NDTV Media, MSN India ink Ad sales deal

Televisionpoint.com Team
MSN India, along with NDTV Media, has launched Desktop TV, which would stream real-time television commercials (above left) on to computer screens. The software giant claimed Desktop TV would change the way advertising is done on the Internet.

Raj Nayak, chief executive, NDTV Media, said its advertisers like GE Money, Reid & Taylor, and Sahara TV have signed on to the new service. He adds, "The Internet, only next to television, with about 3.8 crore unique users live online making it much larger than the readership of leading newspapers and magazines in the country."

MSN Indian Marketing Head Rajnish R said, "Despite such a large user base the number of advertisers on the Net is a mere 80 to 100. Our strategy is to get more advertisers to experience and use this medium. We are changing the earlier concept of buying on the basis of impressions (number of clicks) to buy on media audience. We sell spots like they do on television, which is based on time bands."

MSN India recently introduced a new rate card that will give advertisers the complete freedom to choose how their ad would run. The rates on MSN India are comparatively lower to what one would pay for a 100 cc ad in a leading newspaper.

The the total media market for 2005 at Rs 13,200 crore. Of this, Internet accounts for only 0.8 per cent (Rs 105.6 crore). In 2004, the percentage of online advertising as a contribution to the total media market of Rs 11,600 crore was 0.5 per cent.

According to studies, internet advertising is growing in the country by 64%, against a 21% growth of the overall industry, and by 2010, it would reach anywhere between $160-200 million. NDTV Media would present this new media to its roster of 800 plus advertisers for a commission, whose details the companies didnt divulge.