ITV

Category: Year Enders

  • ‘The mobile VAS game is about to change and only the agile will survive’

    ‘The mobile VAS game is about to change and only the agile will survive’

    The year 2008 holds great promise for the MVAS industry in India. Two key focus areas of this year will be the launch of 3G and the Advent of Mobile Advertising in the country.

    The much anticipated 3G will bring with it the stage, set for the entry of Mobile Advertising, creating a flawless marketing medium that allows you to reach consumers in a way that genuinely interests them.

    Upcoming in 2008

    The Industry is awaiting its share of changes that will come its way in the year ahead. 2008 will witness trends that are bound to change the entire MVAS game, offering opportunities that will need to be capitalized on. In times like these, only players with the ability to scale, who have established and consolidated their stronghold in the industry will be able to survive and thrive in this highly competitive and burgeoning MVAS space.

    The introduction of 3G technology will see services like Video Streaming, Video Caller Ringback Tones (CRBTs) and Wireless Teleconferencing gaining popularity.

    Increased data connectivity will increase the consumption of content on mobile, expanding the market enough for the content companies to reach out to the customers on their own, if the risk of disintermediation can be worked out.

    Increased data connectivity will increase the consumption of content on mobile
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    The beginning of this transformation is already evident in the deals being made by companies like People Infocom (Mauj Mobile). The company is counted amongst India’s leading MVAS providers and has inked deals that substantiate its expertise as an end-to-end Mobile Solutions Company. Their recent undertakings include, associations with Eros studios to repurpose film content for the mobile, and managing ESPN’s direct-to-consumer wireless portal on a managed services model.

    Mobile Advertising is another area that will see a promising year ahead. While the current scenario for Mobile Advertising in the country lacks a much needed push, interesting concepts like AdverGaming are fast gaining significance. People Infocom has worked on games for MTV UK and Sony Ericsson on the same lines.

    The Future for Mobile Music

    Mobile Music is a part of the Mobile Entertainment Industry. Entertainment and Telecommunications are the two important industries that converge to form this burgeoning sector. Each of these worlds in India are at present faced with immense opportunity, and that translates into an even bigger prospect for the Mobile Music space in particular.

    The mobile music market in India is at present valued at approximately Rs 1650 crore and is growing at an estimated CAGR of 40-50%.

    Fuelling this growth rate, are the opportunities presented by the sheer size of the Indian market and the colossal Indian music and film industry itself. The introduction of 3G technology later this year will only facilitate a better way to reach a mass-market audience in a country of more than one billion inhabitants.

    Better accessibility and a penetration rate of around 18% has helped Mobile Music surpass Online Music sales in India. Online Music makes up less than 5% of the digital market in India, while Mobile music covers the rest.

  • ‘Why would BCCI want its biggest new property on a new channel?’

    ‘Why would BCCI want its biggest new property on a new channel?’

    Looking at the larger perspective, what have been the big challenges the broadcast sector faced and will face, going forward?
    The pathetically slow pace of digital rollout (Cas) has been the biggest challenge for existing players. Though I do believe digital distribution will come into play from 2008 onwards.

    Combating all these new players will be the big upcoming challenge. The (leadership) pecking order will have to be reestablished. Star is not complacent in its position of number 1. Even Zee as a challenger is not complacent. Everybody will face challenge. The whole media business will face challenge.

    The industry is seeing huge churn now. The channel explosion is going to further fragment audiences. We will soon have 9/10 channels in each of the genres – news, sports and movies.

    You say pathetically slow digital rollout on the cable front is the biggest challenge for the new players as well as the existing players. But if we look at 9X, the numbers they are drawing are not due to cannibalization, but due to new viewers.
    It’s not cannibalization of GEC but other genres like music.

    So you don’t believe that people have an inherent desire to consume entertainment content but may have been tuned off by the lack of variety presently on offer so they are trying out channels like 9X?
    Its not just 9X. Even Bindass is getting new viewers. 9X is making a lot of noise but give me a name of one show that stands out. On NDTV Imagine also, nothing will stand out.

