Copyright indiatimes
Television advertising volume in India fell 10% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2025, according to TAM AdEx data. The decline reflects a broader slowdown in the advertising market, with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, the biggest spenders on television, cutting back on budgets owing to muted consumer demand, according to industry executives.Even with reduced spending, FMCG and household product categories continued to dominate TV ad volume, reinforcing television's role as a mass reach medium for large consumer brands. Broadcaster revenues remained under pressure in 2024-25. Zee Entertainment reported an 11% drop in advertising income to ₹3,591 crore. Sony Pictures Networks India posted a 9% decline to ₹2,606 crore, while Sun TV Network's advertising and broadcast slot sales revenue fell 4% to ₹1,440 crore.Star India, which now includes the erstwhile Viacom18, did not disclose its split between advertising and subscription revenue. Linear TV is facing headwinds as consumers shift from appointment viewing to convenience-led, on-demand viewing.The food and beverages sector was the top advertiser category between January and September, contributing 21% of total ad volume. Personal care and hygiene followed, along with services, household products and retail. The top ten sectors accounted for 88% of total TV ad volume, reflecting the continued dominance of consumer-centric categories.Live Events"The drop is largely led by softening of market conditions, whereby consumption had dipped, resulting in a cut in ad budgets. This is a pre-GST (goods and services tax) reduction period," said TAM Media CEO LV Krishnan. Among individual advertisers, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) remained the largest spender on television, followed by Reckitt Benckiser India and Godrej Consumer Products. The top ten advertisers together accounted for 42% of total ad volume. While advertiser categories remained stable, their placement strategies shifted. General entertainment channels (GECs) and news channels continued to attract the most advertising, together accounting for 57% of total ad volume. Compared with first nine months of 2024, news, movies and music saw a small drop in share, while GECs gained slightly, indicating sustained preference for high reach programming. Broadcasters are cautiously optimistic that the worst of the slowdown is over."We are coming out of a very subdued market where the advertising yields had fallen significantly, including the entire inventory consumption. So, we are working on both those aspects of getting the yields back up as well as getting the inventory consumption filled up on the network. So, both those will be the combination of what will result in some growth," Zee Entertainment CEO Punit Goenka said during the second quarter earnings call. Zee Entertainment's September quarter advertising revenue declined 11% to ₹806 crore owing to continued softness in FMCG spending.JioStar CEO Entertainment Kevin Vaz said while digital ad sales had a really strong growth, TV entertainment sales continue to see pressure, because of major cuts by FMCG companies. "With the GST (rate cuts), we are seeing green shoots, and we expect the quarters ahead to be much better," he said.Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel) Read More News onzee entertainmentTV AdvertisingFMCG AdvertisingAdvertising Market TrendsAdvertising Volume DeclineHindustan Unilever AdvertisingConsumer Brands Advertisinggodrej consumer productshindustan unileversun tv network (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.) Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online....moreless (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)Read More News onzee entertainmentTV AdvertisingFMCG AdvertisingAdvertising Market TrendsAdvertising Volume DeclineHindustan Unilever AdvertisingConsumer Brands Advertisinggodrej consumer productshindustan unileversun tv network(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.) Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online....moreless
