The landmark verdict of Supreme Court annulling 122 licenses of the erring telecom companies has proved to be dampener for the outdoor advertisers in the state.
“The telecom sector accounts for 40 to 50 per cent business of the out-of-door advertising agencies. Cancellation of licenses by the apex court has badly hit the outdoor advertisers and the business is down by 75 per cent in March this year compared to same period of the previous corresponding year,” said Niranjan Dash, Partner, Torrent Advertisers, a leading advertising agency in the state.
“On one side, we are paying the display charges to the civic bodies and on the other, our hoardings are going blank. As a result, we are unable to pay the site charges even as the profit has plunged drastically,” said another vendor requesting anonymity.
The decision of S Tel, a joint venture between Chennai-based Siva Group and Bahrain Telecom (Batelco), to close its Orissa operation has added to the woes of the advertisers.
“We are not sure whether S Tel will pay the advertising dues following its decision to close Orissa operation. The Chennai based telecom company owes about Rs 1.5 crore to the vendors in the state,” Dash rued.
Manish Agarwal, owner, Ajanta Advertisers said, it is too early to speak on the issue, but we fear, the clients may cancel the orders. He admitted that the business has been impacted by 50 per cent.
Unofficial sources say that Bhubaneswar municipality collects about Rs 8 crore per annum as display charges while railway and airport authorities get Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively from this business.
