[ALOCHONA] Nine TV channels earn 602 crore taka in six months

Nine TV channels earn 602 crore taka in six months Corporate business houses are now controlling private TV channels, pouring in cash for commercials. In fact, it's the advertisements that are given priority, depriving viewers of quality time for programmes... by ANWAR PARVEZ HALIM   There are now a total of 10 private satellite television channels in the country. These are NTV, Channel i, Channel 1, ATN Bangla, Ekushey TV, Boishakhi, Bangla Vision, Islamic TV, RTV and Diganta TV. Of these, Diganta TV is now operating on a test basis; the others are regular. These private TV channels are surviving on advertisements of multinational companies. With more than adequate advertisements coming in on a regular basis, two or these of these channels are now firmly established in the field. Critics and researchers say that because they are so dependant on these advertisements, these private TV channels have become the tools in the hands of the multinationals. The corporate houses virtually control the TV programmes. They use the advertisements to twist the arms of the channels. Sometimes the advertisements come at such regular intervals and for such extended spans of time, the viewers get fed up. The channels really have no choice; they don't even really worry their heads about it. Since their hands are tied by the advertisers, they simply accept the terms. Whatever programmes the advertising company wants to sponsor, are the programmes the channel management will telecast. They can hardly pick and chose at their own volition. In fact, the corporate houses reportedly even dictate who the presenter of a programme will be, which actors and actresses will feature in a drama and even who the director will be. Soumitra Shekhar, teacher of the Bengali Department at Dhaka University, carries out research on the language of television programmes as well as advertisements. Speaking to PROBE, he says, "Previously, once a programme was made, a sponsor would be sought and there were only a few commercial breakers per programme. But things have changed radically. First sponsors are fixed and only then are the programmes made, according to the wishes of the sponsor. So naturally, the advertisements feature most importantly. The programmes are only of secondary importance." Researcher Soumitra Shekhar points out that in a programme's chunk of 30 minutes, nine minutes go to advertisements, two minutes to the titles, three minutes to the recap, leaving only 16 minutes for the actual programme. The nine minutes of advertising bursts into the 16-minute programme about five to six times at least, much to the viewers' frustration. In fact, it is the advertisements that have more of an impact on the viewers' psychology than the programme itself. That, of course, is the intention of the multinationals. They sponsor the programme, after all, to publicise their product. A viewer may be watching a talk show on TV. Advertising has infiltrated here too -- on the coffee mugs in the guests hands, on the banner in the background are so on. After every few minutes, the anchor calls for a break, a commercial break. Ideally, the duration of an ad should be 20 seconds at the most. However, most of the ads here are anything from one to one and a half minutes. It is as if you are watching a documentary or a short film! The talk show pales beside all that glamour, song and dance in the commercials. It has been noted that at the prime peak house, a 30-minute news programme has only 16 minutes of solid news. Of this, one minute goes to the headlines and two minutes for breaking news headlines. There are two breaks in the news programme, meaning that the advertisements take up 14 minutes during these breaks. Then there are the advertisements with the sports and business news: "Now, Partex Sports News," or "And now it's time for Mercantile Business News." And the inevitable ads of the sponsors. Business news is only for 25 seconds for which the company pays 25 thousand taka and that is in exclusion of payment for the advertisement itself. Viewers have long nursed grievance against the TV channels for shirking their responsibility towards the viewers and "selling their souls" to the corporate houses in exchange for crores of taka in ads. Farid Reza Sagar, Managing Director of the country's first private satellite television channel, refutes such allegations. He tells PROBE, "We are surviving because of advertisements. If five mobile phone companies shut down today, we will see the closure of 10 TV channels. Satellite TV channels will not be able to survive without advertisements. As for the viewers, they are getting to watch the channels for free. These are not pay channels. In fact, the viewers do not have to pay for any of the local Bangla channels." Soumitra Shekhar has complaints about the language used in advertisements, dramas and other programmes on TV. "There is a marked lack civility in the language used," he says. "The language of the advertisements, dramas and programmes are downright obscene. They pass off uncouth language in the name of regional dialect. Proper language should be used on national media. In the name of modernism, a certain section of writers and directors who have sprouted up in recent times are corrupting the language. Director Mustafa Sarwar Faruki, Anisul Huq and others are responsible for this, completely in the hands of the multinational companies. So money is changing our language too. Protests are drowned out by cash."   Nine TV channels earn 6019 million taka in six months According to a survey run by Ryan Archives, a private media monitoring organisation, nine TV channels of the country, including BTV, raked in revenue of 6019.54 million taka in the first six months of the year from advertisements of various companies. NTV secured the highest amount of 975.02; BTV the lowest with 281.99 million taka. Channel i got 971.46 million taka worth of commercials; ATN Bangla 908.66 million; Channel 1 780.06 million; Ekushey TV 613.14 million; Boishakhi TV 528.09 million; RTV 516.45 million and Bangla Vision 444.67 million taka. In the six months from January to June this year, nine TV channels including BTV, earned a total of 2089.3 million taka from mobile phone companies alone. These mobile phone operators include Aktel, Banglalink, Citycell, Grameen Phone, Teletalk and Warid Telecom. Channel i got the highest amount of advertisements from them, amounting to 402.71 million taka; BTV the lowest -- 47.47 million taka. ATN Bangla got mobile phone ads worth 313.84 million taka; Boishakhi 229.01 million; Bangla Vision 158.88 million; Channel 1 256.49 million; Ekushey TV 156.24 million; NTV 313.11 million; and RTV 211.55 million taka. While they may be pouring in millions of taka for their commercials, the mobile phone operators are not providing quality service to the customers. While the subscribers have innumerable complaints against the mobile phone services, the TV channels have nothing to say on this head. They never report against the cell phone operators.Another study shows that in January this year, nine TV channels secured 840.90 million taka worth of ads. In June they secured ads worth 1195.45 million. That means there was a 42.16% increase in ads over the six-month period.   