TV advertising volumes in India reached a five-year high in the week to October 30, according to the latest data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council India.

But while that is good news for India’s broadcasters and advertisers, especially as restrictions begin to ease in parts of the country, separate data has revealed that news channels have had to survive these past few months on revenues from large corporate advertisers, as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) froze their budgets.

As reported by Pitch, TAM data has shown that local and regional brands stopped most of their TV adspend during lockdown, causing a 70%-80% reduction in advertising revenue from the sector.

And whereas ad volumes from national consumer categories increased by 29% on news channels between August and October compared to the same period last year, ad volumes from regional categories fell by 5%.

“The MSME category has reduced its advertising budgets by over 60% on the back of COVID-19, with key categories like FMCG, education, BFSI, real estate, retail, etc, being selective with their spends,” said Gaurav Dhawan, EVP of revenue at Times Network.

However, there appears to be a more positive outlook for the overall TV advertising industry because BARC reported that 38.7 million seconds of advertising were broadcast in the week to October 30.

This represented 2.1% growth from the previous week’s figure of 37.9 million seconds and was the highest volume recorded since 2015, Business Standard reported.

BARC attributed the welcome increase to brands and advertisers seeking to raise their profiles during the festive season, as well as to the Indian Premier League and other big-ticket attractions like the Kaun Banega Crorepati game show.

And in further good news, the industry body said it expected the trend of high advertising volumes to continue as more of the country lifts restrictions and more businesses reopen.

Sourced from Pitch, Business Standard