With TV viewership continuing to mount in the last 12 weeks and seeing a 22% growth than pre-COVID viewing ABP Network is all set to increase its advertisement rates having continued to consistently receive tremendous viewership and reach across its network channels. With the festive season around the corner, ABP Network is looking to rake in more advertisement revenue with Bihar Elections in the pipeline which will further increase the viewership on news channels.
Advertising volumes in the unlock period have surpassed pre-COVID volumes by 12% with the bulk of increase in July with August following the trend as per BARC Nielsen. Advertisement volumes had tanked by around 30% during the lockdown coupled with a drop in advertising rates.
With inventory levels increasing by 34-46% for Top 50 advertiser inventory, advertisers and brands constantly increasing by over 30%, ABP Network is now looking to rake in some more moolah as advertisers loosen their purse.
ABP News had a reach over 36 crore viewers in the first quarter of FY 20-21 while its regional channels in Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi continuing to farewell. ABP Ganga is said to be among the top three channels in UP/UK. ABP Majha’s recently launched flagship property ‘Bappa Majha’ has also attracted advertisers.
Speaking about the upcoming increase in ad rates Mona Jain, Chief Revenue Officer, ABP Network said, “At ABP, we have achieved an unprecedented growth during the COVID-19 period, as we are constantly innovating & updating our content portfolio. ABP News saw a whopping 36 Crore viewers in the first quarter of FY 20-21, surpassing all popular GEC, Sports, Music, Kids, English movies, and Infotainment channels of India. [i] In the regional sphere, our Gujarati news channel, ABP Asmita’s reach was significantly higher than leading GEC & Movie channels in Gujarat, with the channel having a similar reach to Sony SAB. [ii] Even post-unlock, viewership continues to mount. In fact, the news-genre is almost at par with GECs in terms of audiences reached, while in terms of rate, news is only one-tenth of GECs in an average 4-week period.[iii]
With festive season on the horizon, the golden days of advertising await us. This year, as the festivities coincide with Bihar Elections – high viewership on news channels is guaranteed. Bearing this in mind, we will now be increasing our ad rates as our channels promise to provide advertisers with tremendous reach & unmatched brand building capabilities. Furthermore, with a revival in business as well as consumer sentiments post-unlock, marketers have a higher ad expenditure. Various brands are planning major activation in the coming months and we hope they will leverage this reach.”
[i] Source: BARC, TG-NCCS 2+, Mkt – All India, Cuml Reach in Cr, Q1 FY 20-21
[ii] Source: BARC, ABC 15+, Guj/D&D/DNH, 01 Apr 20 – 31 Jul 20
[iii] Source : BARC, ABC 15+, Wk 27 – Wk 30, 2020
