on a year-on-year basis.

     

    Wishing the readers of www.mxmindia.com a Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year!

     

     

  • Among the four key trends shown in the eMarketer report, it reconfirms that the “World has gone mobile” and “World internet users have also embraced social networking”.

    Indrani Sen: Digital has hardly affected popularity of TV and Print in India

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Last week, I read the Executive Summary of the eighth Global Media Intelligence Report by eMarketer (file:///C:/Users/Lenovo/Pictures/GMI-2018-ExecutiveSummary.pdf). As I am not a PRO subscriber of eMarketer, I was not able to access the full report which covers 40 countries across the globe and has been conducted by eMarketer in collaboration with Starcom on the state of global digital media.  But the Executive Summary revealed some interesting trends which are worth sharing with the readers of www.mxmindia.com.

    Among the four key trends shown in the report, it reconfirms that the “World has gone mobile” and “World internet users have also embraced social networking”. On top of that, the statistics further shows out of the total social network users worldwide, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 57% of the users as shown here.

    According to the data released by TRAI, India’s total mobile phone users have touched the 1 billion mark, of which smart phone users are over 300 million. In other words, we have a bigger number of smartphone users than each of the four regions, i.e. Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, North America and Latin America!

    The above chart shows the estimates of the total media ad spending by regions, where Asia-Pacific ranks second after North America.  The chart below shows the split between traditional media and digital media by different regions, where traditional media is enjoying 53.6% share in the ad spends of the Asia Pacific region.

    The report’s third insight says “Individual markets are just that: Individual” quoting different trends of different markets. It comments that “Print media were particularly strong in India; newspapers rivalled TV for penetration among internet users there in H1 2018”. The fourth trend quoted by the Executive Summary says that “Digital has hardly dented TV’s popularity”. The findings of the report have shown that television remains by far the most popular content-based medium despite the explosion of content over digital platforms. “In every country surveyed by GlobalWebIndex, a majority of internet users took advantage of the myriad options now available to view TV content at all hours, and on a range of screens—including TV channels’ catch-up services and video-on-demand providers such as Netflix and MUBI, as well as video recorders”.

    Indian advertisers, who use TV as their main medium for advertising and rely on print for creating topical/ immediate impact, will find the findings of this survey reassuring and useful.

     

     

  • If the A&M industry allows this proposal to get implemented, it may just be the beginning of many other high-handed moves by IBF exercising their majority shareholding of BARC, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Should the A& M Industry allow a TV Ratings blackout?

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Indian nroadcasters are apprehensive of the effect of the consumer friendly new tariffs order which TRAI plans to introduce from January 1, 2019 allowing the viewers to chose and pay for only the channels which they want to watch. According to a report carried by ET today, the Indian Broadcasters Federation (IBF) is worried about the implications of the new tariff order on the channels with relatively less viewership which are currently riding on the more established and popular channels from the stable of the same broadcaster. Therefore, IBF, which has majority shareholding in BARC, is planning to put up a proposal to the Board of the monitoring agency to suspend the TV ratings monitoring reports for 45 to 60 days (https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/media/broadcasters-want-a-tv-ratings-blackout-of-upto-two-months/67018521).

    While I feel that the new tariff order of TRAI is restrictive in nature and puts a lot of constraint on broadcasters by dictating them how they should set up their pricing policies for the marketing their bouquet of channels to the consumers in the market place, I think it is also not right on the part of the IBF to request for a TV Ratings blackout for almost two months. If we look at the current marketing strategies and pricing policies followed by publications, we find that there are ample examples of newspapers and magazines offering combo-pricing of titles to the readers. Long time back, a few years after Independence, the government tried to introduce an act for controlling the number of pages and pricing of newspapers ie. Newspaper Price & Page ACT 1956, which had to be withdrawn later as the Supreme Court ruled it as unconstitutional. Currently, there are some pending legal cases filed by broadcasters against the TRAI tariff order pending in various courts.

