News publishers feeling the pinch as GoI halves digital ad rates in 8 years

Posted on 3rd Sep 2025

While publishers continue to expand their ad inventories and ramp up their video content to cope, they urge a review of pricing structures

India’s digital news publishers are facing a double whammy. While still grappling with GenAI disruptions, Google’s core updates, and escalating newsroom costs, they are now reeling under a sharp drop in government ad revenues since the start of 2025.

The Central Bureau of Communication (CBC) — formerly the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) — has slashed rates for popular digital ad formats by nearly 50% over the past eight years, with the latest revision made in December 2024, e4m has learnt.

For instance, the Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPTI) for the most common ad unit 320×250-pixel banner for Group A publishers —those with 50 lakh+ unique monthly users — has witnessed a steep decline over the years. In 2016, the rate stood at ?45, remained the same in 2020, but has now fallen to just ?25 in 2024.

The 300×250-ad unit is widely requested by most advertisers as it is believed to be the strongest performing ad unit. It works across all devices, desktop, tablet and mobile, and runs effectively on all sites.

Rates for fixed banners (visible on a website’s homepage for a specific time period) for a 24-hour placement have plunged from ?1,50,000 in 2016 to ?75,000 in 2021 and remain static in 2024 revision.

While video ad rates saw a steeper fall — dropping from ?50 per 5 seconds in 2016 to ?1.6 per 10 seconds in 2021, they were revised upwards to ?25 per 10 seconds in 2024, but still remain 50 percent lower compared to a decade ago.

The CBC rates hold significant weight in the advertising ecosystem as they serve as the operating and guiding benchmark for almost all government advertising spends — both at the central and state levels. The Centre alone spends close to Rs 1,000 crore in ads annually, almost three-fold compared to 2021. Most states spend between Rs 500 crore and Rs 1000 crore every year.

For print publishers, government advertising accounts for 30% to 50% of total ad revenues, making these rate structures critical to their financial health. In the digital ecosystem, too, government campaigns contribute an estimated 20% to 30% of publishers’ ad revenues.

“Hence, any revision in CBC rates has a direct and substantial impact on the sustainability and growth strategies of India’s news publishers,” industry leaders say.

Business publications, which typically cater to a niche readership and therefore fall under the Group B category, face an even tougher challenge. Their ad rates are significantly lower than those offered to mainstream news publications, despite producing high-quality, specialized content.

As one senior executive from a leading business publication explained, “The government doesn’t consider our quality. Hence, we decided not to accept CBC ads — we rejected DAVP because its rates are lower than what we earn through programmatic advertising, where yields are nearly 30% higher compared to mainstream publications.”

On the other hand, some newspapers like Dainik Bhaskar, have completely refrained from digital advertising so far.

New strategy

The government’s pricing strategy has significantly reshaped advertising dynamics for digital publishers forcing them to rethink monetization models and explore newer formats to sustain revenues.

Industry veterans told e4m that publishers have expanded their inventories and ramped up their focus on video news — a strategic pivot that is stretching their resources.

Sumit Sethi, Revenue Head, Times Internet, says, “When rates go down, publishers have to use higher inventory to get the same revenue. The government is an important advertiser for the industry, and we would like to continue to serve them effectively.”

To adapt, most major digital-first publishers are also accelerating their video strategies — from investing in high-quality production studios to boosting distribution across OTT and social platforms. But industry leaders acknowledge that returns from this transition will take time.

Publishers argue that while video ad rates have increased substantially, the benefits haven’t flowed back to them. Instead, content creators and YouTubers, with lower overheads and leaner operations, are cornering a significant share of this government-driven video spend.

“Many news publishers have traditionally been text-first,” one senior executive explained. “While we’ve seen video ad rates shoot up, the immediate monetization hasn’t matched our investment levels. Nearly every publisher is now ramping up the quality, quantity, and reach of video journalism, but the real benefits of these hikes may only materialize in the medium term.”

Demands of Recalibration

With government advertising budgets remaining critical for sustaining newsroom operations, several publishers are expected to lobby the CBC for a review of digital pricing structures. There’s growing consensus that sustainable journalism will require fairer compensation models, especially as AI-driven disruptions and algorithmic shifts continue to erode organic reach.

Sethi remarked, “News publishers incur a lot of costs with their newsrooms producing quality and fact-checked journalism, and we would like to urge the government to review the pricing structures.”

e4m reached out to Kanchan Prasad, Director General of CBC, seeking her views on the government’s communication strategy, the factors contributing to the decline in ad pricing and the industry demands to reconsider the ad rates. Her response was awaited at the time of publishing this report.