    What do we have in 2008. BCCI’s Indian Premiere League will take off and what else?
    I don’t know on which channel it will take off. I hope it is on ours.

    But as you yourself said, there will be new sports channels launching and we should expect bids from new players.
    They can of course bid but why would BCCI want its biggest new property on a new channel? Its not just money, they (the cricket board) have to make it successful.

    New players should enter digital distribution in the cable front. More people are required, more funding is required

    We do have an example of Ten Sports, which launched with World Cup Soccer in 2002.
    There were only two channels – ESPN and Star Sports – then. Today there are seven channels (DD Sports, Ten Sports, Zee Sports, ESPN, Star Sports, Star Cricket, Neo Sports). Additionally, Max is half a sports channel.

    Each time you launch a new channel, the space will get further fragmented. There is too much out there. There is going be a blood bath.

    What about a platform proposition, like in the case of Sky in the UK? For a rights holder, could IPL potentially become as critical as EPL was to Sky?
    Firstly, in India no exclusivity is being allowed. Secondly, the new guys bidding for the rights are channels which are not yet launched. If platforms like Dish TV or Reliance were to buy the rights, then I would understand but the guys buying are unknown people. They are all startups. They are doing it for their business valuations. They are not bothered whether IPL succeeds or not. Whereas BCCI wants IPL to succeed. IPL will collapse with new players.

    Coming back to the year ahead, how do you see 2008 for your network and the industry?
    As far as the industry is concerned, we would want to see the Reliance launches happening. It’s a very big thing. Then IPL should succeed. New players should enter digital distribution in the cable front. More people are required, more funding is required.

    As for ourselves, we will take some other new initiatives and continue to build our business. We need one hit show. Saat Phere was the starting point for Zee. I need one hit show from Monday to Thursday. That is my perspective. I have no problem in any other area of my business except that. We need to build up, which is not happening.

    Each channel is doing its own thing and so are we. In the meantime, I am doing syndication and international distribution. I am doing everything right except getting that one hit show.

  • ‘Why would BCCI want its biggest new property on a new channel?’

    ‘Why would BCCI want its biggest new property on a new channel?’

    For Sony Entertainment Television (Set) India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, the big wish for 2008 is to throw up that one hit narrative show that would get some momentum going for his network’s flagship channel Set.

    Other than the vexed issue of Set and its equally struggling Hindi GEC sibling Sab, the network is doing fine thank you, argues the long serving head honcho of the Indian broadcast operations of Sony Pictures

    In conversation with Indiantelevisiojn.com recently, Dasgupta looks back on the difficult year that was 2007 and offers some pointers to the strategic direction Set India (now renamed Multi Screen Media Private Limited) is looking to take in 2008 and beyond.

    Excerpts:

    Let’s start with the new name. Is this because your parent Sony Pictures Entertainment is distancing the Sony brand name from the Indian broadcast entity?
    Certainly not. The name is reflective of the company’s evolution from a pure television broadcaster to a multimedia one. We want to be on all screens that are video enabled. Going forward, we will be actively investing in mobile, movies, internet, and out of home screens. Mobile in particular is going to be a focus area for us.

    When you say you want to be on all screens, could you elaborate on that?
    I am going to be recycling the over 30,000 hours of television content and 750+ movie titles that I have with me. We plan to repurpose a lot of it not just across the different screens, but across networks too.

    The realm of exclusivity is no longer the norm. To stay ahead of the game you have to be focused on how best to leverage the content that you have.

    Like the Rs 40 crore (RS 400 million) deal you did with Peter Mukerjea’s INX for 60 movie titles?
    Yes. That deal entitles INX to three airings of each film I have syndicated to them.

    Looking back to 2007, how would you rate the performance of the channels in the Sony network?
    Well, Max was fantastic; Pix became viable. On Sony and Sab we have suffered reverses on account of our fiction programming not working.

    And looking ahead into 2008?
    The business paradigm is changing and we are at the forefront of that. You could say we are the catalysts for change. Syndication, mobile; these are going to be areas that will explode. The one who reads the writing on the wall and adapts will survive.

