ITV

Category: Specials

  • Importance of marketing and distribution of films discussed at Frames

    MUMBAI: Marketing and distribution of movies has always been an integral part of the business plan for film producers.








    The success of the film no longer depends on just the content, storyline and the star cast, but also on how well the film is marketed. The successes of Krissh, Don and Dhoom 2 in the Indian scenario are examples of this.


    One session at the Frames convention discussed the new methods employed to get to the target audience especially in international markets. The speakers included Kaleidoscope India MD Bobby Bedi, Eros Intl group CFO Andrew Hefferman, P9 Integrated CEO Navin Shah. It was pointed out that genre is a differentiator. Stars, topicality, controversies give a film unique strengths. Also market segmentation needs to be more precise in terms of how much one can get from theatres, DVDs, TV rights. One should not take just one business model into consideration.









    Film of course is the only medium where the price is uniform irrespective of the budget.



    The main of promotions Be4di points out is to get audiences into cinema halls on the opening weekend.

    How the film fares in the coming weeks depends on word of mouth.Marketing to the right TGB is key. If you market to the wrong TG then you might still get a string opening. However due to negative word of mouth there will be a sharp drop off in box office collections. Bedi notes that simply plastering the film’s tagline and the actor’s mug shot are not enough. The film’s name is key and must communicate what the film is about. Therefore choosing the4 name is a business decision.

    For the film’s poster the images need to fit the tagline. So if it is a thriller you cannot have clean faces. Then you have to find a star that will sell the film. A theme can be the star which was the case with Bandit Queen. You also need a peg on which to hang a film. It could be a major event or a controversy.The distribution strategy is key. It is not always necessary to go straight with a wide release. For instance Mira Nair’s The Namesake was initially released in eight cinema halls in the US. It is now playing in 70 cinema halls.

    Hefferman points out that the internet is growing in importance in terms of giving a film buzz. You also have cinema trailers being present on DVDs. Going to festivals like MipTV, Cannes is becoming more important for distributors as they can sell the TV rights to multiple territories. He suggests that Bollywood films push themselves towards an art house audience abroad. This of course is something that European films do in the US.

    Srinivasan dwelt on films being made exclusively for the mobile platform. With UGC content growing the gap between the filmmaker and viewer is narrowing.Sundance in the US has made six films for mobile. At the Macau conference later this year 175 made for mobile films will be on display. Roamware earlier this year partnered with Hungama Mobile to distribute Dus Kahaaniya which is a series of films made for the mobile by Sanjay Gupta.

    Shah says that producers should look at the possibility of creating entertainment brands around a film. He offered the example of Krrish which is now a brand. Eight brands did product placements inside the film. The film also did a co-promotion with Lifebuoys soap. Krish also tied with Singapore Tourism. That allowed the producers to cut production costs. Through merchandising the film has made Rs. 70 million so far.Now thwere is talk of the likes of Disney looking at using the character for an animation series.

     

  • Mipdoc to celebrate tenth anniversary

    Mipdoc to celebrate tenth anniversary

    MUMBAI: Mipdoc, the documentary screening marketplace and conference takes place from 14-15 April 2007 in Cannes prior to the start of MipTV.

    Mipdoc will celebrate its tenth birthday with a keynote from Al Jazeera’s DG Wadah Khanfar, a focus on Italy and eight “Trailblazers” from all across the world.

    Khanfar will deliver a keynote about the reasons behind Al Jazeera Network becoming the first Arab broadcaster to launch a documentary channel covering current affairs, social issues, culture, art and religion.

    He will reveal how his company is becoming one of the major actors in the industry, catching the attention of documentary producers worldwide.
    Mipdoc will focus for the first time on the thriving Italian production industry. During the Mipdoc Made in Italy event, Alessandro Signetto, President of the documentary association Doc IT, is to show trailers of five productions he selected from the latest and best documentaries, in the presence of their producers.

    This year’s conference programme will also offer the Mipdoc participants panel sessions on Online documentary distribution, Dramatising reality and two workshops to help maximise the ability to negotiate with potential partners and to deal with new developing territories : How To Pitch and Co-production with China.

