Gujarat polls brought moolah for TV channels: Report

New Delhi, Jan 17 (UNI) If the recently concluded Gujarat assembly elections resulted in spectacular political fortunes for Chief Minister Narendra Modi, these also brought a windfall for a plethora of TV channels in the form of ad revenues -- Rs 20.6 billion, to be precise, reveals a study.

The study, based on the campaigning period of October 16-November 16, 2007 of the Gujarat polls on television, points out that TV channels scrambled with each other by showing as many as 6063 clips having a total duration of 18,03,783 seconds (20 full days).

The total ad value was pegged at Rs. 2,06,19,09,600 (Rs. 20.6 billion), says the study conducted by Esha Broadcast Monitoring Private Limited.

Leading the channels was NDTV India which showed clips having a duration of 2,18,673 seconds and earning Rs 393,611,400 in the process.

NDTV was followed by Sahara Samay (2,15,342 seconds and Rs 269,177,500), ETV Gujarati (1,90,411 seconds and Rs 190,411,000) and Live India (130749 seconds and Rs 65,374,500).

Esha Broadcast said it compiled the Television Monitoring Intelligence Report (TMIR) on the Gujarat elections after 24x7 tracking and monitoring of the poll coverage on 110 channels.

The monitoring focused on the distribution of airtime for candidates and analysis of airtime taken up for broadcasting political messages.

It also conducted the reach of the two prominent political parties in the Gujarat elections - BJP and Congress -- by monitoring television channels.

The research included parameters such as the campaign by the leaders and the prominent issues that were raised.

The report took into account broad issues like the Gujarat polls, share of voice of the BJP and the Congress, coverage of personalities like Narendra Modi, L K Advani, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her MP-son Rahul Gandhi and Dinshaw Patel, the Congress candidate who was pitted against Mr Modi.

The issue of Mohammad Afzal, the death row convict in the Parliament attack case, was among the hot topics that came up for discussions on TV channels.

The parameters used for monitoring were prime time vs. non-prime time coverage on 110 television channels and date-wise reporting of coverage.

Prime time for business channels is from 1000 hrs to 1600 hrs and from 1900 hrs to 2300 hrs while for other channels, it is from 1900 hrs to 2300 hrs.

As per the report, NDTV India (Hindi) channel showcased the highest duration of 2,18,673 seconds and the highest ad value returns of Rs 108,203,400 respectively during the prime time slot.

Even in case of no-prime time slot, this channel topped the list by airing clips having the highest duration of 1,11,090 seconds and earning the highest ad money of Rs 199,962,000.

Esha Broadcast, among India's leading news monitoring agencies, tracks more than 90 channels beamed into the country. Over the years, it has increased its range of services to include FM Radio and regional Indian languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi, besides English.

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