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Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra today hinted that
the group is not immediately interested in starting a direct-to-home
(DTH) TV service.
"DTH is not as big (a technology) as has been made out in
India," Chandra told indiantelevision.com on Thursday. "The
target market for DTH would be 4-5 million homes under the
present economic circumstances," Chandra said pointing out
that no matter how much marketing a DTH company does the
final target would be what he said.
However, it is interesting to note that Chandra's company
was the first to announce its intention to start a DTH service
in India, along with Sterling group's C. Sivasankaran, when
the government had announced the policy guidelines for KU-band
DTH services over 18 months back. What is also interesting
is that Zee TV's former partner Star India has been extremely
buoyant about launching a DTH service and its chairman James
Murdoch has been very vocal in his opposition to CAS and
Indian cable operators.
Speaking on revival of the economy and its reflection on
the ad spend on TV, Chandra felt that advertising revenues
have "started looking up." "With new sectors like insurance
opening in India and comparatively smaller advertisers (like
those selling slippers (footwear), snacks and locally-made
undergarments) starting to advertise on TV, ad revenues
certainly have been on the upswing in recent times," he
said.
As an example to his theory, Chandra cited the example of
Zee TV's advertising pattern during early days. "In 1992,
when we started, Hindustan Lever accounted for between 40-45
per cent of the total ad revenue of the channel," he pointed
out, adding, "The financial year that we closed on March
31, 2002, HLL's share has come down to 5-6 per cent. This
does not mean that Zee's ad revenues have come down. It
only means that others too have made inroads."
Asked what sort of appreciation in ad revenues does he forecasts
for Zee Telefilms in the future, Chandra said, "During the
current financial year we expect ad revenues to go up between
10-15 per cent."
Pointing out that TV is slowly attracting ads which otherwise
would have gone to other avenues, Chandra said that today
TV attracts about 35 per cent of ads from the total ad pie.
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