Page 230 - DMGT507_SALES AND PROMOTIONS MANAGEMENT

Sales and Promotions Management

Notes The cost of television advertising time varies depending on the time of day and the particular
programme. These are the two important factors on which the size of the audience depends. TV
time is divided into dayparts, which constitute specific periods of a broadcast day and vary for
different stations and channels. The nature and size of audience attracted varies according to
dayparts and for this reason the advertising time rates are also different. Certain time segments
are classified as the "prime-time," and draw the largest audiences. The rates for primetime TV
are very high compared to other time segments, and large advertisers dominate this 'daypart'.
Audience size and their demographic composition also vary depending on the programme.

Example: Baywatch is popular among younger male audience; IFB Star Sunday Lunch
attracts women of educated, urban middle class. Daytime programmes attract more women,
and BBC News reach has increased among business decision-makers and affluent adults.

13.2 Cable Television

In India, cable television is a fairly organised activity but largely confined to urban areas so far.
Cable television has become quite a popular medium for advertisers as it has an impressive
reach of 61 million homes and more than 206 million viewers. Cable delivers TV signals through
wire instead of airways. Availability of DTH (direct-to-home) has been quite helpful in reaching
rural population in India, but so far the number of channels is limited.

Subscribers of cable TV pay a monthly fee to the cable operator and receive roughly 70 channels
or more, including the local network programmes. Cable TV offers more programme options
to the advertiser as well as the viewers, such as all-news, music, sports, movies, science fiction,
comedy, cartoons, health and nutrition, world travel, and youth interest, etc. Many cable systems
also carry independent local stations that use satellite to send signals nationally to cable operators
who make them available to subscribers. Such superstations also carry national advertising.
The most basic advantage of cable TV is its ability to reach more precisely defined specific
geographic markets, and target audiences. It is also less expensive and offers more flexibility
than networks. It costs much less to produce a programme for cable TV. Audiences of cable TV
in the US tend to be younger, more affluent, better educated, and with more purchasing power.

Example: ESPN is highly popular among advertisers who are interested in male sports
enthusiasts; MTV reaches teenagers and young adults.
Infomercials are somewhat lengthy commercials, ranging between 3 to 30 minutes, and are
commonly used by direct-response advertisers on cable TV. Advertisers describe their products
or services and encourage consumers to place their orders on telephone during the commercial.
Because of its low costs, the medium is quite popular among local advertisers and there is an
increasing trend of shifting ad spending from radio, newspapers, and magazines to cable TV.

Audience Measures

Some media measurement techniques have been mentioned earlier in this part. The techniques
used to gather audience measurement information include diaries, personal interviews, and
electronic meters or recorders (in India the use of people meters is limited to less than a dozen
cities, including metros). These measures are important to media planners in deciding to buy
commercial time on a programme.

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