New Delhi: In a bid to revamp its image, UTV Bindass, the youth-oriented Hindi entertainment channel aired by UTV Global Broadcasting, is underlining its ‘Indian’ identity and offering free commercial air time for all local brands on Republic Day.
“We are a home-grown channel and young people in India are very proud of their roots. We’re reinforcing the Indianess of our brand compared to other foreign brands like MTV in the same space,” says Heather Gupta, channel head, UTV Bindass.
As a part of the initiative named ‘Myhindustan.in’, the channel has invited companies to showcase their Indian brands free for the entire day on 26 January.
“This is a smart way of getting people to test the platform to advertise on,” said Manas Mishra, executive vice-president of media buying agency Mudra Connext. “Initially, some channels which are big today, also gave out free ad slots to advertisers to get traction.”
According to Sai Nagesh, who has the title chief growth officer at Dentsu Media India, the proposal to advertisers stated that ad rates on 26 January would be heavily discounted and not that the channel would air commercials free. Mishra also said the rates were heavily discounted, but air time wasn’t free.
A spokesperson for the channel reiterated that the ad slots were 100% free of cost for Indian companies and brands.
