Doordarshan Woos Advertisers With Incentives

The countrys state-run television Doordarshan (DD) is getting market savvy. The national broadcaster recently invited advertisers to take advantage of incentive schemes whereby advertisement agencies will get free bonus spots on DD channels if they commit a certain amount of business to Doordarshan.

The two schemes one for advertisers who have conducted business upto Rs 5 crore and the other for those who have conducted business of Rs 5 crore and above will be valid for two years and will be implemented with retrospective effect from April, 1997.

The incentive schemes have been devised so as to attract more revenue and also give competition to the satellite channels who are known to woo advertisers more aggressively, a senior DD official told Business Standard yesterday.

According to the DD circular, all those advertisers who have done business with Doordarshan of Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore during the last financial year (1996-97) will be eligible. For example, if such clients commit in 1997-98 a minimum increase of 25 to 50 per cent in ad spend over 1996-97, they will get 2.50 per cent free bonus spots in category B programmes on DD-1 (national network), DD-2, DD-3 and other regional language satellite channels.

Similarly, according to the DD circular, all those advertisers who have done business with Doordarshan of Rs 5 crore or more during the last financial year, and, commit this year a minimum increase of 15 per cent or more in ad spend will also be eligible for free bonus spots.

In the Rs 5 crore and above category, DD has classified ad spends in the range of Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore, Rs 11-20 crore, Rs 21-50 crore, Rs 51-100 crore, Rs 101-150 crore, Rs 150 and above.

For the year 1998-99, to be eligible (in the Rs 5 crore and above category) advertisers will have to again commit a minimum increase of 15 per cent or more on the ad spend of 1997-98, the circular states.

The utilisation of bonus advertisement spots will be on quarterly basis. Clients will also have to submit a quarterly ad spend statement by the 20th of the next month of each quarter, including that on sponsored programmes.

Each advertisement agency willing to avail of the incentive schemes will have to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Doordarshan.