    On Sony and Sab we have suffered reverses on account of our fiction programming not working

    How has the year been in terms of revenues? The perception in the market is that Sony had a terrible year.
    If you add up ad sales, distribution and our international business, it would be Rs 1,200 crores (Rs 12 billion) overall, so you can’t say it was a terrible year.

    One reason for the perception that Sony had a lousy year, aside from its programming not working, was the ICC World Cup debacle in March. We understand you lost some RS 800 million odd due to India’s early exit. Comment?
    The ICC rights should not be looked at from the results from one tournament, but on how it delivered over four years. And it delivered on every count for us.

  • 2nd most significant year in broadcast media history

    2nd most significant year in broadcast media history

    The media space has always been explosive over the past years but this year, in my opinion, has been the second most significant year in the history of media (since the launch of cable TV in the early nineties).

    DTH, though having being launched in 2005/06 really became “noisy” and aggressive this year.

    CAS, though with more than just teething troubles, was finally implemented this year.

    Lastly, one also saw launches or impending launches of channels in the general entertainment space and other important categories and therefore creating more networks other than the 3-4 networks that rule currently. Overall, with the launch of channels, change in the viewership habits and DTH & CAS taking off, the industry has been extremely dynamic.

    Of course, the audience still continues to have limited time now that with a crazy set of choices. Moving forward, this will automatically mean that launching a platform or a channel will be the easiest part of the story. Competing well and sustaining the respective businesses will be the biggest challenge in the coming years. I, for one don’t believe that all new entrants are here for the long term so it will be interesting to see how this space pans out in the next five years and what consolidation of businesses take place.

    With regards to HBO, the channel has been growing year on year and is more than a channel …it is a brand that epitomizes quality Hollywood entertainment. We will continue to offer the best in Hollywood entertainment. However, we too, will need to be mindful of the changing viewing “formats” if you like and the plethora of choices that viewers now have and that will form an important part of our game plan for the next few years.

  • The Year in between 2006 and 2008

    The Year in between 2006 and 2008

    Here’s a year that barely was!

    When someone writes the history of 2007 they will find it difficult to find the right catchphrase to define an odd year.

    People, I’m not going to lie when I say that for me it was a True Generation Year because it made me realise that I had made one of the best decisions of my life. I say one because there are other Best Decision Year status years.

    Leaving the comfort zone was the BIG CALL because at the end of the day, no matter what, it’s not called The Comfort Zone for no reason. It’s called the Comfort Zone because that’s what we strive for all our lives. As a student you’re made to realise that if you work hard you’ll get a Good Job and work for a Good Company and Money isn’t everything! So you study hard , work hard and then finally get a job that you think is cool and you get on with the boss and you continue to strive each day to get promoted and earn that little bit more and so on and so on. Then when you get to the Top you realise that that’s Not the Top and the chase continues. It’s a bit like going on a trek and you’re told that the stopping point is just round the corner and you find that its not. There’s another corner to go round and another and another until you’re completely knackered.

    So when you get to the place where you think it’s the Top you could say that it’s the Comfort Zone you’ve always strived for.

    Not a bad place to be. The view is good, the perks aren’t bad, there’s plenty of challenge and yet there’s the Golf routine and the variety of paid-for overseas jaunts and family holidays, at least twice a year. An expense account that most would kill for and so on. A couple of trips in the corporate jet maybe.

    That’s when the fun starts because there are people who’ll tell you that you should really be doing more with your life and get OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE. As though the Comfort Zone was a place akin to hell and that you could be doing more interesting things with your time and getting more out of life!

    And the strong willed amongst us take that on board and yet dismiss it and stay put and enjoy The Comfort Zone. (Sounds like a good name for a massage parlour or a nightclub).

    The more Daring, Creative, Energetic, Passionate, Fun loving, Mad ones actually take the BiG CaLL and do it. They quit. And take the plunge into the icy waters of ‘doing your own thing’.