    With three weeks to go before the new tariff order is to be implemented, the Cable & TV industry is in doldrums with no clarity on how the new tariffs order should be implemented.  The broadcasters are justified to be concerned about the future of the long-tailed channels which are riding piggyback on their more established channels. However, their concern does not justify their plan for a blackout of the TV ratings for two months. I presume by proposing a blackout, IBF does not want to put a stop to the continuous monitoring process which will be disaster. I hope IBF just wants to stop the publication of the ratings reports by BARC.

    While setting up the rules about who can operate as a Broadcast Monitoring Agency in India, our I&B Ministry was concerned about the ownership and shareholding pattern of the incumbent monitoring agency TAM, but they did not foresee the hidden implications of a Broadcast Monitoring Agency formed as an industry body with majority of shareholding by the association of broadcasters. If the A&M industry allows this proposal to get implemented, it may just be the beginning of many other high-handed moves by IBF exercising their majority shareholding of BARC.

     

    Indrani Sen is a media agency veteran and now an academic and strategy consultant. She writes fortnightly – and often weekly – for MxMIndia. Her views here are personal

     

  • Industry experts indicate that OTT has not only arrived in India, but is steadily claiming its own share in the mix of traditional and online media for many campaigns, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: OTT has entered media mix of our campaigns

    By Indrani Sen

     

    On April 22, ET Brand Equity carried a news item based on a report the research firm Gartner who has estimated that 65 per cent of all phone sales in India will be smartphones in 2018. The article while discussing the content of the report, mentioned that “report also said with increased push from the government for digital currency, as well as people becoming more open to using digital payment methods, the rise of digital currency is bringing a new use case for smartphones, which will trigger higher demands for smartphones”.

     

    This is a huge jump from the earlier estimates of the growth of smartphones in India and has created quite a stir among the global vendors, who are busy planning for strategies to get a higher share of category sales from India. According to Gartner, Indian consumers are becoming tech-savvy and they are willing to pay more for smartphones with better features. The next question, which comes up inevitably, is the Indian consumer ready to pay for the content which she/he would be consuming on smartphones? Advertisers however are not concerned whether the consumer is paying for the content or not. They simply want to be the first to catch him/her in this new media environment.

     

    Just the day before, on April 21, ET Brand Equity carried an interesting article on a related topic saying “OTT and VOD are steadily revolutionising the way we consume content, because of mobility and sheer range. They’ve seeped into our daily routine; be it catching up with the latest episode of our favourite web-series during loo breaks to late night binge watching.” The article described battle plans for capturing market shares by  Voot’s Gaurav Gandhi, SabGroup’s ManavDhanda, YuppTV’s UdayReddy and NexGTV’s AbheshVerma. They all were shining with positive notes about the changes in media consumption habit acrossand counting on favourable reactions from the Indian consumers.

     

    ManavSethi, Chief Marketing Officer at ALT Balajisaid in exchange4mediaon April19: “This change is more structural than cyclical in nature. This change is empowering. This change is latent and personal when it comes to entertainment. It’s not “prime time” only and it’s certainly not India’s prime time, it’s rather MY TIME; MY PLACE and MY VIEW, on MY DEVICE!”Sethi was optimistic about OTT’s future in India which he felt would soon take a definite shape through the interaction of more and more consumers (with access to smartphones) and the market forces.

     

    On April 22, exchange4media carried another story about Ogilvy creating history by making India’s first TVC for Milton shot on a smartphone, more precisely with an iPhone. Conceptualised by Ogilvy Mumbai, the TVC shows the tough journey which theTiffinbox has to undertake every day to reach the office from home through regular city life and the chaotic traffic. Stories of such technical triumph is bound get consumers exited about viewing the same and producing similar contents shooting with their smartphones.

     

    Informal interactions with industry experts indicate that OTT hasnot only arrived in India, but is steadilyclaiming its own share in the mix of traditional and online media for many campaigns. The media planners have no alternative but to work out thumb rule approaches for assessing the cost of OTT and its ROI. This state of flux will continue till BARC are ready to release their Ekam findings towards the end of 2018.

