This week it has been announced that a new deal has been struck between Bharti Airtel, an enormous telecommunications firm with operations in 19 countries in Asia and Africa, and Mogae Media. This deal is a first in the Indian telecoms industry, and it will be interesting to see the difference it will make to Bharti Airtel’s operations.
Bharti Airtel has announced that it will outsource all its advertising inventory management and mobile-commerce initiatives to Mogae Media. This will mean that Mogae Media will sell all possible advertising space on mobile, DTH and broadband services. Mogae Media is a firm that is being promoted by former Dentsu India Chairman, Sandeep Goyal. Furthermore, Mr Goyal confirmed the deal but would not reveal any financial details.
It has been suggested by analysts that this is the first time a telecoms service provider has collected and outsourced the entire advertising inventory in the country.
Prashant Singhal, the telecoms leader at Ernst & Young, has been quoted saying: “No one has done that in India so far.”
Mr Singhal then went on to add the following: “The model has high potential since the mobile phone is the only medium to reach out to 800-900 million people.”
Meanwhile, an analyst has commented that Bharti Airtel could now generate around 40-50% of the industry’s revenue based on the sheer size of its post-paid customer base. Who knows whether this will lead to Bharti Airtel lowering their rates, and could it, in addition, lead to lower rates when making cheap calls to India?
A spokesman for the firm said that the company would not comment on market speculations and partner relationships, however, it has been announced that Bharti Airtel’s deal with Mogae will work on a revenue-sharing model.
