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With
this move, all ads go back on air. Yesterday 80 per cent of
inventory had gone off air. One also has to keep in mind the
fact that the festive season is coming up. The IBF had been
mooting a surcharge to meet rising costs. It felt that channels
were underpriced.
Star
India COO Uday Shankar says that the festival season played
a big role in the decision. "Clients told us that this
was causing them great inconvenience. Therefore in the spirit
of the relationship we have with them we decided to make the
surcharge applicable at a later period when the current contracts
have expired."
"In
addition we will have net rates from 1 April, 2008. This means
that we will bill the advertisers for the entire amount. Then
the clients and agencies can work out the commission."
AAAI
president Madhukar Kamat says, "We welcome the rollback
of the surcharge. We are however still opposed to the idea
of a unilateral surcharge. There are other ways in which channels
can negotiate deals. You could have a periodic rate hike in
the contract.
"Price
discovery is a question of negotiation. For instance when
ESPN Star Sports increased their rates by a big margin for
the T20 Cup we accepted that they had the right to do so,"
he said.
Also
read:
Ads
go off air as b'caster-advertiser impasse continues
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