Week at a glance: SDC & festive ad spends; TRAI & NBP; Kalki’s dominance

Dear friends, 

The week saw the advertising industry continue to grapple with complying with the self-declaration certificate (SDC) mandate, even though the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s (MIB) new advisory has given some relief limiting the SDC mandate to food and health ads. With the crucial second half of the year coming up, where advertisers and ad agencies look to make good their revenue targets, Adgully spoke to some ad industry experts to find out what would be the impact on ad industry revenues, programmatic ads, festive season campaigns and more.

SDC & festive season ads: Stringent checks on Food & Health ads; caution in copywriting

Launched as a homegrown alternative to Twitter in early 2020 and recognized by the Government of India as India’s AatmaNirbhar App, microblogging platform Koo made a low key exit last week. But the reverberations will be felt for long, as there are several key lessons for social media platforms.

Koo’s shutdown is a cautionary tale for founders of social media platforms: Experts

This week, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) notified Amendments to the Regulatory framework for Broadcasting and Cable Services as well as released Recommendations on Listing of television channels in Electronic Programme Guide and Upgradation of DD Free Dish platform to an Addressable System.

One salient feature of TRAI’s amendments is the removal of ceilings of Rs 130 for 200 channels and Rs 160 on more than 200 channels on Network Capacity Fee (NCF), which is kept under forbearance to make it market driven as well as equitable. Service providers may now charge different NCF based on number of channels, different regions, different customer classes or any combination thereof.

TRAI removes tariff ceilings on TV channels on Network Capacity Fee

TRAI has notified several measures that will benefit the Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs). This is seen as giving a boost to the cable industry, which now have greater hopes of retaining their customers, who have been migrating to digital platforms. DPOs have now been permitted to offer discount up to 45% while forming their bouquets to enable flexibility for them in forming bouquets and to offer attractive deals to the consumers. Earlier this discount was permitted only up to 15%.

Will TRAI’s regulatory framework help DPOs retain their customers?

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) will be meeting various stakeholders of the broadcasting industry on July 19, 2024 to discuss the recommendations of TRAI for formulation of the National Broadcasting Policy – 2024. In its inputs released on June 20, 2024, TRAI recommended the Vision, Mission and Goals for the National Broadcasting Policy - 2024. However, broadcasters has voiced concerns about several key issues with the recommendations, which the industry is hoping the Ministry will address at the meeting.

MIB to discuss TRAI’s recommendations on NBP in meeting with stakeholders on July 19

On the entertainment side, sci-fi mythological futuristic film ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ has been breaking box office earnings records – breaching the Rs 900-crore mark, as per latest reports. This has brought much cheer in the cinema industry, as there is renewed optimism about the movies lined up for release in the second half of the year.

The after-effect of ‘Kalki 2898 AD’s massive success on new releases in H2 2024

Until next week...

Shanta Saikia

Editor

Adgully