The year 2005 rocked! It was a year that witnessed the biggest growth in advertising spends in the last four years. AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research, estimates the total advertising revenues across TV, print, radio, out of home (OOH), cinema and internet at Rs 13,200 crore. A whopping 14.1% growth over 2004.
Of course, TV and print had their own story to tell. While TV grew by 11.4 % over 2004, print garnered a growth of 16.1%. Interestingly, these two clocked growths of 13% and 14.7% over 2003–largely due to elections and cricket.
But the real stars of 2005 are radio and the internet. The growth has been amazingly high. Though at a small base yet, the leap in adspends on the net as a medium is 78.3% while in radio, it is an amazing 44.5%. Interestingly, till 2004, radio was growing at an annual rate of 18-22%.
Many media planners consider radio as a small and inconsequential medium when planning for their clients/advertisers. They rely more on conventional medium (press and TV). It is interesting to note how conventional media depends on radio to reach the audience. Look at the chart on Top 10 categories across media. Independent retailers, TV channels and real estate have been some of the major catalysts for ad spend growth on radio.
The story remains incomplete if one doesn’t mention a recent entrant–educational institutes–in print. This category remained the highest spender in print for the second year in a row. In 2004, this category spent close to Rs 209 crore on print. This rose to Rs 400 crore during the January-November 2005 period, representing a huge 91% jump.
Now the highlights in TV:
- We have 280-plus channels today and the number is rising. Another indication that India is one of the most fragmented markets in the world;
- The country has 34 news channels and is still counting;
- Year 2005 has been the year of reality with Indian Idol, KBC-2, Fame Gurukul, Nach Baliye, Laughter Challenge, Mission 1 Crore, Kam Ya Zyada, Speedster 2000 etc hitting the airwaves;
- Business news and non-English business news channels arrived in big way;
- Crime shows have evolved into a separate band for news channels.
- There has been regionalisation of the kids space with major players focusing on the southern markets;
- Sports icons like Sania Mirza and Narain Karthikeyan have enhanced viewership for niche sports.
- Thanks to recent Bollywood releases moving on the television quickly, the local cable channel share has been reducing over years.
