"This time our deliverables are substantially more": NDTV's Suparna Singh on Rs. 300 crore Taboola deal

Singh, CEO, NDTV Group, spoke to us about the five-year deal with the content discovery platform.

Furthering its previous association with Taboola, NDTV Convergence, the digital arm of the NDTV group has now struck a five-year deal with the content discovery platform. The last NDTV-Taboola arrangement lasted three years and is set to end this month; it was worth Rs 100 crores.

The latest association ties NDTV Convergence exclusively to Taboola and involves a minimum guarantee of more than Rupees 300 crores for NDTV.

ALSO READ: NDTV Convergence partners Taboola for content discovery

Suparna Singh

"It is the scale of the deal that is unprecedented. I don't think such an advertising deal, which is committed to that kind of money, exists even in the conventional media space," says Suparna Singh, CEO, NDTV Group.

In a press release, the NDTV team claims that the website has 200 million unique views (source: Google Analytics, October 2018), making it India's largest news website and the 23rd-largest in the world.

However, what's interesting about this new chapter of partnership between NDTV and Taboola is that the minimum guarantee amount has now doubled.

"This time our deliverables are also substantially more. The deliverables are in terms of traffic, inventory and digital real estate. We are confident that we will be able to deliver that based on the scale of traffic. It's all being mapped according to the growth rate that we are showing, especially on mobile," Singh adds.

Taboola uses its presence on websites with high traffic to recommend content from across the internet to the audience and to offer highly-personalized native advertising.

Last year, Taboola extended its three-year partnership with the India Today Group which was originally signed in 2014. Apart from these, the platform also has partnerships with media platforms like the Hindustan Times. The latest deal with NDTV is the largest that Taboola has ever signed in the APAC region.

Adam Singolda

"The growth of mobile internet in India is skyrocketing and with over half-a-billion smartphone users, the country's mobile adoption is second only to China. Mobile users are continually looking for those 'moments of next' and publishers such as NDTV are positioned to deliver personalised content experiences to readers," says Adam Singolda, founder and CEO of Taboola, in a press statement.

He further mentions that NDTV is Taboola's "oldest and largest partner in India".