News Broadcasting
AAAI, IBF reach agreement – no outstandings beyond 75 days
In what should be a major fillip to the way this business is organised, the joint working committee of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) has reached an agreement wherein all AAAI member agencies will henceforth have to clear outstanding dues to television channels within 75 days.
The agreement comes just over a year (24 February 2001) after the two principal bodies representing TV broadcasters and advertising agencies inked an agreement setting out the basis of the professional and commercial relationship between their respective member groups.
This basically laid out the ground rules for the agreement that was to become effective 1 April 2001, but appears to have been adhered to more in the breach than anything else. As per that agreement, AAAI members were to guarantee payments to channels within a certain credit period. Another aspect to the deal was that advertisers who moved business through AAAI members were to get preferential treatment in terms of rate and credit.
Queried as to how compliance could be assured, a senior channel executive said there was broad consensus among broadcasters for the need to make it work. The IBF will be holding regular review meetings to ascertain how far the deal was working and if agencies were lax in their payments they face being blacklisted, he said. One common defence of agencies in these matters has been that the delays are because advertisers have not paid up. “We will no more allow agencies to hide behind the argument that the client has not paid and therefore the delays,” he said.
The Hindu Business Line, quoting sources in the broadcasting industry, says revenues to the tune of over Rs 3000-5000 million are owed by various advertising agencies to television channels.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