    So for me this was the Generation Year that I took the plunge but I’d never have done it without being pushed by Indrani – my much better half – (and that was an earlier BEST DECISION YEAR) who’s said I was a loser if I didn’t do this and asked me time and again how long I would be a slave to someone and do the ‘yes sir yes sir, 3 bags full sir’ routine.

    I would recommend the’ Icy water jump’ to anyone who’s been doing the 3 bags full routine for any length of time and ask them to rekindle the flame of taking risks.

    The transition from being an entrepreneur to a professional entrepreneur is less exciting I think that going from being a prosessional and doing the transition to becoming an entrepreneur.

    Go for it any day. You can’t imagine how boring life has become until you see the light at the end of the tunnel and after about 3 days you don’t actually miss the corporate jet or the expense account or the rest of it.

    It’s a new start and that’s the key to reinvention.

    There’s another reason for me to call this a BIG DECISION YEAR. That’s because I bought my first computer game – since buying the original Nintendo. This time its the Nintendo Wii and I bought it to play tennis which I’m getting better at and I have reached a score of 500, which I’m told is not so hot as I should be up to 1000+. Turns out I’m a very competitive digital athlete. My daughter whips me in boxing but I get her back at tennis – sometimes. She’s 10.

    It’s also been a year for the I phone which I managed to get working quite early on and found a colleague who could transfer all the data from a Nokia to an Apple. Marvelous what the techy guys can do. Really.

    This was a great year by all accounts for yours truly. No complaints, no regrets and no lack of wonderful goal posts to shoot into. A real BIG DECISION YEAR.

  • ‘Any attempt to gag freedom of media in garb of regulation has to be resisted’

    ‘Any attempt to gag freedom of media in garb of regulation has to be resisted’

    Television news industry was faced with a dilemma and consequently a huge challenge in the year 2007 – content. Numerous questions were raised on the kind of news that was aired on various news channels. And in some quarters a sense prevailed that television news must regulate itself, as there is a limit to shabby content.

    Self-regulation in itself is not bad. But any attempt to gag the freedom of media in the garb of regulation has to be resisted. No doubt, every freedom comes with a sense of responsibility. Barring a few aberrations, media in our country has fulfilled its duty with diligence. Hence any attempt at forced regulation will be counter-productive. As such free press has been the foundation stone of our thriving and vibrant democracy.

    No doubt, television news industry has grown at such a frantic pace, that it has created certain pitfalls. All out efforts in the past year were made to grab viewership. In this mad race, at times content was compromised and true journalism took a back seat. Compounding this malady, mushrooming news channels tended to water down the impact of many meaningful news reports.

    To buttress my point, I would talk about “Operation Kalank” (Aaj tak-Tehelka exposé on connivance of state administration in sheltering and helping the riot accused in 2002). In a normal news environment this news report would have shaken the foundation of governance in Ahmedabad and Delhi both. But the shelf live of this haunting exposé was hardly a few days. It did shake up the intelligentsia and society for a while, but it was not the topic of discussion in most drawing rooms after even a week. Not much changed either. Even though our channels kept the issue alive for a few days, the story didn’t really move forward. And this I presume is largely due to a variety of news being aired by a host of channels.

    Not just “Operation Kalank”, there was a good story on another channel, portraying a major scandal in UP. That exposé showed how police in UP has surpassed all levels of corruption. For as little as Rs 3,000, police officers were acting as contract killers and shooting down people in the name of ‘encounters’. This was not an insignificant story. Rather it was a crucial expose showing the depths of corruption within our police force. Had this story appeared a few years ago, it would have made national headlines and would have been the talking point for a long time. But in today’s circumstances, it vanished from the scene within days and couldn’t even attract print media’s attention.

    Mushrooming news channels watering down impact of meaningful news reports
    _____****_____

    This has to be attributed to the overcrowding in the TV news space, which has reduced the audience attention span. There are so many news items being dished out that your interest in something of importance vanishes swiftly. Rather to retain audience interest many a times too many stories are being splashed, so that the audience doesn’t move away.

    This was not the case, when a handful of established papers and news channels were in operation some years ago. For example, the much highlighted Maya Tyagi rape case, was covered extensively two decades ago. But today, such incidents barely make up for sustained coverage. This is the price of viewership/readership being paid by journalism.