    The third edition of the MIPDOC Co-Production Challenge, which is sponsored by NFB (National Film Board of Canada), will give directors and producers the opportunity to pitch their documentary project to a high-profile jury of savvy industry experts.

    Mipdoc 2006 saw a 13 per cent rise in participation with 432 companies from 57 countries, 385 acquisition executives attending. Production and sales companies sent 1,189 programmes to the digital screening library, of which 769 were appearing at a market for the first time.

  • Ficci gears up for Frames convention

    Ficci gears up for Frames convention

    MUMBAI: Frames, the convention for the business of Indian entertainment organised by Ficci, will take place from 26 – 28 March in Mumbai.

    Business delegation from over 20 countries is expected for the event which is in its eight year. This year Italy is a partner country.

    The television track kicks off with a plenary session – Regulatory Framework for Entertainment Industry on the opening day.

    There has been a regular debate among various stakeholders on regulation. How much of regulation should be there? Should the content regulation be consistent across all delivery mediums such as TV, radio, films and print? Should there be a price regulation? Or the industry should be left to market forces to evolve on its own?

    With the boom of news channels, there will be a session on Changing face of News. In order to survive, news channels along with newsworthiness should have something different. Along with managing editorial content, the gatekeepers are also acting as brand managers.

    Viewers wanting a global perspective of television can attend Fresh TV around the World. This special session, now a regular item at the television trade events in Cannes, France Mip TV and Mipcom, presents the world’s freshest and most popular TV shows of the season, specially edited for Frames participants.

    This includes clips from the world’s most successful, innovative and most talked about TV shows. Based on the monthly The Wit Fresh TV Report which spots new shows launched in more than 30 markets worldwide, the presentation also covers the most creative trends in different programming genres.

    With Cas and DTH already introduced, Frames will have a Plenary Session on The Last Mile: Battle of reaching consumers. The challenge of retaining existing consumers is going to be tough. Are existing distributors well equipped to take up this challenge?

    Another plenary session examines the importance of content. Innovative marketing and promotional campaigns can be of little hope unless it is fuelled with winning content. Irrespective of platform, the key to success is high quality content. Can anybody afford to disagree?

    There will also be a focus on the Asian TV Market in a session. Asia has common cultural values thereby having huge potential of sharing content with countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, and Singapore. How the trade of content can be further strengthened among these countries?

    The Film Track kicks off with the crucial topic of marketing and distribution. This has always been an integral part of the business plan for film producers. The success of a film no longer depends on just the content, storyline and the starcast, but also on how well the film is marketed. The successes of Krissh, Don and Dhoom 2 in India scenario are prime example.

    The session will discuss the new methods employed to get to the target audience especially in international markets. Another session looks at digital cinema. From Celluloid to digital …Indian multiplexes and stand alone theatres are adopting the digital technology. Earlier business models were driving the technological applications. The scenario is just the opposite now, it’s the technology driving the business of Indian Cinema. The digital technology is changing the way the movies are being watched…. What lies in the future?

    Another session examines whether remakes and sequels revisits the past or is it the result of intellectual bankruptcy. Indian films now have a lot of sequels and remixes. Sequels of Munnabhai, Krissh, Hera Pheri, Dhoom and remakes like Don and Umrao Jaan and their success has added a new dimension to the Indian film industry. Some see it as a case of intellectual bankruptcy. In the era of commercialisation does storytelling hold a chance?

    What makes popular cinema tick? Is there a magic formula for success at box office? Increasingly the taste and sensibilities of the Indian audiences are changing. This is reflected in the different genres of movies making box office history this year. Films like Dhoom 2, Krishh, Rang De Basanti and Munnabhai have generated mass hysteria. There is a radical change in the scripts, treatment and presentation. The changing trends of Hindi films will be looked at in a session.

  • MipTV’s Milia conference ‘Capture Innovation’ gets 3 industry execs as keynote speakers

    MipTV’s Milia conference ‘Capture Innovation’ gets 3 industry execs as keynote speakers

    MUMBAI: MipTV featuring Milia has announced that three industry executives Joseph Jaffe, Philip Rosedale and Gerhard Zeiler, will be keynote speakers for this year’s conference programme.