     

    Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • In the digital age, we are getting bombarded by consumer-led demassification of media which is shrinking the value of the advertising budget, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Will Ekam provide the missing links in digital measurement?

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Digital media measurement has been breeding a sense of dissatisfaction among global marketers.  Recently, Procter & Gamble chief brand officer Marc Pritchard, was quoted in media that he was tired of waiting for digital platforms to get their measurement act together http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/03/28/why-marketers-should-follow-coca-cola-and-pgs-lead-overhyped-digital. Pritchard complained about the inadequate viewability data from Facebook, Snapchat, Google, and others who are reaping the benefits of the advertising spends in digital media by all leading brands. The article also referred to Marcos de Quinto, Coca-Cola’s global chief marketing officer, who a few months back criticized his company’s history of digital spending, and stated that TV advertising is still the best investment for brands.

     

    Jeri Smith, chief executive of Communicus, wrote in the above article “So far, only de Quinto has opened up his brand’s books to show evidence of effectiveness. Stating that “TV still offers the best ROI across media channels,” he revealed that Coca-Cola has reaped a return on TV investment of $2.13 for every dollar spent. Their return on digital? Only $1.26 per dollar spent.”

     

    In August 2016, Sir Martin Sorrel had cited the example of Procter & Gamble planning to cut investment in digital ad spends while predicting that the digital ad spend to slow over the next few years https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/08/24/sir-martin-sorrell-brands-are-starting-to-question-if-they-have-over-invested-in-digital/. All these comments make one wonder if digital media is really overhyped and why the digital industry is unable to get the their measurement act together.

     

    Digital media haveplenty of measurable metrics and other analytical data available in real-time, but a comprehensive measurement of these data across different digital platforms is lacking. The metrics are generally categorised into three groups, according to the flow of any digital marketing campaign from traffic generation to conversion to revenue. Overall site traffic, traffic sources, click through rate, cost per click are typically the traffic metrics which progresses to conversion metrics like conversion rate, cost per lead, average page views per visit, average cost per page view, average time on site, bounce rate, rate of return visitors, etc., followed by calculations of return on investment and cost to acquire a customer. With all these metrics being flaunted by the digital media and organizations like comScoreproviding measurement for cross platform audiences in digital media, why are the global advertisers complaining about the lack of measurement?

     

    Last year, when BARC announced their plan for measuring digital viewership and going beyond audience measurement of broadcast media, it also claimed that BARC will be the first to provide a TV+ Digital viewership measurement service across the globe. The press release issued data “BARC India to Solve the Digital Puzzle with its “EKAM” range of products” announces certain unique offerings in digital measurement. Ekam range of products needs to be studied in greater details through interactions with representatives of BARC to understand their full implications. We will have to wait for another 18-20 months for the reports to roll out before we can sample the results and proclaim it as “EkamevaAdvitiyam” of digital measurement.

     

    The irony is that better tools and techniques of measurement of digital media may not be able to improve on the ROI as the consumer becomes more and more elusive. In the digital age, we are getting bombarded by consumer-led demassification of media which is shrinking the value of the advertising budget. The return on media investment is bound to fall in future with proliferation of media types and vehicles in spite of best efforts through programmatic media planning and buying.

     

    Indrani Sen is an advertising and media services veteran and now an academic. The views expressed here are her own

     

  • it will not be surprising if we find that the size of digital advertising revenue equalises the print advertising revenue even before 2021, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: FICCI-KPMG Report 2017: Scripting the Digital Decade

    By Indrani Sen

     

    I must confess that I am disappointed with the title of the FICCI-KPMG 2017 Report on Media & Entertainment Industry – “Media for the masses: The promise unfolds”! Has not the media always been for the masses? What is this promise which will unfold particularly in 2017? After last three years’ reports with exciting titles which spoke volumes: 2014 “The-stage- is-set”, 2015 “#shootingforthestars” and 2016 “The Future: now streaming”; this year’s title sounds drab though it is politically correct.

