Neo ad rates may drop 30%: Media buyers

Media buyers are expecting a 25-30 per cent drop in the advertising rates of Neo Sports, which will now have to share the upcoming India-Sri Lanka series with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati. The idea of reaching terrestrial viewers through Doordarshan on big sporting occasions has also made advertisers and media buyers happy.

According to the ordinance issued by the government on Thursday, all private sports broadcasters will now have to share their signals live and without advertisements with Doordarshan.

"I feel Neo Sports 10-second ad rates will take a hit of at least 25-30 per cent with the mandatory sharing ordinance coming in. And definitely that money will be diverted on buying spots on Doordarshan," a senior media buyer said.

Neo Sports has the rights for the upcoming India-Sri Lanka four one day international match series starting February 8. Neo Sports was not available for comments.

For the recently concluded India-West Indies series, Neo Sports was charging Rs 2 lakh per 10 seconds. This will not be possible now as Doordarshan is expected to negotiate with small, medium and big advertisers in a range of Rs 30,000 to over Rs 1,00,000 for per-10 seconds advertising spots for the India-Sri Lanka series, sources said.

For the upcoming World Cup matches, which will be shown on SET Max and Doordarshan, there will not be any impact as ICC rules clearly specify sharing of matches by the private channel with the terrestrial broadcasters of the respective participant countries.

"While advertisers will continue to spend big money on ESPN, and Set Max, for DD there will be lot of spot buying by categories which otherwise could not have afforded to spend on ESPN or Set Max," a senior executive in an advertising agency told Business Standard.

However, because of mandatory sharing of all one day internationals held outside India, media buyers expect a dip of 15-20 per cent in the ad-rates on ESPN, Ten Sports or Zee Sports in comparison to the rates these channels were charging during the pre-mandatory sharing days.