BestMediaInfo announces rate card for ratings stories

Zee News, battling for its survival, delaying salaries and defaulting payments to its vendors for quite some time, bought a DD Freedish slot at Rs 18.75 crore on Wednesday.

It was one of the two channels at the top fighting for the first DD Freedish slot. It apparently locked horns with Adani Group-owned NDTV India. Hence, the channel cannot hide behind the excuse of being forced to pay that much because that was the benchmark.

While the channel must be ready with a ‘business compulsion’ narrative to face its employees who have not been paid salaries on time and its vendors, it proved how desperate news channels are for ratings.

It is against this backdrop that BestMediaInfo.com on Thursday, incidentally a ratings day, took a bold strategic decision to announce the rate card for carrying any ratings-related press release issued by any channel.

How it works?

As TRPs help channels enter the media plans of the advertisers, the broadcasters go to any length to win the perception battle.

DD Freedish and landing pages are prominent means of distribution to gain numbers and many news channels survive on the ‘free’ audience.

The alleged meter tampering and toxic content are other means in this respect.

A few channels’ distribution expenses run into Rs 150-200 crore.

There is no denying that there are genuine players as well who are doing genuine content and reaching genuine audiences.

The next step is perception-building for which the b2b websites like BestMediaInfo.com are used in various ways. Advertising mailers are one of the prominent ways.

The major push is for a press release which does not talk about the means adopted to gain the numbers. This is impactful. Remains in the history. Helps in the SEO for the channel. Gets included in the sales presentation.

Wait. But this is a free service. After spending between Rs 150-200 crore just on distribution to build the perception, the channels do not have to spend a penny for the most impactful means towards the end of the perception-building exercise.

What next?

Starting February 22, 2024, for every press release, interview or any content that talks about ratings, BestMediaInfo.com has put a nominal cost of just Rs 1 lakh plus applicable taxes.

This rate card will also apply to content related to leadership claims on digital such as YouTube.

“Every business is cash-strapped, especially in the field of media. So are we! We see an opportunity here. If the channels can pay any amount to Prasar Bharati, why not us,” said Niraj Sharma, Founder-Director of BestMediaInfo.com.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com