For the second day, the stand-off between broadcasters and advertising agencies on billing issues continued (as of late Thursday evening). While broadcasters are pushing for transactions to be conducted on the basis of net billings, advertising agencies have not reached a consensus with broadcasters.
However, according to IBF’s decision, SET MAX was allowed to continue running ads on their Indian Premier League telecast.
Shailesh Shah, Secretary General, Indian Broadcasting Foundation, said, “Broadcasters are not running advertisements on their channels as we speak but talks are on with agencies and members of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).”
A senior executive from the AAAI on Wednesday night had expressed hope that the deadlock will break by Thursday.
Some of the leading broadcasters such as Star, Zee, Sony, Viacom18, among others, are not airing many advertisements on their channels. These broadcasters have been airing advertisements of agencies which have agreed to transactions on the basis of net bills. The rest of the commercial breaks are being filled in with in-house promos.