Parties vie for viewership pie

This week’s Thursday premiere on Zee will again see the BJP acting as a film sponsor for Tum, a love story of a woman caught between two men. Again, party managers rule out design and settle for coincidence.

Both the Congress and the BJP have got over their row over surrogate advertising. The Supreme Court verdict has cooled their ardour considerably. They have now adopted savvy marketing techniques to keep the eyeballs glued. And what better deal than movies which attract maximum viewership, even when elections are near.

Last week, the Congress sponsored the Sunday blockbuster, Karan Arjun, on Sony’s movie channel. By sheer coincidence, when either party is the sponsor, the rival books maximum advertising spots. ‘‘We booked around six spots on the Sunday movie,’’ said a BJP campaign manager.

While the movie channels say the parties are paying the same fee that sponsors do, the parties maintain they are getting the slots as bonuses. ‘‘If we give 2,000 spots on a channel for a week, the channel usually offers the sponsorship to a movie,’’ says a BJP media manager.

The party is said to have booked Rs 30 lakh worth ad spots, including sponsorship of movies in the past 20 days. ‘‘Movies are a great national pastime and we thought they offered the best platform,’’ says a campaign manager.

According to channel officials, movies fetch a viewership that is double or even treble the viewership of entertainment programmes. On an average, films fetch TRPs of five and six, which leave other programmes far behind.