     

    After going through the report, I felt that “Scripting the Digital Decade” could have been an alternative title from Advertising Industry’s view point as the predicted growth in advertising revenue shows Digital ad revenue equaling Print ad revenue in 2021. The total advertising revenue will grow at 15.3% CAGR over 2017-21 with digital advertising revenue growing at double the rate of 30.8% CAGR over 2017-21.

     

     

    Everyone is talking about the evolution of Free to Air TV channels post expansion of rural audience measurement by BARC and the impact of the 4G rollout as the highlights of 2016. It should be noted that as per KPMG India Analysis, TV advertising revenue for the first time touched the Print advertising revenue (201 INR Billion) in 2016 as shown in the table below.Further analysis shows that from 2011 to 2016, Print advertising revenue has increased by 61.9 INR Billion and a similar amount of 61.5 INR Billion has been added to Digital advertising revenue.  During the same period, TV advertising revenue has grown by 85.2 INR Billion to catch up with the Print advertising revenue.

     

     

    An analysis of the future projections show that in 2019 advertising revenue of radio industry will catch up with advertising revenue of the OOH industry and will have similar share of the Indian advertising pie by 2020.

     

     

    As per the FICCI KPMG M&E Industry Report 2017, the shape of the Indian advertising revenue pie will change completely during this decade. The rate at which digital advertising revenue has been growing and the digital industry is predicted to grow during 2017-2021, it will not be surprising if we find that the size of digital advertising revenue equalises the print advertising revenue even before 2021.

     

     

  • The recommendations of the Union Budget 2017-18 would help in reinstating the growth rate in the M&E industry, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Effects of Union Budget 2017-18 on M&E Industry

    By Indrani Sen

     

    The M&E Industry has welcomed the Union Budget 2017-18 presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February1, 2017 in spite of any specific reference to the industry. Industry stalwarts seem to be of the opinion that the general tone of the budget boosting the infrastructure and lifting rural income will help in the growth of the M&E industry. While Arun Jaitley did not highlight any direct plan for the M&E industry, he announced other indirect plans that could help the industry in positive way.

     

    The focus on digitisation announced by the FM allocating Rs10, 000 croresfor Bharat Net to boost the rural fibre optics network, seems to be the high point of this budget for the M&E industry.This plan, after implementation, promises to give digital access to over 150,000 gram panchayats. It will not only give a boost to the rural economy, but also result in acceleration of digital consumption of video content on various OTT platforms across India. This boost to the digital ecosystem is the beginning of the end of the urban-rural divide in terms of digital media reach in this vast country.

     

    While Indian broadcast media has welcomed the above move, Indian print media has remained conspicuously silent. Print needs to make plans for becoming a part of the upcoming digital India by moving along with the laying of the fiber optics network and adopting the gram panchayats as they become digitally literate. A constructive movement by regional dailies to make digital news hyperlocal may help also in monetizing the e-editions from the grass root level. After all, print can micro-control their footprint on the ground which is not possible for the broadcast media.

     

    The FM announced reforms in the financial sector such as the abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) so as to facilitate a new policy for foreign direct investment (FDI). This move has been welcomed by the M&E industry, who are expecting further liberalisation in FDI policy during the course of the fiscal year. Bollywood has welcomed this move particularly as it expects the abolition of FIPB will induce more foreign studios to invest in India which will create more job opportunities and also will bring more international cinema to the Indian audiences.

     

    The quick action teams proposed by the FM, to look into cybersecurity infractions has also been applauded by the M&E industry as an essential requirement for a smooth transition to a digitally enabled India. Bollywood has also welcomed this announcement hoping that such a watchdog would also help in countering film piracy which has been pestering the Indian film industry for decades.

     

    While presenting the Budget, Jaitley has announced that GST will be implemented as per schedule. Except the print industry, the rest of the M&E industry seems to have no major quarrel with the implementation of GST. The broadcast industry, currently paying double taxes on TV channels, expects a lot of uniformity in taxation. Again, the film industry is looking forward to the GST regime which is expected to regularize the Entertainment Tax across the sates. As a result, it is forecasted that the rates of movie tickets will go down to about 15-20 per cent in the states where currently the Entertainment tax is high.

