Aidem Ventures gets ad-sales duties for Janta TV

The channel's top-line is expected to grow by around 40 per cent over last year.

Aidem Ventures, an advertising sales agency, is all set to start selling advertising slots for Janta TV, a regional news channel in the PHCHP market that includes Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh. Launched in 2011, the channel is known for its public opinion-based programming.

According to the contract, the channel's airtime will be sold by Aidem Ventures, which will club the channel with other regional players to be sold as a package.

Alok Rakshit, senior vice-president, regional bouquet, Aidem Ventures, explains, "There are times when national clients (advertisers) wish to tap a particular market, we have to offer them in a package format. So a group of channels are offered to the clients, keeping the individual ad-slot rates of the channels."

The channel is known to telecast more local news than other news channels. Also, it dedicates about 20 per cent of content towards public opinion shows (Bol Janta Bol and Bol Free) and has four fresh interactive bulletins. Apart from the PHCHP market, it is also widely distributed in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and New Delhi.

The PHCHP television advertising market amounts to about Rs 50 crore, of which close to Rs 15 crore is contributed by the news genre. The company expects to grow the channel's top line by about 40 per cent by the end of next year. Will the slowdown hurt? Rakshit denies it. "The regional channels aren't much affected by the slowdown, as compared to the national channels," he adds.

The official communiqué states that Janta TV has been adjudged 'the Best Upcoming News Channel' and 'the Best Public Platform News Channel' by Media Federation of India in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

Gurbinder Singh, vice-president, Janta TV, says, "Aidem team possesses a great amount of business appetite as also a thorough understanding of the broadcast media and the Indian advertising market. We are looking forward to the team's industry knowledge and its national coverage to cover advertising opportunities across the country."

The channel is among the top five in the seven-eight player news market in the region. "The team is geared to get its feet on the street to help Janta TV maximise its revenue potential," adds Rakshit, and says that although there may not be addition of new advertising categories on the channel, the number of brands within each category is bound to increase. Citing example, he adds, "For instance, if there are two automobile brands advertising on the channel, with increasing competition in the category, we might be able to pull this number to 12, or even 20," he explains.

Aidem has already partnered with news channels like NewsX, Live India, Jai Maharashtra, Jaya Plus, ABN Andhra Jyothy and now, Janta TV as well.

"It's about making life simpler for media owners, media agencies, advertisers and our sales staff. Bagging Janta TV is a big step towards our goal to build a more robust news media cluster, thus easing the media buying process," adds Shailendra Shetty, senior vice-president, Aidem Ventures.