As India braces up for the 2024 general elections, so do the regional news channels. With political debates, town hall discussions, election campaigns echoing through the airwaves, regional news channels are poised to capture the essence of India's democratic fervour as it gears up for the grand spectacle of the general elections.

Their focus on local issues, culture and events, along with timely updates and in-depth coverage has given them an upper hand in terms of advertisers too. According to a TAM AdEx report, 600-plus exclusive advertisers were on National (Hindi and English) and more than 5,400 were on Regional channels of the News genre. 

Additionally, where Regional channels had 75 per cent share of ad volumes, national channels had the remaining 25 per cent during 2023.

The strategy

Santosh Kumar, Senior Managing Editor of NDTV who majorly takes care of NDTV Rajasthan and NDTV MP/Chhattisgarh shared, “Generally, national channels are not able to focus specifically on any particular state during elections. They have a compulsion to cater to the entire country. We are not only doing intensive coverage on every seat but are also trying to reach every section of society in every village, every town, every city and are reaching out. Being in one or two states, it is possible to go to the micro level, reach out to people, raise their small issues, and ask questions to the candidates on those issues.”

Hence, regional news channels focus on news, events, and issues that directly impact the local audience. This makes the information more relevant and relatable to viewers.

Moreover, regional channels know how to deploy and utilise the resources whereas the national channels have to provide a holistic public opinion across states, says Rabindra Narayan, Managing Director and President, of PTC Network. “When you look for specific issues that concern people locally, you will have to go to regional channels. We are the voice of the region,” he said. 

Abhay Ojha, Chief Revenue Officer of Zee Media (ZMCL) opines mapping of candidates or their history is what people want to know more about. “Regional channels have more detailing, more knowledge and more detailed analysis about their state, which national channels lack due to their scale of coverage. For example, candidate details and coverage of a city like Dewas in Madhya Pradesh will never appear on a national channel but regional only.” 

Challenges

While regional news channels offer many advantages, they also face unique challenges that national news channels may not encounter. 

Narayan believes business challenges still exist, especially changing the mindset of ‘Regional versus National’ among people. When it is about coverage or campaigns, the debate remains the same and national media outlets get the preference.

“When budgets are allocated, parties sitting in Delhi have no clue what is happening in the region whereas being a regional channel, we know how much impact we hold,” he added.

During elections viewers tend to shift to national channels at times due to big national impact stories, Kumar of NDTV said. “This is the most challenging time and in such cases we cover these stories and try to look out for the local connect.”

Who are the advertisers?

The surge in advertisers has been different for all channels, depending upon various factors like the region they cater to, the reach and more. According to TAM AdEx, Lalithaa Jewellery Mart, Wipro, Ponds India, Attica Gold Company and Lakme Lever were the top five exclusive advertisers on regional news channels during 2023.

There has been a notable uptick in advertiser engagement for NDTV’s regional channels, surrounding the elections. Kumar shared, “We've experienced a surge of approximately 20-25 per cent in both client numbers and advertising volumes across our channels during this period.”

Consumer durables, mobile handsets, FMCG, building material and infrastructure sectors have been the trailblazers in advertising on our channel during this time period. And there are more on the horizon - we anticipate the inclusion of sectors such as automotive and BFSI in the near future.

But for PTC Network, there is no such major hike in advertisers, except just the political parties advertise more around this period. The top sectors who are advertising are immigration clients, service companies, and real estate brands.

Overall, election-wise, the advertiser hike is pretty decent as compared to last time but that is also because some have diverted their marketing budgets to IPL. Ojha said, “Regional channels get more retail clients rather than corporate since the latter are more divided among national news channels and IPL.”