     

    A few leaders of the M&E industry have expressed some disappointment about the 2017-18 Union Budget. ABP News Network COO Avinash Pandey was quoted by Indiantelevision.com”The Union Budget 2017 was disappointing as far as the expected incentive for the broadcast business is concerned. Service tax remains the same. Most importantly, there is no parity with the print sector. The ‘wow’ factor was missing (in the budget) as far as the business is concerned. Disposable income is going to increase, and hence the quantum of spending. Economy may revive after the implementation of the budget.” http://www.indiantelevision.com/specials/budget/budget-2017/media-and-entertainment-industry-hails-union-budget-2017-170202.

     

    A Mohan, President – Legal and Regulatory Affairs, ZEEL, was quoted by MxMIndiatalking on the need of infrastructure status for the broadcasting sector. The sector deserves to be treated as Infrastructure industry, thereby qualifying for benefit u/s 72A(1) of the Income Tax Act, he said.. The same article also quoted Girish Srivastava, Secretary General, IBF: “The Foundation is extremely hopeful that the Government would consider the suggestion for granting ‘infrastructure status’ to the broadcasting industry, along with permission to carry forward of losses in case of amalgamation or merger as that would have made the M&E sector a more viable engine of speedy growth.” http://www.mxmindia.com/2017/02/reactions-to-budget-2017-18/.

     

    The FM has promised that effects of demonetisation will not spill over to the next year. It is expected the economy will get remonetised with consumer spends bouncing back to normalcy helped by the personal tax reforms. It remains to be seen if the advertising industry forecasts for adspends in the current year echoes the same promises.  To sum up, it seems the recommendations of the Union Budget 2017-18 would help inreinstating the growth rate in the M&E industry.

     

  • To what extent the recommendation of the latest wage board would affect the bottomline of the large newspapers is debatable, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Are Indian Newspapers Ailing?

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Last week, on January 19, The Times of India carried an article by TOI Editorial Team on the edit page titled “Indian Newspaper Industry: Red ink splashed across the bottomline” blaming the implementation of the recommendations of the latest wage board and the damaging impact of the demonetisationfor accelerating the degrowth newspapers in India. The article also cautioned that if the effect of demonetisation continues and the flow of advertising to the newspapers declines further and if implementation of GST results in raising taxes, then 2017 will be the worst year in the recent history of Indian newspaper industry.

    Though the newspaper industry in the West has been declining for some time due to spread of internet and digitisation, it continued to be growing in the East, particularly in India and China. For some time though, the insiders in the Indian newspaper industry have been indicating that all is not well across the industry. This writer pointed out in this column on September 28, 2015 that a comparison of projected growth in the FICCI KPMG Report for the newspaper industry over the years has been showing a decline in the growth rate. We will not see the full effect of the gloom predicted by the TOI Editorial Team in FICCI-KPMG 2017 Report which will show the growth in 2016 over 2015. The story may be different in the next report, comparing 2017 and 2016.

    On December 10, 2016 the media and advertising industry was stunned by the news of ABP group’s plan to retrench journalists and non-journalists and downsize its workforce by as much as 40% based on the advice of an American Consultancy firm for improving its bottom line. ABP also decided to cut down the number of pages of its two dailies and close some of the supplements which were not running profitably. WouldABP Group be the only one taking such drastic measures or would other newspapers be joining them during the course of the year? Is the newspaper industry really ailing?

    The TOI article pointed out the anomaly between the DAVP and the market rate which effectively reduces the advertising revenue, the main source of earning for newspapers.  The editorial team mentioned the high exchange rate enjoyed by other currencies vis-a-vis rupee has a spiraling effect on the cost of imported newsprints which are required for the high-speed printing machines. They arguedin favour of the newspapers that in spite of such pressures, the newspapers have kept their cover prices low (one of the lowest in the world) keeping in mind affordability by the lowest common denominator among the current and the prospective readers.

