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The government Friday announced that it had approved a new policy allowing its advertising wing, the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC), to undertake advertisement campaigns on social media, OTT platforms and other digital media.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting approved the “Digital Advertisement Policy, 2023 to enable and empower the [CBC]… to undertake campaigns in the digital media space,” the Ministry said in a statement.
The statement also said that the policy “marks a pivotal moment in CBC’s mission to disseminate information and create awareness regarding various schemes, programs, and policies of the Government of India in response to the evolving media landscape and the increased digitalization of media consumption”.
The CBC will now be able to empanel agencies working in the digital media space in order to reach out to podcast listeners, YouTube and OTT viewers and other social media users.
The policy will also encompass campaigns to be run on mobile applications, apart from websites. It mandates that the websites, mobile apps, OTT platforms and digital audio platforms need to be at least a year old to be eligible to apply under the scheme.
Senior officials from the Ministry said it’s a conscious shift to advertise government messaging through whatever media the public consumes.
They said that advertising rates will be linked to the subscriber base and viewership numbers, and will use competitive bidding to ensure transparency and efficiency.
“Rates discovered through this process will remain valid for three years and will be applicable to all eligible agencies,” the Ministry said.
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As per the policy document, not only can OTT platforms be empanelled for placing advertisements along with regular content, including live-streamed ones, they can also be empanelled for “production of embedded/in-film advertisement/promotion/branding activities whenever CBC issues a Letter of Intent for such campaigns”.
As per TRAI’s Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators January–March 2023, the internet penetration in India as of March 2023, is over 880 million, and the number of telecom subscribers as of March 2023 is over 1172 million, the Ministry said.
As reported in The Indian Express on November 8, government spending on traditional media had decreased from Rs.1,200 crore in 2017-2018 to Rs. 264.78 crore in 2021-2022. As a part of government schemes, 2% of the total outlay is usually marked for publicity and outreach activities, and it is this fund that the CBC uses for advertisements and campaigns.
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