    But, there have been instances where TV news coverage has led an issue being brought to its logical conclusion. This was highlighted during Jessica Lal murder case and Rizwan ur Rehman suicide case. Such stories found news space on all networks for months together. Increasingly an impression has gained momentum that news reports pertaining to the urban upper middle class finds more space on TV than rural issues like farmers suicide. This can be explained by the logic of market forces. Television audience is mostly urban and news pertaining to urban middle class has greater retention value. Hence to cater to its core audience, television lays more emphasis on urban stories.

    Talking of the year 2007, I feel, the audience has changed its choice and appeal. Issues like corruption don’t appeal to viewers anymore. Maybe people have accepted it as an integral part of our society. Therefore an exposé featuring corruption doesn’t interest the audience, to a large extent.

    The problem with television is that it has only one screen and can show only one story at a time. While a newspaper may have more than 30-40 pages and it can publish many news items on one page. Also it has a luxury to have theme based pages like, national, international, sports, business, regional, henceforth. The reader has the choice to read or skip items or even an entire page that does not interest him/her. If a reader doesn’t find a news item or even some pages of the newspaper of his/her interest, he/ she may skip the news item or that particular page, but he/she will not change the newspaper only because some stories were not of his/her interest.

  • News Channels: Sensation-fatigue, government’s attitude and regional channels will decide future content

    So, as one captain of the industry says, if the advertisers stay with the credible, then some channels will die out and TAM would have to ask itself serious questions, or “there will be no place for it in the Indian TV news market”.

    Lastly, come to the Content Code. If anyone feels that the government will wait and wait and not act till the news channels give in their draft, slated for this month end (but one never knows), then it would be foolishness.

    This is a precarious position for the ruling UPA and with Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh going the BJP way, it will be even more circumspect in dealing with the media. And yet, it is after all not the parties in power but the bureaucrats who bring out the pending issues in front of successive new ministers and make them do the things they want.

    Many bureaucrats –not necessarily just the ones in Shastri Bhavan – have suffered due to stings and for many of them, controlling content is important. So electoral concerns may have made Prime Minsiter Manmohan Singh ask I&B minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi to soft pedal for the moment, but the government will ultimately set up the regulator and the code will be in place. At least, that is what Shastri Bhavan insiders have given us to understand.

    In the year to come, content will be shaped by a few things, of which the first will be the government’s attitude to it and that will largely be patterned on how the news channels behave vis-?-vis the government. They can do some serious work on their own Code and the chances are that the government will accept it, just as it had adopted the ASCI code for advertisement. However, if the attitude of the NBA is to play footsie with the government, they could well kill their own chances of governing themselves, which is the best thing one can wish for.

    The second deciding factor would be what some see as fatigue setting in on sensationalism, which even Naqvi has warned about. The channels themselves are running out of sensational ideas that are new and more importantly, that would last, for all the experiments have at last died, and the pace of mortality of newer ideas is increasing.

    The third will be the government’s position on TAM, and it has warned TAM when the CEO failed to turn up for a Parliamentary Committee meeting in Mumbai at the end of this year. If the government – and in all probability it will, because that is a way of controlling content without talking of the much hated Code imposes certain modes of operation and measures TAM must take for rating channels, it will have a direct impact on content.

    Last but not least, and though it will take some time, is the massive oncoming growth of regional channels and their own niche content that would drive the mainstream channels to do a hard rethink.

    For the moment, the proponents of serious journalism are assured, with IBN 7 seeking relief in the fact that they did touch 14 per cent and are doing better business than rival India TV; NDTV seeing market assurance from the fact of its grossing the second tallest figures, and CNN-IBN as well as NDTV going into the diversification drive emphasising that the serious guys are not about to fall by the wayside.

  • News Channels: Sensation-fatigue, government’s attitude and regional channels will decide future content

    For noted media columnist Shailja Bajpai, her wish-list for 2008 includes cleaning up the news channels and getting back to ‘news as news should be. Or as it was in the olden days of print media and just Doordarshan’.

