TV3, the market-leading channel with 60 per cent share of TV advertising, increased its ratecard prices this month between 10 to 15 per cent - a "dramatic increase", according to a media buyer for one of Malaysia's largest TV advertisers.
Clients, meanwhile, have appealed to TV3 for a rate freeze until June. The media owner has stated that the hike is to cover rising content costs.
However, buyers argue this is a "sugar coated reason" — TV3's programming, they say, hasn't noticeably improved.
Media Prima's creative marketing group general manager Navonil Roy said: "We have not significantly changed the ratecard for 10 years, and it's long overdue. Programming costs have risen by between 10 to 15 per cent year-on-year, and that cost has never before been passed on to advertisers."
The move is said to be part of efforts to bring TV3's ratecard up-to-date and in line with those of its sister stations.
"There have been tweaks to the ratecard over the years, but it needed to be completely restructured,"explained Roy.
Little of TV3's remuneration system has changed since the channel launched in 1983, Roy said, while other new channels have benefited from "starting from scratch". Higher-rating shows will now be priced higher than less popular programming with the introduction of a tiered model for advertisers.
Media buyers concede that TV cost inflation for advertisers has typically lagged behind print, Malaysia's dominant medium, which tends to increase ratecard prices by an average of five per cent every year. But Media Prima's price hike "smacks of monopolistic behaviour", says one media buyer, who fears similar increases could follow at Media Prima's other stations.
TV3 is the largest of Malaysia's private free-to-air channels, all of which are owned by Media Prima. The company also owns 8TV, ntv7 and TV9.
Radio stations Fly FM, Hot FM and New Straits Times Press are also Media Prima-owned, and the giant boosted its outdoor advertising assets in November last year with the acquisition of UPD and The Right Channel.