    Milia’s 2007 conference programme entitled “Capture Innovation,” will focus on five key themes looking at ‘Trends-in-Television,’ the ‘Explosion of Mobile Media,’ ‘Branding and Marketing 2.0,’ ‘On-Demand Television and Digital Distribution’ and ‘Content 360 and the Future of Media,’ informs an official release.

    Joseph Jaffe president and ‘Chief Interruptor’ of new-age marketing specialists, Crayon L.L.C. and author of the marketing best-seller “Life after the 30-second Spot,” will look at how advertising is evolving in a world ruled by an empowered consumer and a television industry no longer governed solely by the 30-second spot. His speech, entitled “Energize Your Brand: The New Marketing Renaissance,” is part of a new conference track featuring debates between advertising agencies, brands and content industry leaders.

    Philip Rosedale founder and CEO of Linden Lab, the creator of the 3D online digital world phenomenon “Second Life,” will open the ‘Future of Media’ day on 19 April by discussing the next generation of media and how to engage audiences and brands in the a virtual world. The ‘Future of Media’ day will include Content 360 conferences, showcasing new talent along with enabling technologies and creative cross-platform formats, as well as two super panels “TV 2.0 meets Web 2.0” and “Future of Lifestyle Media.”

    Gerhard Zeiler chief executive officer of European entertainment network, RTL Group, will give his “Traditional Media Fights Back” keynote speech on 16 April. A former ‘Mipcom Personality of the Year,’ Gerhard Zeiler will share his vision of how the networks across the world are responding to fragmented media distribution and embracing change.

  • Korean Broadcasting, BBC to back Miptv’s Content 360

    Korean Broadcasting, BBC to back Miptv’s Content 360

    MUMBAI: The Korean Broadcasting Commission (KBC) and the BBC are backing Miptv’s Content 360, the international competition to commission innovative, interactive content and applications for mobile and broadband.

    The event is a part of Miptv featuring Milia, which takes place in Cannes between 16 to 20 April.

    WPP’s OgilvyOne Worldwide is partnering the competition for the first time, alongside returning partner National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

    Content 360 provides the opportunity for international multimedia and application developers to present original ideas which fully exploit the creative potential of new digital platforms and maximise the interaction between audiences and broadcast television. The call for entries is now open, with winners of the competition sharing €100,000 in development funding, asserts an official release.

    KBC director Jinny Kwak said, “DMB has created a whole new culture where people are creating new lifestyles by experiencing completely different forms of broadcasting. At Content 360, KBC hopes to serve as a fresh motivation for new media platforms, such as DMB, to create and develop their own unique content.”

    “The BBC wants to build relationships with the most creative companies out there and together deliver successful services across all new media platforms. This explains our involvement from the inception of the Content 360 competition,” says Jonathan Kingsbury, Head of External Supply, BBC New Media and Technology.

    Milia director Ted Baracos added, “Content 360 brings together the creative ideas and digital applications which are key ingredients in the new multi-platform world. As part of Miptv featuring Milia, it also provides an unparalleled networking and financing opportunity between traditional and new media.”

    Content 360 entrants have time till 9 February to respond to written briefs provided across various categories, each of which has its own specific criteria as established by the event partners.

    KBC will reward the best entry in the cross-platform formats including DMB (mobile TV-centric) category and NFB is offering co-production financing for innovative new forms of socially responsive media. The BBC categories include : localness on bbc.co.uk, children’s content, cross-platform documentary, teenage drama and entertainment, and on-demand participation. OgilvyOne Worldwide has created a cross-media brand marketing category.

    Mint Digital Ltd Tim Morgan said, “Last year’s Content 360 was truly a great opportunity for a creative and technology company like ours to engage the global TV industry. Before Content 360, Mint Digital was a web design company. After Content 360, Mint Digital became a leading provider of social and user-generated web applications with new relationships with broadcasters and producers from around the world.”

    Content 360 finalists will promote their projects during a series of pitching sessions in front of a panel of key decision-makers. The competition winners will be announced on 19 April during the Content 360 zapping show.

    In addition to the pitching competition, Content 360 will focus on creative conferences such as learning from games, impact of virtual reality, tools and platforms enabling user-generated content, video search and social communities, adds the release.

