Longer trading hours good news for biz channels

With trading hours at stock exchanges set to be extended by two-and-a-half hours, the half a dozen business news channels together will get 20 percent more advertising inventory to sell, possibly resulting in an overall increase of ad revenue by 8-10 percent on an annual basis, say media agencies.

Advertising industry estimates put the ad revenues generated by business channels at Rs 300-350 crore, out of Rs 1,100-1,300 crore generated by the news channels annually.

"This pie may witness up to 10 percent increase on an annual basis once the increased trading hours come into effect," says a senior media planner who buys airtime on news channels.

Currently on the trading days (Monday to Friday) for the entire duration of market hours (9:55 am till 3:30 pm), each of the business channels, including CNBC, NDTV Profit, Bloomberg UTV and ET Now, get around 90 minutes of on-air advertising time to sell to advertisers. With trading hours set to increase -- 9 am to 5 pm -- the channels will get another 18-20 minutes each trading day.

"The extended trading hours will have a positive impact in the evenings. Now there is a lull in advertisers' presence from 4 pm till around 7 pm. This period will now get reduced. But how much gain in business will happen is only a matter of speculation," says Ajay Chacko, director, business media for TV18.

"Certainly, there would be an increase in advertising time. And there would be willing advertisers who will buy the space -- both on the channels and their websites. But it's difficult to qualify this in numbers," says Sandeep Vij, CEO, DDB Mudra Group.

Currently, the business channels together attract over 300 brands on a monthly basis, including categories like real estate, banking, financial institutions, brokerage houses, airlines and telecom services, among others.

According to industry observers, of all the business channels, only CNBC TV18 (and CNBC Aawaz), NDTV Profit and Zee Business generate a significant revenue from selling on-air inventory. "Ultimately, every business channel will benefit from this move. The results of this will be seen in the next quarter, provided the markets actually extend the trading hours from 9 am to 5 pm as suggested by Sebi," says a senior executive of a business news channel.