Ratings, pricing & acquisition: TV industry’s key happenings this year

The year 2022 was crucial for the broadcasting industry as it witnessed several key developments –from the resumption of news TV ratings to the awarding of IPL media rights. The implementation of NTO 2.0 and the debates over the landing page issue also kept industry leaders busy. However, the news that rocked the industry towards the fag end of the year was the acquisition of NDTV by the Adani Group.

We look at some key developments and how they influenced or altered the broadcast industry this year.

Resumption of News TV ratings

News channels breathed a sigh of relief when the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India resumed the publishing of TV news ratings after 18 months, in March this year. The data was released as per the Augmented Data Reporting Standards for News and Special Interest genres.

The Augmented Standards entailed the reporting of audience estimates for News and Special Interest genre channels on a 4-week rolling average basis. Although stakeholders in the industry welcomed the decision, others remained sceptical about BARC ratings. NDTV pulled out from the television ratings body, followed by Zee Media and iTV Network.

And the fight for being the No.1 news TV channel continues.

Landing Page Debate

Another point of contention in the television news industry has been the use of landing pages, which is the default channel that appears when a viewer turns on the set-top box. The debate has been over its susceptibility of being used to influence viewership.

Although there is no legal prohibition against using landing pages for marketing or promotional purposes, the debate over the ethics of using landing pages as a means of distribution tactics to gain more viewership continues.

Adani acquires NDTV

Adani acquiring NDTV has been one of the biggest news of 2022 for the broadcast industry. On August 23, 2022, AMG Media Networks Limited (AMNL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, announced that it was indirectly acquiring 29.18% stake in NDTV, and launched an Open Offer to acquire an additional 26% from the company's shareholders.

Post the announcement, NDTV saw a lot of upheaval with some key exits at the senior management level, including the resignation of Ravish Kumar. In the latest development, NDTV Founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy have divested most of their shares in NDTV to Gautam Adani's AMG Media Network. Following the Open Offer, AMG Media Network is now the single-largest shareholder in NDTV.

TRAI-NTO 2.0

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued an amended new tariff order (NTO) in November 2022. TRAI has returned to the maximum retail price (MRP) cap of Rs 19 for a channel to become a part of the bouquet in the amended tariff order and regulation while replacing the twin conditions with a new clause that caps bouquet pricing at 45% of the sum of a la carte rates of all channels in a bouquet.

While broadcasters applauded the regulator for their collaborative efforts, MSOs and LCOs expressed concern about losing customers to DD Free Dish and OTT platforms.

Broadcasters publish new pricing

Following the amendment of the New Tariff Order (NTO) by TRAI, broadcasters like ZEEL, Sun TV, Discovery Communication India, Disney Star India, Viacom18 and Culver Max Entertainment revised their pricing and filed their RIOs on December 16. The new pricing will be effective February 1, 2023.

In the revised pricing, broadcasters have increased pricing by 10-15% for some bouquets and also announced launches of new channels, which were earlier deferred in 2021.

IPL Media Rights

The year 2022 also saw the largest-ever Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights auction. In a landmark bidding process held earlier this year, Disney Star paid Rs 23,575 crore ($3.02 billion) for the rights to broadcast men's IPL in the Indian subcontinent for 2023-27, while Viacom18 paid Rs 20,500 Cr ($2.57 billion) for the league's digital rights.

With $12 million per match, IPL is now the world's second most lucrative sports league, trailing only the NFL.

Announcement of Women IPL

Following the success of the men’s IPL media rights issue, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the release of 'Invitation to Tender for Media Rights to the Women’s Indian Premier League Seasons 2023-2027’. The IPL Governing Council has invited bids to acquire the media eights for Women’s IPL through a tender process.

The Invitation to Tender (ITT) will be available for purchase till December 31, 2022, a communication by Jay Shah, Honorary Secretary, BCCI, said.

As earlier reported by exchange4media, BCCI is expected to make Rs 200 crore from Women's IPL media rights.

DD Free Dish Exits

Prasar Bharati raked in Rs 645 crore from the allotment of 59 MPEG-2 slots on its free direct-to-home (DTH) platform DD Free Dish in the 58th annual e-auction. In the previous e-auction, the pubcaster had raked in Rs 731.34 crore from the sale of 57 MPEG-2 slots of DD Free Dish.

The 12% decline in revenue was due to the exit of key channels like Star Utsav, Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, Colors Rishtey, Star Utsav Movies, and Sony Wah, and the drop in overall collection from the news genre, sources added.

The four big broadcasters - Star, Zee, Sony and Viacom18 - have decided to take off their popular entertainment channels from DD Free Dish as the platform is hurting the growth of pay DTH platforms.

Airing content of national importance

According to Clause 35 of the guidelines, the Union Cabinet has approved "Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Television Channels in 2022," making it mandatory for Indian TV channels to air content of public interest for 30 minutes every day.  This led to news channels informing MIB that they were already airing enough public service content throughout the year and hence the “30-min per day public-service content” obligation introduced by the ministry last month would be a burden on them at a time when the news broadcast industry was facing many challenges.

MIB has now asked private TV channels to submit details of ‘public service’ programmes aired in ‘national interest’ in the month of November as proof of their claims.