Poll's Advertising Toll

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Political advertising, along with campaigning, ended on Saturday evening,
and figure-crunching has begun. Even as political parties were cagey about
giving out exact numbers, media planners indicated that the total
advertising spend was in the region of Rs 250 crore. The consensus was that
among TV channels, Rupert Murdoch's Star network earned the maximum from
political ads, as it's the most expensive electronic platform in the
country. Although Star officials refused to dish out figures, according to
one estimate, the network earned over Rs 25 crore in political ads. The most
expensive news channel, Aaj Tak, has earned around Rs 2.5 crore from
political ads, TV Today executive director G Krishnan confirmed. NDTV is in
the silent period due to its IPO, but its focus was not on political ads, a
source said. Zee too didn't divulge any numbers; an official, however,
claimed that it has made much more than Aaj Tak. On Zee, both BJP and
Congress sponsored movies and other programmes. Public broadcaster Prasar
Bharati has made some kind of a killing also in the political season.
According to Prasar Bharati CEO K S Sarma, Doordarshan has made Rs 6 crore,
while All India Radio (AIR) earned around Rs 50 lakh. On DD, BJP had booked
ads worth Rs 2.5 crore, and Congress for around Rs 20 lakh to 1 crore.

Source:
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_archive_full_story.php?content_id=58779