News channels' ad rates touch an all-time high this general election

New Delhi: With a couple of weeks left for the first vote to be cast on April 19, top news channels claimed that their inventories are almost filled except those they want to sell at a high premium such as polling days, exit polls, counting day and government formation.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are being held in seven phases spread over 48 days offering a nearly two-month-long window for advertisers who do not wish to splash money on the ongoing season of IPL.

BestMediaInfo.com had last week reported that many non-news advertisers are seeking news-only plans from their agencies.

It is for this reason that we are experiencing an influx of bookings from advertisers across categories, a chief revenue officer at one of the top news channels told BestMediaInfo.com.

According to multiple advertisers and their media agencies, the cost of various sponsorships of election programming across top news channels is in the range of Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 5 crore.

Also read: General elections give news genre another opportunity to resurrect itself: Top advertisers

“If we look at the costs at a network level, the quotes go up to Rs 15 crore,” said an advertiser.

BestMediaInfo.com is deliberately holding quotations from individual channels and networks as they are not comparable due to the uniqueness of packages being offered by each of them.

The advertisers looking at picking slots and other advertising options such as L-bands on polling days, exit polls, counting day and government formation are stunned at the premium quoted by the news channels.

Also read: IPL or LS polls? Top 10 arguments by advertisers “for” and “against” news

A media agency head told BestMediaInfo.com that the asking rates for L-bands on TV on counting days are crazy and unheard of.

“Asking rates for the counting day are not just premium over the 2019 general elections. It has grown manifold. During the peak counting hours from 8 am to 2 pm, the cost of an L-band is being quoted between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. If you take three L-bands on the top news channel, it would be almost similar to a 10-second advertising cost on IPL. But then, you cannot help as our clients see value in being present on the news genre on important days including government formation,” the agency head said.

Expressing concern over the high rates, one of the advertisers BestMediaInfo.com spoke to said that IPL’s acquisition and production costs are high and it offers an exclusive audience.

Also read: IPL’s loss is the news genre’s gain in this general election, say top advertisers

“On the other hand, investment in news content is very low in comparison to IPL. Also, the viewership on news channels is fragmented. If I want to make an impact, I will have to buy a mix of inventories on at least the top three news channels,” the advertiser said.

When asked why a few advertisers are in disbelief over the rates on a day when the reach and stickiness on the news channels will be higher than any IPL match, the media agency head quoted above said that as planners, we see the audience in both qualitative and quantitative ways.

“Investment in content creation is something that broadcasters swear by in order to justify their rates. As a planner, my job is to reach out to the TG my client is looking at. Our job is to break the rates as much as possible for our clients but that will solely depend on demand-supply,” the agency head added.