Advertising inventory was cleaned up. Low value ads were done away with and the focus was shifted to premium inventory at prime time (morning and early evening). "We reduced prime time clutter by about 25 to 30 per cent," says Patil.
On Independence Day last year, the entire day was signed up with Nokia. Again, on April 1, 2009, the channel sold the entire day to ITC's Bingo to celebrate All Fools' Day as Bakra Din. "The move helps us get revenue, the brand gets value and the viewer enjoys a clutter-free day," says Patil.
However, if MTV proudly talks of a Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) revenue, not all of it comes from on-air commercial time. A chunk of it is contributed by Viacom Brand Solutions, a 360 degrees communications agency which it operates.
This was one of the ideas seeded by Market Gate and the agency is already profitable. It makes ad films (remember the latest ones for Vodafone text messages... Dhal Gaya Din... Tak?), does brand promotions, on-ground activations (it did a pub crawl for White Mischief across several cities) and organises film premiers.
That's not all. It has embedded brands in Splitsvilla and Roadies. With a rating of 3.5, a clutch of super premium spots in Roadies have been sold at Rs 20,000 for 10 seconds, opposed to the routine Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 they are hawked at. Patil claims MTV's top-line has grown 40 per cent.
Image: Splitsvilla contestant Rahul Dwivedi. | Photograph, courtesy: MTV
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