Rajasthan media owners welcome state govt instructions on license fee, contract tenure, business improvement steps

Key outdoor media owners operating in the state of Rajasthan have welcomed the Rajasthan Government’s instructions sent to the municipal corporations, councils and municipalities with regard to providing relief to outdoor media in the face of the Covid-19 situation. The state government in its instructions issued last week has directed all departments concerned with outdoor advertising to ensure that the tenure of contracts for all advertising sites that have been accepted after bidding or yet to be accepted after bidding in the period FY2020-21 until March 31, 2021 shall be extended by 6 months without any additional license fee increase, in accordance with the RTPP Act & Rules.

At the same time, the state government has not provided any waiver of the license fee for FY2020-21, as against a plea to that effect that was submitted by the regional outdoor owning firms.

Commenting on this development, K D Maheshwari, CEO, N S Publicity told Media4Growth that the industry appreciates the government’s standpoint on the licensee fee payment under the current circumstances and shall make the payments accordingly. He welcomed the government move to put non-auctioned advertising sites for bidding to step up the ad revenues.

The government has also instructed that the media owners who hold the contracts shall submit the site renewal fee within 15 days of issue of the order.

The state government has also added that necessary steps will be taken to improve the market conditions for the regional outdoor advertising industry. “The government has already initiated a few campaigns to create awareness about the precautionary measures to fight against COVID19 which have helped the business. We are expecting some more such campaigns by the government in the near future,” shared Prashant Kushal, Director, Synergy Advertising. 

Considering that the grim market situation is likely to prevail over a longer duration, the government has also eased the bidding process for upcoming tenders. The notification has clarified that the base price should be reviewed for the bidding if competitive prices aren’t received by the corporations.

“We are quite positive about this notification that it will help us in managing our businesses better in this time of crisis. It would still be helpful if we get an extension for the duration of fee payment which can be discussed with the corporation,” added Prashant.

To this Maheshwari added, “This is the first ever announcement made with regard to the OOH business in the country, so we believe that this will be a landmark notification for the outdoor industry at the time of the pandemic. We are satisfied with the government approach toward improving the market situation as we are expecting business to pick up at the time of festival season with increased brand spends during Diwali.”

The regional market players are apparently receiving some business enquires from the national advertising clients which are likely to be converted in the near future.

Besides this, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Airport Authority of India, Indian Railways, MSRDC, DMRC and a few other authorities have been working out on a plan to provide relief to the OOH media owners which are expected to be announced soon.