The G-20 summit, the wars, and all the buzz around the state and general elections have perhaps brought the TV news genre some hope. The word in the industry is that even though the advertising revenue among TV news players was slow or saw no growth, channels were able to record profitable growth as compared to the previous years.

Mona Jain, CRO, Zee Media (ZMCL) said, “There has been reduced spending by some key categories like e-commerce, education and two-wheelers, who have otherwise always spent dominantly on the news genre. Automobiles were active but the spending there was a bit muted too. A lot of money got directed to sports, which has had a non-stop run from the IPL to the World Cup.”

Network18’s TV18 clocked in a revenue of Rs 357 crore in Q2 of FY24, as against Rs 298 crore in the same quarter last year. This gave them a 20 per cent YoY increase. Excluding government initiatives, advertising inventory for the news genre was down eight per cent, the Group said in a media release.

According to an industry expert, the muted ad inventory growth saw an increase in input costs for channels while the output costs (selling costs) were nearly the same due to tight competition. This negatively impacted the volume of sales, ultimately affecting ad revenues.

Additionally, the distribution costs have gone up. The overall market hasn’t been very hunky dory and hence the payment cycles are becoming slow. The clients do not want to pay all in one go, making it difficult for the business expenditures to keep running smoothly.

If the channels negotiate the prices higher, the ad inventory does not get fulfilled and the news channel makes scanty money. Additionally, the execution of all the inventory during elections or the festive season fairly gets tough, the expert said.

“The combination of all these factors has impacted the business. Moreover, TV news channels do not have very high rates like GECs and others. Even large and established businesses have got affected,” the expert added.

Karan Taurani of Elara Capital believes some channels are selling ad packages at very low prices and other market leaders are not willing to cut prices, which adversely impacts the ad inventory.

“However, with elections coming up strongly in March-May 2024, the situation may improve as advertisers will be willing to pay higher. The growth will be around two per cent in FY24 and three per cent in FY25,” he added.

As for Jain, “This year due to elections and a lot of other dynamics in politics, there has been a lot of content on the genre - which attracts viewers and hence advertisers. Linear and digital will give a platform to advertisers to engage with consumers in up-country markets and states along with the discerning audiences in the metros.”

The industry expert concluded that the players cannot do much unless the external market situation changes. News channel business together doesn't even cross Rs 2500 crore and is hardly capable of changing the wind’s course.

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