    The Content 360 initiative also includes a dedicated pavilion for networking between digital creators and the international TV industry executives attending the Miptv featuring Milia exhibition.

  • In pursuit of what in 2007?

    In pursuit of what in 2007?

    The CAS word gets TAM India CEO LV Krishnan thinking about what this brave new world could mean for the likes of the airtime sales exec and media planner.

    In the shifting sands of time the mind does seek for a grip; In the solitude of space constant change is unnerving; only the whiff of victory
    propel one to destination

    As the sun set on 2006, the glow of the last rays had fired the embers left behind by the changes initiated in the arena of TV channel ground distribution during the last few months. The beginning of 2007 itself is seeing a market place oscillating between the old fashioned Analog Technology to a new era of Digital Technology unleashed on the unsuspecting TV viewers by the Government, Multi System Cable operators, Broadcast Satellite owners as well as Telecom companies. With technology gizmos flying all around as well as the jargons attached to it, one is left wondering, what is going on in the simple minds of a Media Planner and Air time Sales member of our industry? Does large industry issues we debate about, top their concern? Take a guess…

    As one mingled with many of them, the concerns or issues were the same… What are we pursuing at the end of the chase?

    A perspective from the Media Planner’s diary

    March 2006: I read in today’s Media website that the Delhi High court has given a ruling to the effect that Conditional Access System is mandatory in South of Mumbai, Delhi & Calcutta for receiving pay TV. This was going to happen in the next few weeks…

    …Whoosh!

    June 2006: It didn’t happen…does it ever happen as proclaimed?

    …Zip…Zap!

    December2006: Will it happen this month? Will await Dec 31st to know…

    January 2007: It happened!

    As I walked into my office the very next day…the first day of the New Year, I wondered…

    Gosh, what will happen to my life? My Brands – Media Plans & Buys are ready to be executed, but now, will I have to put everything on hold? What will I answer my client? Will plan deliveries fall down in the 3 Metros? By how much? What is TAM data indicating?

    In a confused state of mind, I decided to get out of office to take a walk along the Worli sea-line hoping for some fresh breath from a magic genie.

    Yes, the winter air was filled with a new whiff. No doubt it was energizing my legs as I broke into a steady walk. As I took a sample of the freshness of 2007, the mind cleared to open up new possibilities staring at us… potential of ensuing change began to dawn on me. The revolution was just beginning and I was determined to ride the wave of change.

    With a renewed vigour, I walked back to my desk to put a call to my client. He was pretty surprised to hear me say that I will be coming down to meet him the same evening to explain to him the consequences of changes happening in the TV media.

    Next, I started with some desk work. I wanted to understand the magnitude of the change expected to be brought about by the CAS notification on Zone 1. A simple analysis from NRS 2006 as well as the TAM CAS document circulated earlier indicated to me that 1.6 million C&S homes across the 3 metros of Mumbai, Delhi & Calcutta will come under the purview. This meant one-fifth (20%) of C&S homes in the 3 metros or just one-twentieth (5%) of C&S homes represented by TAM All India Class I town panel.

    Hence if all the homes in the notified areas for CAS in the 3 metros did not go for set top boxes, the maximum impact in reach of my media plan due to of loss of viewing of pay channels on a National level is going to be less than 5%. In other words, the planned reach of 60% on a National scale could come down to 57%. This could only be the worst scenario. But things are already looking better with demand for set top boxes on the rise with each day passing…

    I then looked at my media plan composition – list of Pay TV channels & Free-to-Air TV (FTA) channels used to deliver the reach. On comparing this with the Free-to-Air channels available, I decided to make a few minor adjustments whereby by making minor spot changes between Free-to-Air & Pay TV channels, I was easily able to hike up the planned reach to 58% on a National level!

    As I started receiving the news that the demand for CAS set top boxes are increasing, I decided to stretch the brand campaign by a few days. This could help me leverage any additional homes that moved into using a set top box for accessing/viewing Pay TV content.

