Punjab media owners get surrender option under relief scheme

The state government has announced rebate for advertisement contracts considering several representations made by the media owners

The directorate of Punjab local government has announced a relief scheme for the outdoor media owners wherein they can surrender 50% of their existing media as per government terms. Referring to the several representations made by the media owners handling outdoor display contracts in the state, the directorate has also permitted a complete six months license fee waive off, starting from March 24, 2020.

Commenting on the relief, Shavinder Singh Sandhu, Director, Leafberry and exclusive media rights holder for Ludhiana market, explained, “The relief given by the authority is certainly a breather for the business as the outdoor media fraternity did ask for it. It is a significant step by the government in the time of crisis, we believe.”

Considering the market situation, the outdoor media vendors have been finding difficult to continue with the contracts and also posed this challenge in their representation. Hence, the local government has given an option to surrender 50% of their existing media as per the following terms and conditions:

•  The advertisement contractors would first surrender the media which was handed over to them, pre-installed/installed at the cost of ULB. The contractor can surrender the remaining percentage of media of his own choice.
• lf the pre-installed/media installed by the ULB is more than 5Cl%' then the advertisement contractor would have to surrender the media as decided by the ULB.
• The advertising contractors who opt to surrender up to 500/0 value of their existing media in their contract would have to furnish an affidavit with the ULB stating that throughout the remaining period of their contract, they would neither surrender the remaining media due to any reason nor they would go into any kind of litigation in any court.

“The current market scenario with hardly any revenue has made these contracts unaffordable for some of the vendors. This clause definitely makes it easier for them to manage limited number of inventories,” said Shavinder. The clause could make sense for some contractors who would be desperate to exit but Leafberry doesn't intend to surrender its media, as the same would cease its monopoly rights in the market", he added.

Focussing on the duration of campaigns, the media rights holder of Jalandhar and Chandigarh markets, Kamal Mittal, Director, Creative Designer said, “The major aspect for us to sustain the business growth is the brand spends and the duration of campaigns. The drastic cut down on the campaign duration will also have a drastic impact on business revenue as we need at least month-long campaign to earn better revenue.”

“The biggest reason for the marketers to spend is to generate sales. If the customer sentiments turn out to be good then marketers possibly extend campaigns for one more month,” Kamal added.