Indian
Media Observer
An
independent overview and commentary on the Indian
media opportunity |
Issue 2, dated June 1, 2004
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New
Government: No reversal expected in policies for foreign equity
in print:
The new coalition government that took office in India on
May 22-24, 2004, has already built suspense on the direction
the economic reforms will take in the country. However, the
common minimum programme of governance drafted by all the
parties of the ruling coalition stays away from reversing
of any major decision taken by the previous government.
More… |
Tobacco
advertising ban from May 1:
One
of the last key decisions taken by the outgoing government
headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party was a complete ban on
advertising of tobacco products from May 1. More… |
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Law
suit - publication comes under fire:
It is not unusual for publications to remain scare-free of
law suits. With lax Indian laws, long judicial processes and
simple apology-driven out-of-court settlements, Indian publishers
have not felt the heat. More… |
Top
advertising categories in newspapers and magazines, in Q1,
2004:
As per an analysis by AdEx India, the top 10 advertising categories
in newspapers were corporate/brand image (12.6 %), 2-wheelers
(4.6 %), cars/SUVs (4.5 %), educational institutions (4.5
%), real estate (4 %), mobile phone services (2.7 %), insurance
(2.7 %), events (2.6 %), social advertisements (2.6 %) and
travel&tourism (2 %).
More… |
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|
| New
Government: No reversal expected in policies for foreign equity
in print:
The
new coalition government that took office in India on May
22-24, 2004, has already built suspense on the direction the
economic reforms will take in the country. However, the common
minimum programme of governance drafted by all the parties
of the ruling coalition stays away from reversing of any major
decision taken by the previous government.
The confirmed and radical reformist, Dr Manmohan Singh - the
country's prime minister, is heading the government. It has
representatives from several left-of-center parties, and depends
on communist parties for critical support. The latter will
surely exert pulls and pressures on the government.
Particularly critical for the media is the information and
broadcasting ministry, which will now be lead by Congress
party leader S. Jaipal Reddy, who has socialist leanings.
The left parties were critical of the previous government
when it liberalised laws pertaining to foreign investment
in Indian print media companies almost two years ago. There
surely are doubts as to how the new government and the new
I&B minister will deal with this controversial issue.
Nobody expects the new government to reverse the earlier government's
decisions. The serious threat is, of course, of the new government
delaying decisions on new foreign investment proposals that
may come before it for approval.
In the first days of assuming office, several ministers have
started making announcements on their plans and programmes,
except for the I&B minister.
Outside the I&B ministry, the key government positions
of prime minister and finance minister are currently held
by Dr Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram respectively. These
are two men who, as finance ministers, initiated and propelled
economic reforms in the country in 1991 and 1997 respectively.
Both of these men are more of technocrats, than politicians,
and enjoy high credibility in business and political circles.
Just the presence of these two men at key positions has now
given a sigh of relief to the stock markets. The sensitive
index of the Mumbai stock exchange had earlier seen a severe
fall of over 12 per cent in the wake of some left parties
making public announcements of rolling back reforms. With
Mr Singh and Mr Chidambaram holding the key portfolios now,
stocks markets have started moving in the positive direction.
|
Tobacco
advertising ban from May 1:
One of the last key decisions taken by the outgoing government
headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party was a complete ban on
advertising of tobacco products from May 1.
Ban on tobacco advertising is the latest among several such
bans on advertising of liquor products, a majority of products
of pharmaceutical companies as well as services by doctors,
lawyers and certified public accountants.
The new Tobacco Control Legislation even bans sponsorships
and surrogate advertising, covering all non-tobacco products
too, which share their brand name with those of tobacco products.
This decision will dent revenues of print and outdoor media
companies, as these were largely used by cigarette manufacturing
companies.
The typical Indian product of pan masalas (a mixture of beetle-nut
pieces and other ingredients) is also heavily advertised,
particularly on television. The ban will cover tobacco versions
of such pan masalas, but the same brands' non-tobacco versions
will continue to be freely advertised.
The monthly ad spend on all media vehicles for cigarette brands
was estimated at around Rs 20 crore (about USD 4.4 million
or GBP 2.4 million) in April. With even surrogate advertising
and sponsorships also being banned, this amount will have
no visible route to reach media companies.
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Publications
for Indian audiences outside India:
Indian media companies are looking at
serving the needs of Indian readers settled outside India,
particularly in the USA, Canada and the UK.
One of the major players in the non-English print media segment,
Bhaskar Group, is now launching the US edition of its Gujarati
language daily Divya Bhaskar, which became a runaway success
in the western state of Gujarat in India, within just a few
months of its launch. The US edition will be initially launched
with a weekly frequency.