    What made me feel even more confident about achieving the media plan goal was the news that almost all the homes acquiring a CAS set top box will receive all the Pay & FTA TV channels he used to get before Dec 31st. This meant that, while in theory CAS set top box was supposed to act like a filter by providing the viewer with the choice to subscribe, at present it is only used as an enabler to watch all Pay & FTA TV channels which was available to the viewer earlier as a simple cable TV home. Thus, viewer behaviour in terms of channels watched post CAS set top box acquisition couldn’t have changed, thereby helping me to deliver my planned reach goals too.

    I am awaiting with bated breath the first TAM CAS penetration study later this month, more to understand the length of time it is going to take for viewers to start experiencing a shift to the world of digital content. I for one will be looking for the profiles of the CAS homes to try and plan execution of the new brand creative my marketing manager has promised. I have lots of ideas up my sleeve, waiting to explode in the digital space!

    A perspective from the Airtime Sales member’s diary

    January 2007: I looked up my watch and exclaimed “Damn it, going to be late again.” It was all because of this silly traffic…

    2007 had started with a sense of purpose. Yes, there were changes happening around. Positive, I could say. I was heading to meet a very important Up-market personal product marketing head. I was pleased that I could get the appointment after struggling for some many months to get it…only because I was going to show him something different!

    From the telephonic chat I had with him yesterday, I could sense his voice perk up when he heard about my channel’s new programming, showing promise among his set of exclusive consumers.

    I got out of the cab and rushed across the street clutching hard to my presentation papers. I approached the front office of the organization gasping for breath. The receptionist looked at her watch, acknowledged my presence on the intercom and then, silently led me to the massive board room. As I sat, wrapped around by the chilly air sent out by the humming air-conditioner, my mind whirred with excitement. At the same time, I had a sense of apprehension as it was for the first time I was going to present the findings about my channel from the Elite panel and I was not sure, how the marketing head could react.

    Suddenly, a booming voice saying “Hello” came in from behind. As I turned around, I came in contact with the marketing head, who was by then extending his arm to welcome me. Pleasantries were exchanged and we got quickly to the brass tracks.

    I opened my small presentation folder displaying the sheets about his products and target consumers. I could see him nodding to my opening statements. I was feeling relieved that I was bang-on in guessing his product’s consumer profile. This led me to draw up the next few sheets that explained the profile of viewers my channel catered on a daily basis. I could see him show inquisitiveness to my reports. Soon we got drawn into the discussion about my channel’s performance and the question I was waiting for all along got popped out. “How do you say that my consumers watch TV and therefore content related to your channel?”

    My best was yet to come. I opened up the data from the Elite panel to reveal to him the new, latest finding…

    His Up-scale consumers did spent time watching TV (unlike his thinking), but they spent less time watching it vis-?-vis the average TV viewer and even an SEC A TV viewer on the TAM National panel.

    The other important observation that impressed him was that the TV viewership of the Elite viewers was far more fragmented as compared to an average viewer and also the SEC A viewer in the National panel.

    While 26 channels accounted for 80% of viewership for the SEC A viewers, it took 35 channels that made up 80% share of viewing for the Elite viewers, a testimony to the wider content preference for the Elite! This invariably means that, in order to reach to the Elite viewers, the marketing head had to consume air-time across more channels of distinct content appealing to his Up-market consumers.

    As I progressed with my charts and comments, the final one hit the bulls-eye. Certain genres like English Movie channels, Business news, English news & English Entertainment channels had a visible skew towards the Elite audience as compared to even the SEC A viewers in the National panel. This made the marketing head look up. I could see a huge smile on his face as he made the comment “I always knew this and keep saying so to all my team members.” I just smiled back at him with the hope that I could have finally bagged the campaign, I thought, that deserved to run on my channel.

    It did happen as I visualized the very next moment. The marketing head picked up the nearby intercom, spoke a few words to the person on the other end, and then turned around to me to say the final words, the most precious words I have been waiting to hear “…the campaign will include your channel too.”

    That evening, I was certainly heady. We celebrated the win back in the office with a champagne pop up. 2007 indeed has begun for me in a new way I couldn’t have imagined a few days back. A real nice kick start and I hope to keep riding that way!