    All the above issues have been existing in the newspaper industry for a long time, but the continuous loss of advertising revenue to TV and digital media have highlighted their importance. The solution lies in Indian newspapers promoting their online editions and monetising them. It has been one-and-a-half years since the annual World Press Trends Survey released on June 1, 2015 by WAN-IFRA claimed that global newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) revenue had crossed global newspaper advertising revenue in 2014 (http://www.wan-ifra.org/wpt.). This was discussed in the article “The Seismic Shift” in MediaSense dated February 1, 2016. With half the population of the country under 25 years and at the top-end reading news only online, the newspapers will become sick unless they keep up with the changing time.

    As far as the recommendations by the latest wage board is concerned, it is well-known in the industry thatlarge newspaper groups have been moving their employees from wage board stipulated pay scales to company pay scales through various means over the years. So, to what extent the recommendation of the latest wage board would affect the bottomline of the large newspapers is a debatable point. The medium and small newspapers who do not enjoy the muscle powers of the large newspapers are likely to be affected by the recommendation of the latest wage board.

    The TOI article concluded with two suggestions for the government, firstly to review wage board and to remove non-journalist staff from its ambit and secondly to ensure zero-rating of the newspapers under the GST regime as alternatively, the entire industry may turn sick in next few years. There should not be any debate on the need for a reasonable fiscal and labour policies for the Newspaper Industry. However, from the tone of the TOI article, it appears that there is an apprehension that newspapers may be taxed unfairly with the introduction of GST. In that case, the newspaper industry will have to engage in a legal battle with the Government. I would like to humbly remind the newspapers by converting hard copies to online subscriptions, they can also avoid part of the taxation burden.

     

    Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • The more we rely on our devices, more will be our need for new systems capable of handling greater bandwidth and reaching out to the consumers in every corner of the country, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Will low financial liquidity & limited digital connectivity lead to a Recession?

    By Indrani Sen

     

    After taking the great leap forward to cashless society and connected consumers, the question which our government is avoiding to address is how long it will take us to get our infra- structure right to connect the entire country digitally? Last Saturday, on December 17, 2016, our Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in Mumbai that the government intends to keep “a significant and substantial” part of the demonetised currency in digital form.

     

    There is a joke going around in social media asking tourists to be prepared to wash the utensils in remote wayside dhabas if there is no connectivity there for accepting plastic money! In the last six weeks, our government has been able to steer considerable section of the population to digital transactions by controlling their financial liquidity, but to hold back considerable amount of cash from the financial system may have other consequences.

     

    As a young media practitioner in the early eighties, I witnessed the period when Mrs Indira Gandhi’s government took steps to expand the television network in the country with the slogan “One transmitter a day”. The government made plans to import equipment and a debate went on for some weeks in print media if a developing country like India should introduce colour TV transmission when majority of Indians could not afford colour TV sets. The debate met with a sudden death when our government discovered that B&W transmission technology had become obsolete in developed countries and had no option but to introduce colour TV in India. For many years after we got colour TVs, finicky clients targeting for consumers in small towns and semi-urban areas viewed the colour TVCs produced by the ad agencies in B&W before giving approvals. The Indian Readership Survey went on reporting ownership of colour and B&W TVs for almost three decades after early eighties till digitisation of cable television became mandatory in India. The moral of the TV story could be: “Time will take its own course’.

     

    Unfortunately, the sheer willpower of the government cannot make it possible for Indians to somersault into the cashless and digitised world. Our media consumption habits and purchase behaviour in the marketplace cannot be changed overnight. Like B&W and colour TVs co-existed for quite some time till the price of colour TVs became affordable, cash transactions and cashless transactions should be allowed to operate parallelly till our government sorts out the issues related to digital connectivity and ensures every aspect of our life becomes closely connected across the length and breadth of our country. The more we rely on our devices, more will be our need for new systems capable of handling greater bandwidth and reaching out to the consumers in every corner of our country.

