Press still contributes the most to the media expenditure pie: Lintas Media Guide, 2005

Research carried out by Intellect, the research and technologies unit of Lintas Media Services, showed that total media expenditure in India in 2005 increased 15 per cent to Rs 15,941 crore from Rs 12,071 crore in 2004.

Among the several media platforms, print media got the lion’s share with 56.9 per cent of this media spend. While in 2004, the total media expenditure on print was Rs 6,402 crore, in 2005 it went up to Rs 7,309 crore – a growth of 14 per cent. However this doesn’t include the classified ads, which will add another Rs 1,755 crore to the print media’s kitty. Print dailies drove growth in this sector, the survey said.

Next in line was television, which got 34.7 per cent of the overall media expenditure pie in 2005. Compared to the previous year’s figures, television media experienced a growth of 20 per cent. The total spend on television increased from Rs 4,068 crore in 2004 to Rs 5,526 crore in 2005. This growth was contributed significantly by C&S channels, but what’s interesting is that even government-backed Doordarshan terrestrial channels clocked a growth figure healthier than earlier years. The sharing of cricket rights, along with the increasing need for advertisers to reach smaller towns, also fuelled growth in this sector.

It has also been predicted by FICCI that television’s share in the ad pie will go up to 51 per cent by 2010.

Radio, which is expected to grow faster this year in the new licence regime, experienced a growth of 25 per cent in 2005. Its share of ad revenue grew from Rs 300 crore in the previous year to Rs 375 crore. The survey says that radio has matured as a commercial advertising option, with a steady increase in the amount of ad spends as well as CPTs. An adequate listenership research can harness the full potential of the medium. However, radio still accounts for only 2.3 per cent of the total media spends in India, which is even less than outdoor.

Outdoor media, with 5.4 per cent of the total media expenditure, registered a growth of 25 per cent, its share increasing from Rs 686 crore in 2004 to Rs 855 crore in 2005. The survey says that 2005 was clearly the year of innovations with respect to outdoor advertising. Novel properties were created to reach out and attract consumers. However, lack of strong outdoor research is proving to be a barrier here.

The Lintas Media survey estimates that Internet or the online media got a share of 0.6 per cent in 2005. However, it has touched the Rs 100-crore mark in 2005, registering a growth of 35 per cent. In 2004, online media got only Rs 74 crore of the total media expenditure. As per the Internet Online Association of India, 2005 recorded 38.5 million users (till November) showing a 54 per cent increase from the previous year. There is a rise in consumers from class B and C cities, leading to regional language-based services.

One of the oldest media, cinema, managed a total advertising revenue of Rs 22 crore, growing 22 per cent from Rs 18 crore of revenue in the previous year.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!