  • ‘A very good year for TV news business, with a huge upside for the industry’

    ‘A very good year for TV news business, with a huge upside for the industry’

    The year 2007 has been very, very good so far as business is concerned. We had all approached the year with certain things that we needed to do, and my organisation had decided to move to areas that go beyond news. So we went on a funding road show in March-April this year, collected the money we needed to for funding the verticals we wanted to develop and we have done so, getting into various aspects of media activity.

    In fact, if you look at NDTV Network story, in a sense this was the real media story of the country this year, with the six verticals that I run now, consequent to raising of the funding. One is NDTV Imagine, the GEC from our company, which we expect to launch from end-January 2008. And entertainment has endless possibilities, music, films, and so many other aspects.

    Then we have launched NDTV Lifestyle this year. This is our response to the economic changes and the increase in the size of the middle class and their spending habits, which are fast changing.

    Under the NDTV Networks umbrella we now have news, entertainment, lifestyle, technology solutions, setting up new projects
    _____****_____

    Today, you can walk into a mall in Saket (in the southern parts of New Delhi) and you can find Armani and other foreign and expensive brands. This was not the case even a year earlier. And there are people going to these places and buying these things. So we had targeted this niche audience, which believes in wellness and fitness and good living, health and happiness and so forth.

    The other business is NDTV Convergence, which is a leading Web 2.0 company with interests in developing exclusive content for cross media platforms such as the Internet, mobile phones and IPTV.

    We operate India’s no 1 television news website www.ndtv.com along with other leading verticals, namely, NDTV Profit, NDTV Jobs, NDTV Travels, NDTV Gadgets, NDTV Shopping and NDTV Commodities. Convergence is really a hot property, and we have developed a very good management team, which is by the way true for all our verticals.

    There is also another emerging trend, which is an MPO, a media processes outsourcing company. There are so many media companies that need to go digital, or have meta-tagging, or run specialised closed-captions, catering to audio-challenged and visually challenged persons. These companies need various solutions, so we have developed that vertical in a JV with Genpact and called the company N-gEN.

    We said that the industry will bring its own code, and fortunately, the government accepted that
    _____****_____

    We already had NDTV Labs, which deals with broadcast technology for ourselves, both software and hardware. We have been getting awards for these activities from Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and other agencies. We have people with 18 years of expertise in that field and so we decided that apart from producing these solutions for NDTV, this can become an independent business.

    Then there is NDTV Emerging Markets which will set up new projects, like we have done in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Middle East.

    So under the NDTV Networks umbrella we now have news, entertainment, lifestyle, technology solutions, setting up new projects. For me these are highly satisfactory developments. Broadly speaking, we have done everything that could be done in the realm of media, and I think many of us (other companies as well) have done likewise, which makes 2007 a very good business year.

    But yes, there have been a few contentious issues as well, like regulation, of which there are two broad aspects: the news content code and the Broadcast Regulation Bill.

    So far as the content code is concerned, let me try to be as objective as is possible. The government set up a committee to look at all components of the content code, and the committee including educationists, activists, watchdog kind of people, the media itself, the government officials and so on.

    But the when the code came out, it was simply not acceptable to us. For one thing, the committee had had just a single representative from the media, from the Indian Broadcasting Foundation. One must understand that the code was meant to regulate the news industry and it made no sense having just one person representing it. We were completely dominated by the ministerial majority. So we rejected it outright, because any code brought about by the government was not acceptable to us. We said that the industry will bring its own code, and fortunately, the government accepted that.

  • ‘A very good year for TV news business, with a huge upside for the industry’

    ‘A very good year for TV news business, with a huge upside for the industry’

    Yes, whenever there is a boom period, there are problems, and in the long run, there will be consolidation and some channels would peter out, but I would like to believe that the serious players who have come and made a name for themselves would stay.

    This was a year when the question was asked where the advertisers were putting their money: trash channels or genuine ones. From the limited perspective of a news channel, particularly Hindi news, I can see that a large number of them have gone the tabloid way: the sex-and-violence route.

    I have actually seen a crime show on an important Hindi news channel that said, “Stay with us, and after the break we shall show you a rape”! Now, you cannot have that kind of thing on news, and those of us who are news professionals and journalists will not accept that kind of a thing.

