Indiantelevision.com Team

(30 October 2007 3:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) is going to re-issue an advisory on broadcasters raising a surcharge on advertisers within a month but this will be done in consultation with the latter, sources said.

IBF is going to convene a meeting just after the festive season ending Diwali (9 November) to raise the issue once again. But, perhaps, the surcharge could be lower than the 25 per cent broadcasters were earlier asking for.

Asked why the IBF had suddenly gone on a back foot and withdrawn the decision to go for a 25 per cent surcharge, broadcaster sources said that many of their fellow organisations, especially those in the southern parts of the country, had running contracts with multinationals that could be abrogated only as a breach of contract.

Also, advertisers had said that even if the broadcasters wanted to levy the surcharge, they ought to wait till the end of the current festive season. Advertisers had already made their media and general spending plans much ahead.

The broadcasters had earlier decided to levy a 25 per cent surcharge on advertisements and taken a "pay or go" stance acting on an advisory from IBF, causing a storm in the industry, with allegations of cartelisation being raised against them by advertising agencies.

The broadcasters had said that over the past few years, the cost of running a channel had gone up. At the same time, the advertisers were getting a much higher mileage as there had been manifold multiplication in the number of homes reached through TV sets with cable, satellite and now DTH penetrating deeper.

However, the advertisers were shaken and an impasse had come about. IBF withdrew the advisory, partly on the request of some specific channels, partly on the pressure from advertisers.

IBF feels that there is a larger role to play in organising the industry. Hence, it is going to act soon after the season to re-issue the surcharge advisory.