Top 10 advertisers According to Ryan Archives' monitoring report, Grameen Phones tops the list of the Top Ten advertisers on the nine TV channels in the first six months of the year. They doled out advertisements worth 888.78 million taka. Next comes Unilever Bangladesh with 755.99 million taka in ads. Third on the list is Banglalink with ads of 552.05 million taka. Next are Pran Group 414.98, Citycell with 363.42 million taka in ads; Square Group with 219.89 million; Warid Telecom 196.59 million; Globe Soft Drinks 170.03 million; ACI 138.11 million; and Nasir Group with 106.03 million taka worth of commercials. Ryan Archives collated this data based on the advertisement rate charts of the companies. The question remains as to how accurate this estimate of earnings through advertisements actually is. In reply, Ahmed Hasan (Jewel), proprietor of Ryan Archives, tells PROBE, "Since this data is based on the rate cards of the channels, it cannot be considered absolutely accurate. The TV channel authorities sometimes have package deals with the advertisers and the rates of the commercials are brought down through negotiations. The rates fluctuate." He continues, "Peak hour for TV constitutes six in the evening till midnight. And the news and dramas are telecast at prime peak hours. Normally, no concessions are given in the rates of advertisements screened at peak and prime peak hours. Instead, the channels offer the advertisers a bonus. As many as the advertisements they pay for at the peak and prime peak hours, the channels offer a bonus of an equal number of ads at low rates during off peak hours." BTV still has the highest number of viewers. However, BTV gets the least number of advertisements from the multinational companies. The reason for this is the ad rates. BTV does not offer any concession on the set  advertisement rates. It pays the ad agencies only 15% commission on the fixed rates. On the other hand, as the private TV channels are ready to negotiate, the commercials come pouring in. Commenting on the data provided by Ryan Archives, Channel i Managing Director Faridur Reza Sagar says, "The credibility of such data based on rate charges is questionable." He says, "In a competitive market, the channels give all sorts of concessions. However, the ad market is must better than before. We are getting an adequate volume of advertisements. ATN Bangla, NTV and Channel i get more advertisements than the others. That is why the standard of our programmes is also better." The next question that arises is whether the private TV channels are paying due income tax to the government against the crores of taka they are earning through the commercials. In this regard, Faridur Reza Sagar says, "The advertisement market has expanded over the last eight or nine years only. This is still a new area and so there may be certain discrepancies. This is only natural." He adds, "Channel i, however, is absolutely transparent in this regard. We are accountable to several authorities. There is the Regulatory Board and there is NBR. You can check with them." Inquiries revealed that Impress Telefilm is enlisted with the Large Taxpayer Unit and regularly pays taxes and VAT. A certain official of NBR, on condition of anonymity, informs PROBE that according to government rules, 4.5% in taxes and 15% VAT has to be paid on private advertisements. But this fluctuates in the case of a series of advertisements. He admits that the NBR, due to its inadequate manpower, cannot keep an accurate record of advertisements being aired on the TV channels. He is also aware that there are many behind-the-scene deals between the advertiser and the channel management. It is not possible to get an absolutely accurate figure concerning the revenue earned by the channels though ads. So tax and VAT is imposed on the annual income of the TV channels. This official feels that the channels do not really pay the tax and VAT in correct proportion to the revenue they earn through commercials.   Slump in business over The slump in business after 1/11 is over and things have started to look up. "This is evident by the amount of commercials being aired by the private television channels," says Ahmed Hasan Managing director of Ryan Archives. He points to records which reveal that, in January the private TV channels aired advertisements of real estate companies amounting to only 9.59 million taka. In June the advertisements of these companies leapt up to 39.55 million; that is an exponential 312.17% increase. In June, the real estate companies ranked at No. 7 in the list of Top ten advertisers. That month the earnings of nine TV channels went up by 42.16 per cent as compared to January. Ahmed Hasan feels that is increase in advertisements on TV is because of an overall improvement in business.   In conclusion The expansion of the electronic media is certainly a feather in the cap for Bangladesh. However, this success is put into question when it comes to evaluating the quality of programmes being churned out by the private TV channels. There is a disheartening volume of sub-standard programmes with the invariable commercial breaks at regular intervals. The viewers simply surf through the channels looking for shows with substance and end up settling on some foreign channel. Who is to blame? The irresponsibility of the local TV channels or the crass commercialism of the multinational companies?   Ad revenue of Channels (Jan-June 08) in mln Tk Jan 840.90 Feb 901.76 Mar 1,016.70 Apr 1,025.71 May 1,039.02 June 1,195.45 Total  6,019.54 Growth from Jan to June in parcent (%) 42.16   http://probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=4209

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