    What this has done in the immediate and short term is it has taken away some bits of viewership from serious news. But that shift has not been reflected in revenue accruals. The reason as I see it is quite simple: you cannot possibly have a news channel that can say something like “After the break shall bring you “Rape of the Day” by Hindustan Lever”, or whatever other company or big brand. So the advertisers have stayed with the respectable channels.

    So in terms of rating you have Aaj Tak at the top and then Star News and some others high up, but in terms of revenue we are still there right at the number two position. Ultimately, no advertiser would like to spend money beyond a point on such shows. So, if there has been an impact on viewership, there is no significant impact on revenues.

    Finally, it is going to be hard hitting, proper investigative journalism that will have to come back to the news channels
    _____****_____

    There can be no doubt that there is some problem with the rating system (TAM), but the fact is that this is the industry standard. Some of the key components of the system are not clear. It is suspected that some of the people-meter homes have been compromised. For instance, some channels find out which are some of the people-meter homes. They approach those homes and give them a new TV set and say: “You watch whatever channels you want on the new set, but on the old set just run my channel.”

    Sometimes the rating weightage gets skewed just because of one or two homes in the country. For example if you talk of the English news market, it would be the metros, to start with, and then the larger cities like Hyderabad, or Ahmedabad, etc. But if someone says that an English news channel on a given day has dominated, and that domination has come from Dasua in Punjab, or some small place in Andhra Pradesh, then you would say: “Hey there is something wrong here. That is not your market so how come that one little weightage has totally distorted the picture?”

    Besides, TAM has not taken into account the heterogeneity of India, because we are not homogenous, in terms of language, culture etc, like the United States. Indians are so diverse, that people from each state are almost like different races, if I may use that term. Any measurement system has to take these kinds of factors into account. I think it has been a direct copy of a system that works elsewhere in the world, not taking into account the nuances that India has as a nation.

    Plus, you have people-meters in just about 8,000 homes, in a country of a billion people. Even for exit polls for a state election, we have sample size of 40,000 to 50,000 voters, and for the general elections we have something up to 200,000 voters as the sample size before you can even remotely forecast anything. These are the pitfalls of the rating system, which needs to become better.

    But having said that, TAM is the current industry standard and we shall have to go with it. If it says that on a certain night some news channel was number one, then more or less it works that way. It is another matter that that news channel was then showing a sex show. But that is for the viewer to decide. If he wants to see a sex show in news, it is his choice.

    But in the long run I believe that finally, it is going to be hard hitting, proper investigative journalism that will have to come back to the news channels.

  • ‘The best thing that has happened is the wake up call on content’

    ‘The best thing that has happened is the wake up call on content’

    As I see it, I think what has happened is that the media game has become far more commoditised, and in a sense cluttered and competitive now than ever before. As for me, in the context of television content, there has been an increase in the volume of that content available this year, but paradoxically, whether quality has improved is a huge question mark.

     

    That to me is the biggest worrying point in 2007. Just see, so many news channels coming together to work on a content code would not have happened 12 months ago. They are all recognising that we could be going down a very slippery slope. We at CNN IBN are considering having an ombudsman who would ensure that the highest standards of journalistic integrity are maintained.

     

    It is also becoming a major question whether for the odd rating points here and there are we allowing standards to slip, and I think we shall not be forgiven beyond a point if we allow this to happen. That for me has been the defining aspect of 2007.

     

    It has been like a wakeup call. It may have been driven in by the government, and they took the first step and that worried us, because the government is identified with censorship, but there is much that we have to look at very carefully.

     

    We have to realise that our jobs as journalists is to provide credible information and I hope this debate does not end in 2007 and from being a government-led debate it should become an industry-led one.

     

    I am glad that Indian Television Dot Com’s News Television (NT) Awards, which was launched from this year itself, started with a debate on content and the direction in which we are going: can we self regulate? Do we need a broadcasting council? These are all questions that came up this year and these have to be answered in 2008.

     

    The other issue, though I confess that I am not an expert on it, is distribution, and I think it is going to be the next big challenge. As Cas rolled out, and digitilisation began, we realised that it is the future. How Cas can be spread across the country and not just to a few areas will be a big challenge. How regulation will ensure a level playing for all will be a challenge.