     

    The FICCI KPMG 2016 report while commenting that “given a primarily mobile-driven internet base, India has always been a mobile first ecosystem”, estimated 500 million unique mobile users in India against 944 mobile connections and 180 million smartphone users in 2915. In other words, almost 60% of our total population did not have a mobile subscription till 2015. Under the Digital India initiative, the government has projects for creating broadband high ways and filling in the gaps in connectivity across India costing crores of rupees with a time line of 2014-18. By the time the current issues are sorted out by the government and 4G is able to roll out uniformly, the fifth generation mobile network 5G, which is now in its early stages of development, may be knocking on our doors! At present, various developed countries are also musing over the issue of spectrum availability for 5G as radio frequencies for both 3G and 4G are overcrowded. In addition, India will have to invest substantially for adding more fibre cables into our fixed telecommunication networks and collaboration between public and private organisations.

     

    Squeezing the cash flow from the financial system will not solve any of the above issues related to digital connectivity; on the other hand it may seriously affect the recovery of demand and supply across different sectors of the economy which have already experienced a set back after demonetisation.  The combined effect of low financial liquidity and limited digital connectivity may set in a recessionary condition in the advertising and media industry.

     

    Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor in charge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • Consumer behaviour in the marketplace will determine how fast our media and advertising industry will recover after the current setback, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Connected Consumers after Demonetisation

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Will the Demonetisation accelerate marketing communications with connected consumers in our country? It has undoubtedly given a strong push to the growth of digitally-enabled consumers in India. We need to wait for couple of months till statistics from the telecom industry confirms if 4G followed by the Jio launch and the demonetisation has helped to increase the number of connected consumers in India. It will indeed be an achievement if our smartphone penetration crosses the inflection point of 30% by December 2016.

     

    The Fletcher School at Tufts University publishes a Digital Evolution Index which lists each country’s position to go cashless based on their digital readiness along with absolute costs of cash. In the mapping of the countries based on the index published earlier this year, India was shown in the box in the bottom right corner with a label “Most potential for unlocking value by prioritising investments in digital readiness.”  We have pole-vaulted using demonetisation as the flexible pole to cross the bar of digital connectivity and join the elite countries who have already progressed towards cashless economy.

     

     

    According to the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the Indian economy grew 7.3 % in 2014-15 against 6.9 % on 2013-14. In 2015-16, the economy was recovering, consumers were fast adopting digital platforms and digital advertising was enjoying a steady growth rate. In 2016, the media and advertising industry was looking forward to another profitable year, when suddenly the sword of demonetisation struck down not only the cash flow in the marketplace, but also the consumer demand and forced advertisers to slow down their production and reduce their advertising expenditure.

     

    The negative effect of the demonetisation on the media and advertising industry in the short term is evident now.In spite of thecurrent effect of shortage of money supply hitting the consumer demand, will webe able to sustain or accelerate thesmartphone penetration which is essential for our consumers’ journey towards the cashless economy? It will indeed be sad if the projected growth of our connected consumers also slows down due to the demonetisation.

     

    A cashless economy means loss of financial privacy through traceable online information on every transaction. While government departments and bank officials can trace the movement of money in the best interest of economy and public at large, corrupt individuals can easily track and abuse the system. Cybercrime is still in its nascent stage in India but abolition of black money and the parallel economy can unleash the pack of hounds called “hackers” on our connected consumers. Has our government taken sufficient measure about protecting the connected consumer by investing in cyber security measures before pushing for a cashless economy?

     

    Cash means security to Indians, particularly the housewives. It is interesting to note that most countries which are trying to achieve a cashless economy have decent public social security systems to take care of their citizens including poor, sick and elderly people. In comparison, we have a weak social security system and poor public health facilities in India. Even our sophisticated connected consumer in the upper-middle class may not feel absolutely secured without having some cash savings at home for medical emergency.

     

    At present, cash has been made so inconvenient that people are learning to live with less cash and spend even lesser. Even our connected consumers are spending less than average going by the reports from the e-commerce sector.  While the government is pushing for the digital adoption rate among the consumers, retailers, distributors and wholesalers, advertisers are not supporting the move by shifting adspends from traditional to digital advertising. The demonetization is surely creating more connected consumers but their behaviour in the marketplace will determine how fast our media and advertising industry will recover after the current setback.

     

    Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor incharge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.