NDTV Active Ties Up With Affle, But What’s Mkhoj Doing in The Midst of it?
(the Post has been Edited with additional info from MKhoj – read it towards the end)
Afaqs reports that NDTV has tied up with mobile marketing player Affle (of SMS 2.0) to monetize NDTV Active, their mobile portal. The deal looks to make the most of the advertisers tapped in to the system by Affle with its SMS 2.0 product by offering NDTVs popular portal as a publishing base, instead of the media house having to hunt on its own.
The tie up is exclusively with Affle which will in turn help sell the inventory which numbers over 3.6 million page views a month according to NDTV. Affle has commited a fixed annual advertising revenue in return for the exclusivity.
Sanjay Trehan, chief executive officer, NDTV Convergence the digital arm of NDTV, said, “Basically, we have outsourced the ad sales function of NDTV Active to Affle, which has guaranteed us a fixed amount of advertising revenue on an annual basis. The advertising outsource deal will be based on a revenue sharing model between NDTV Convergence and Affle.”
Anuj Kumar of Affle echoed the same thought that leveraging on the existing advertiser relationship forms the basis of this tie up. However, interestingly he added that ad sales representation is currently an add-on to their core business, though being a holistic mobile marketing solutions provider with such strategies is on the cards in the long run. And they also seem to be in talks with other premium mobile portals according to the Afaqs report.
Now for all those who are wondering what does Mkhoj have to do with all this, it is just that NDTV Active had an ad powered by Mkhoj running on their website. Ads provided by Affle would be live on the site only after a week. However, NDTV is currently said to be selling their inventory on their own (as mentioned in the press release). This statement in the release is what raises questions about Mkhoj. Have a look at this screenshot.
Some of the questions that this does arise are:
- Was mKhoj doing the ad sales on NDTV’s behalf before this tie up with Affle?
- Was mKhoj just one of the ad-providers like how web publishers use Google Adsense as well as do Direct ad sales?
- In either case, would mKhoj ads run on NDTV Active through any unsold inventory that might remain, considering the tie up is said to be exclusive?
- Just before the launch of NDTV Active in 2007, Sanjay Trehan had mentioned that they would like to monetize the portal through other models like subscriptions and sponsorships besides ads. Will such alternative models continue to remain regardless of this development?
I don’t want to ruffle any feathers here, but these questions did come up on my mind and hence listed them here. It does certainly make the whole tie up a lot more interesting for sure and some strong signs of competition within the mobile marketing industry. Perhaps the opportunities in mobile advertising goes beyond the obvious. 
—EDIT—>
After I made this post yesterday, Amit Gupta, Co-Founder and VP -Business Development of mKhoj answered the above questions through an email. We are adding his remarks as is for everyone’s benefit and knowledge.
1. Was mKhoj doing the ad sales on NDTV’s behalf before this tie up with Affle?
Yes mKhoj was working with NDTV directly to monetize their mobile inventory on a non exclusive basis without any MG commitment.
2. Was mKhoj just one of the ad-providers like how web publishers use Google Adsense as well as do Direct ad sales?
Direct ad sales team can sell very premium ad spots at high pricing and the remaining inventory can be sold at lower pricing through ad networks. This model has been the case for the pc internet and should work for the mobile internet. However for inventory volume below a threshold level, cost benefit analysis does not justify the involvement of direct ad sales team.
3. In either case, would mKhoj ads run on NDTV Active through any unsold inventory that might remain, considering the tie up is said to be exclusive?
mKhoj has been officially informed by NDTV that they will continue to use our network to monetize their inventory. Going forward the point of contact from NDTV will be an account manager from Affle.
4. Just before the launch of NDTV Active in 2007, Sanjay Trehan had mentioned that they would like to monetize the portal through other models like subscriptions and sponsorships besides ads. Will such alternative models continue to remain regardless of this development?
I have no idea about this.
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