     

    To my mind we have reached a stage where the entire distribution area will need a serious study, along with the issue of content.

     

    Media game has become far more commoditised, and in a sense cluttered and competitive
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    The way the hidden camera was being used was a worrying thing. It was becoming an end in itself rather than a means to an end. These are serious issues and I think we need a far more rigorous code of content across our channels.

     

    I hope we are moving in that direction, I really do.

     

    The other big challenge is, how do you become multi-media? Mobile, television, Internet, possibly even print becoming a part of it. Localisation without a print partner does not work. We need to be spread across all the platforms, rather than just be television, the only platform we have. I think it is going to be the battle of the networks in the future, not just television channels alone.

     

    I am positive that Hindi channels must also do the same. Who says Hindi channels should stay away from the web? It may not happen today, but it is going to happen five years from now.

     

    I think the future will also see a greater emphasis on localisation and regionalisation of news. We will need to be much more conscious of a changing viewer, but without sacrificing quality… that is the key. The future battle will be of perceptions, of influence, or being thought leaders. In CNN IBN. That’s been our aim, to be thought leaders.

     

    We are going into Marathi and we are taking these decisions consciously. We want to be India’s window to the world but to spread our influence, we also have to be in the regional space.

  • “The best thing that has happened is the wake up call on content”

    “The best thing that has happened is the wake up call on content”

    And you will find that regionalisation will finally give the media greater depth. There is tremendous energy in the media in regions and they need a platform and I am sure you will see that a lot in 2008. For us it is the quality that matters, and we take enormous pride in the fact that both CNBC and CNN IBN were the winners of the Indian Telly Awards and NT Awards this year. For us, recognition as a quality network matters more than anything else at the moment.

    There could be a perception that since people watch some irresponsible channels that the people in general are crass in their tastes, but looking at what has happened in the Hindi news space, I think TAM also has a need to take a second look at itself, and I don’t want the ministry to be doing it, as it seems to be suggesting. That would be terrible. I have a lot of faith in the people who do our ratinsg and I think they are people of great credibility. And just as we as content makers are looking inwards, they also need to do the same thing.

    I don’t think the Hindi news viewer is so drastically different from any other, or that this crudeness is what he wants, because what everybody is now wanting is quality. If you do chaddi-banyan (panty) journalism, you will get chaddi-banyan advertisements. I am not going to mention any specific channel but that revenue model cannot work. In the long run you have to do credible, thought provoking, inclusive journalism.

    There are too many short-term players in the market at the moment. It is a box-office-rating journalism for them. But Hindi TV news has done a lot of intelligent masala journalism and there is scope for a lot of that, without doing chaddi-banyan journalism. That is not the point. What worries me is the dumbing down of content.

    There is tremendous energy in the media in regions and they need a platform and I am sure you will see that a lot in 2008
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    There is need to take stock of the societal changes taking place. On the day of the Gurgaon school shootout, I think that was the real story, and not Gujarat elections. On the day of actual elections, or results coming out, Gujarat polls will be the real news story, but one important thing is that we have moved away from the journalism centred around politicians. And the Hindi channels are sometimes very good at that.

    And in our case, we have given our Hindi channel, IBN 7 the space to create an identity of its own. It is not a copy channel of the English CNN IBN, it has its own reportage, analysis and plan of action. If for the shootout story they headline it as “Gurgaon shootout” and not some Hindi word, I think they are entirely entitled to their own sensibility and this shows their growing self-confidence. Similarly for the Gujarat polls we in the English channel have used the word Gujarat Yatra, and why not? We are into breaking barriers. We have the Gujarat elections special programme titled “Kaun Banega CM”, and why not? Why do we have to see Kaun Banega Crorepati as a programme title only in a Hindi channel?

    But these are in any case the frills, and I feel that sometimes too much is inspected of the frills, but making the cake is the real challenge. That is my biggest worry: how do you relentlessly make quality news without getting into the ratings war.

    What have been the best and the worst things this year? Well, the best thing that has happened is the wake up call on content, the worst thing is that we have not been able to break the barrier between quantity and quality! We have talked a lot about it, but we have to do much more than just talk.