NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (IB) has introduced the ‘Digital Advertisement Policy 2023.’ The move is in response to the increase in the number of users accessing news and other contents in digital formats.
The primary objective is to empower the Central Bureau of Communication, the advertising wing of the Central government, to conduct campaigns in the digital media sphere, including Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms, websites, and mobile applications.
This policy signifies a pivotal moment in the CBC’s mission to disseminate information and generate awareness about various government schemes, programmes and policies. According to the policy, a website or mobile application must be operational for at least one year and continuously in use during that period to qualify for empanelment in campaign advertisements.
Empanelment is categorized into four groups (A+, A, B, and C) based on the average monthly Unique Users count. The requirements range from 20 million average UU per month for A+ to 2.5 lakh unique users per month for category C.
Acknowledging the significance of social media platforms as popular channels for public discourse, the policy streamlines CBC’s ability to place government advertisements on these platforms. The move is aligned with the internet penetration data provided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), indicating over 880 million internet users and more than 1,172 million telecom subscribers in India as of March 2023.
The policy not only facilitates CBC’s empanelment of agencies and organisations in the OTT and Video on Demand space but also allows them to tap into the expanding audience of podcasts and digital audio platforms.
This is the first time the Centre has formulated an advertisement strategy specifically for digital space. It will diversify advertising across various platforms, targeting specific demographics such as youths through music apps or podcasts.
New Digital policy