Divya Bhaskar has already severely dented the circulation
of two other prominent Gujarati dailies, Gujarat Samachar
and Sandesh, and will now take on the same competition in
the US. Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh have had US editions
for several years now.
Another
launch in the offing is that of a lifestyle magazine by
Indian television / broadcasting company Zee. Zee TV has
a huge Asian audience in the UK markets.
It
has been reported that this new publishing outfit from Zee
TV network will be focusing on the custom (customer) publishing
markets in the UK and the USA.
The quarterly lifestyle publication will focus on finance
and property, fashion and beauty products, cinema and television,
travel and leisure.
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Print
media companies want their own TV news channels:
Except for "Aaj Tak", a Hindi
TV news channel from a print media company, almost all of
the other news channels belong to the prominent television
/ cable companies in India.
Though
news channels from print media companies like the Hindustan
Times and Business India have failed in the past, the success
of Aaj Tak continuous to prompt other print media companies
to launch their own news channels.
This
is despite the fact that a total of 10 news channels already
exist to serve the two biggest target audiences - Hindi
and English viewers.
The
latest to join the bandwagon are India's controversially
biggest print media company Bennett Coleman and Co., which
publishes India's largest English daily The Times of India
and the Vaarttha publishing group from the South. Vaartha
is a household name in the Telugu-speaking state of Andhra
Pradesh.
For
the Times of India, the 'business news channel' will form
a bouquet of 3 channel offerings, with the other two focused
to entertainment and religion.
In
the business news channel category, the established player
is CNBC-TV18, which after several years of existence, is
now showing some signs of acceptance by advertisers.
Though
the Times of India group has every national advertiser coming
to its publications, its attempts to venture into television
programming were aborted a few years ago.
For
Vaarttha, the plans are even more ambitious. This group
is planning its television foray with a telugu news channel,
to be followed by news channels in various Indian regional
languages.
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Print
companies launch more editions:
Though English readership in the country is growing continuously,
publishers in other Indian languages continue to explore newer
markets.
Hindi
daily Dainik Jagran, which boasts of the largest readership
base of 15.7 million - the highest among all dailies - has
now launched its Nainital edition, which is one more in
the predominantly Hindi-speaking northern region.
This
new edition will be published from Nainital, a city which
is close to Uttaranchal state capital Dehradun, where Dainik
Jagran already has one edition.
Dainik
Jagran's launch of a special edition for Nainital will be
almost simultaneous with the launch of a similar local launch
by another Hindi daily Amar Ujala.
Both
publications will fight for an estimated total circulation
figure of 150,000 in the region.
Elsewhere,
northern India's major English print media company Hindustan
Times launched Hindustan Times Next, specially focused on
the youth.
Published
from the nation's capital, New Delhi, HT Next has been priced
at Rs 1.50 per copy and expected to reach a circulation
of 40,000 copies shortly.
|
Law
suit - publication comes under fire:
It is not unusual for publications to remain scare-free of
law suits. With lax Indian laws, long judicial processes and
simple apology-driven out-of-court settlements, Indian publishers
have not felt the heat.
In
the wake of one recent court judgement indicting a newspaper
editor of falsehood in an unrelated case, India's leading
company ITC and its chairman Yogesh Deveshwar has now taken
Calcutta-based Anand Bazar Patrika and its publishers to
court for alleged defamation, and seeking claims of Rs 550
crore (US 122 million).
Like
all the previous defamation cases by different individuals/companies
against publications, even this may end up in a simple apology
by the publication or some other out-of-court settlement.
Publishers
in India have largely saved themselves from any serious
punitive action / judgement from the judiciary.
This
may not change soon.
|
Top
advertising categories in newspapers and magazines, in Q1,
2004:
As per an analysis by AdEx India, the top 10 advertising categories
in newspapers were corporate/brand image (12.6 %), 2-wheelers
(4.6 %), cars/SUVs (4.5 %), educational institutions (4.5
%), real estate (4 %), mobile phone services (2.7 %), insurance
(2.7 %), events (2.6 %), social advertisements (2.6 %) and
travel&tourism (2 %).
The top 10 advertising categories in magazines for the same
period were corporate/brand image (7.4 %), publications/books
(4.3 %), cars/SUVs (3.6 %), surrogate ads of liquor (2.4 %),
cellular phones (2.3 %), travel&tourism (2.3 %), insurance
(2.2 %), garments (2.1 %), jewellery (2 %) and airlines (1.8
%).
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| The
newsletter - Indian Media Observer - is produced by Chronosphere’s
CEO Bhupesh Trivedi personally. Chronosphere is based at B205,
Nirman Palace, Pump House, Andheri (East), Mumbai – 400093,
INDIA. |
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