News Broadcasting
CAS may bring inventory pressure on FTA channels – TAM
MUMBAI: Conditional access could bring in inventory pressures for free to air channels if demand for their air-time explodes. This is the conclusion drawn by TAM in one of its recent surveys on the post CAS scenario.
Post CAS, says the study, viewership patterns are expected to start changing. Consequently, some of the 3000-odd brands currently advertising on television, and depending heavily on the four metros CAS will roll out in, will start changing their media plans.
Since some FTA channels are already running chockablock inventory levels, with a few having six to eight hours per day dedicated to breaks, a few shake ups are likely to ensue, says TAM. If in a post CAS scenario, advertisers try to buy more, these are a few expected results –
1. Some FTA channels might start bumping off spots. Hence schedule control will become key.
2. Another hypothesis is that they just might start increasing prices to control rising demands.
3. Another speculation is that demand may outstrip supply forcing the FTAs to turn down advertising.
All these results, says the TAM study, will depend on whether viewership patterns change after CAS, on whether the progression of CAS gets all the pay channels back in the reckoning (which depends on the price of the Set-Top Box) and on the significance of the four metros to the 3000-odd brands advertising on TV.
Analysing viewership trends between current FTA and pay channels, the study found that
Assuming that viewership occurs in a particular pattern, the study points out that viewership patterns govern advertisers in their media plan creation as they are chasing viewers. Consequently, the visibility (or GRPs) is really the demand which translates into a supply of inventory for the 3000 odd brands which TAM found had advertised on television in the month of May 2003.
This demand every month has been found to be between 60,000 to 70,000 Normalised GRPs, says TAM.
On an average, 200 minutes of Break Inventory, (the sum total of all time consumed between ad breaks – could have advertising besides the channel’s own promos, film trailers, social messages) got consumed per day during the last quarter of 2002, says TAM.
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.
