Polls: Rs 600 crore business for media cos

Robbed off a lion's share of its advertising revenue due to the global economic downturn, the media industry is looking forward to the general elections as a major stimulus and expects business worth Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) from promotional campaigns of various parties.

Print media and news channels are expected to be the major beneficiaries in the elections, while radio channels and new media platforms, such as mobile and Internet, are also being used by the political parties and candidates in their campaigns, according to a report by brokerage firm Centrum.

"Elections have historically attracted viewers to the Hindi news space. Political parties are expected to spend about Rs 600 crore on promotions, of which 55 per cent would be on print media and eight per cent on radio," Centrum said.

According to industry experts, election season has injected a fresh lease of life for the media companies, a number of whom have embarked upon significant cost-cutting measures due to dearth of advertisements as advertisers are cutting down on their spending due to the global economic downturn.

Some parties have already started airing their promotional campaigns on TV, while the momentum is expected to gather steam as the election dates approach and similar is the scenario for other media platforms, they noted.