DAVP - a savior for regional channels!

The recently announced Ministry of Information & Broadscasting’s (MIB)’s new policy guidelines which stipulates that 40 per cent of the advertising budget of Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) be earmarked for regional channels is a welcome development. The implementation of the guidelines will prove to be a boon to small regional channels operating and catering to niche viewers.

 

Now as per the new directive, for channels to get advertisement they should be in operation for more than six months (minimum criteria). They can then be empanelled with the DAVP for advertisements. With an advertisements budget of around Rs 350-400 crores, DAVP rules the government advertising allocation segment, hence a 40 per cent of this estimated TV advertising budget around 140-160 crores are likely to flow to regional channels.

 

Says Janardhan Pandey, Associate Vice President, DDBMudra, “The MIB nod to allow government ads in regional channels will help these channels augment their revenue out of government advertising spend, which is quite significant.” The scene is quite bad for regional channels as more than 80 per cent of them are in the red. DAVP has announced a flat rate of Rs 23,000 per CPRP (cost per rating point) per 10 seconds, across all time-bands, all channels.

 

The guidelines emphasised on the 'bottom up' approach, which means regional channels should first be widely covered, followed by other mainstream channels. The manner in which a regional channel can apply to DAVP for empanelment has also been smoothened. The existing criterion of 0.02% all India channel share for empanelment with DAVP has also been done away with under the new guidelines. The policy also stipulates that there shall be a cap of 2% on allocation of annual advertisements budget for groups or companies owning one to three channels and 5% for groups or companies owning four or more channels. The policy stipulates that a channel once empanelled shall remain on the panel of DAVP for a period of three years.

 

Commenting on the development, Balakrishnan, CEO, Allied Media said, “ It will benefit both the media and the government as it is in line with the growing trend of brands targeting regional markets aggressively given the importance of the audiences in these markets .It is the regional media in these markets that are delivering effectively and with impact. Hence it makes huge sense for the government to use the regional media and DAVP rates would mean increased volumes for the regional media and better connect and visibility for the various developments and schemes initiated by the govt.”

 

Adds Pandey, “various government schemes will get the benefit of reaching to masses specifically viewing these regional - language specific channels, thus extending the reach of the communication.”

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Rate structures under the new DAVP guidelines:

No rate has been fixed for sponsored programmes. However, DAVP, for any specific requirement, will call for rates for a particular time band from the channels having similar TVRs in a given genre. The channel quoting the lowest CPRP may be offered the rate for telecasting the programme. A rate may only be offered provided DAVP receives quotes from a minimum of four channels. The rate so fixed by DAVP shall apply to DAVP as well as to all AAs.

 

For empanelment of agencies with DAVP, certain criterion will have to be met at the time of application. These include: a minimum telecast period of one year of commercial broadcast with at least 16 hours telecast per day, i.e., 7 AM to 11 PM; government permission to the company for up linking and down linking and sufficient evidence of such operation; a certificate by either EMMC or any other reputed agency that a channel is being continuously aired; the programme scheduling, i.e., Fixed Point Chart (FPC) for the previous 12 months from 7 AM to 11 PM during which the companies operated; a certificate from the teleport operator through which the channel uplinks its programmes regarding the average time of operation of the channel; certificate duly signed by the Auditor/Company Secretary for the prescribed revenue details; latest profit & loss account, balance sheet and actual tax payment including service tax for previous financial year; and the amount of advertisements revenue generated by the channel during the previous financial year.

 

The policy stipulates that all applications seeking empanelment will be placed before a panel advisory committee constituted for taking a final decision. The policy stipulates that a channel once empanelled will remain on the panel of DAVP for three years.