    The latest entrant in the Hindi news genre, Anuradha Prasad – with her News 24 – could perhaps bring some comfort to Bajpai, as Prasad has positioned her channel as one with the aim of “bringing news back to news”. But that will be one Hindi channel anew with that sort of focus from the beginning, whereas the market is in a high state of flux and for sure, eyeball journalism has been getting a better share in the space.

    A few aspects of news channels are quite married into each other and cannot be discussed separately: the growing number of channels in the genre, the issue of ethical journalism, where the advertising is going, the rating system and the government’s Content Code.

    Interestingly, though channels have taken their respective positions (which some differentiate as the ‘perception route’ Vs the ‘numbers route’), there is a lot of cross talk within the channels themselves, and thus it is that we find a Hindi channel editor talking of values of credible journalism and an English channel editor talking of the ‘robustness of Hindi news’.

    It is a melting pot on the boil and the process is not going to crystallise in the next few months, but overall, there is a sense of a lot of soul churning and of the new, just decade-old industry trying to see where it goes and how it survives – and on which formula.

    An analysis of the market share of the derided-by-some sensational (tabloid?) channels shows they have a consistent high rating, and India TV is a case especially in point, where it has become the No. 3 from a much lesser position.

    So where is the market going? Chintamani Rao, CEO, India TV has been consistent: “We are going where the people are going, that is where the market is.” And he cannot be denied this claim because of the consistent rise in the ratings of his channel.

    The other pointer in the same direction is NDTV 24/7 going FTA after the rolling out of Cas in the three metros, as it was a clear indicator that people were staying away from it if it stayed ‘pay’, despite the ‘ideological’ position of sane, serious and credible journalism.

    Hindi news channel NDTV India, despite sliding sharply on the ratings front since last April, has stuck to its ‘credible’ credo and promises to ‘stay the copurse’.

    NDTV Group CEO Narayan Rao, like his surname-sake Chintamani Rao, is consistent in his opposition to what the latter holds as the winning formula. Narayan Rao had told us during his mid-year statement on Hindi news channels: “It is a short term passing phase. In the long term, for any news channel, it is credibility and authenticity that matters. Whatever the situation is, we never opted to go down a certain route. We still have the same philosophy as we had when we conceived the channel.”

    In between comes CNN-IBN and IBN 7, in English and Hindi respectively. The statements from both Rajdeep Sardesai (Editor-in-chief for the group and directly handling CNN-IBN, and Ashutosh, Managing Editor at IBN 7 echo Narayan Rao on the issue of credibility, but are far more eager to experiment with both content and form.

    IBN 7 has brought some of the best exposes through sting journalism but says it is steering firmly away from sensationalism, whatever the cost. Ashutosh says that if it benefits society at large, he is all for stings, but “why should any politician having illicit sex in a state guest house be considered serious journalism, unless this act is coming in the way of his public functioning?”

    At the same time there is an in internal debate on what to show and for how long, and whether the sensational or even trivial has some place as ‘entertaining information and visuals’ punctuating serious news.

    For instance, one channel was showing a half hour repetitive shot of a lion hugging a man from behind the grills of his cage. The side talk at IBN 7 was, this is an interesting shot and people would like to see it, but IBN 7 would perhaps just have a 10 second take on it.

    This is where the moral debate is rooted in business terms: that eyeballs are important, but some say they will not veer a centimetre to get them, and some say a centimetre is OK if we can restrain ourselves to that. The other view is, of course, eyeballs is everything.

  • ‘TRP chasing has done major damage and it is time we took a call on that’

    ‘TRP chasing has done major damage and it is time we took a call on that’

    I will describe this year as one of the lowest points in Indian TV journalism. This has been the year with the most serious crisis of content. And this year has clearly shown how ratings and TRPs can affect content.

    There is a serious need to look at the ratings system. If the ratings system goes on like this, where it is impacting the kind of content that is defining the channel, then it is a bleak future of TV news journalism.

    This has been a particularly bad year, which is why there has been so much hue and cry and there is so much hostility towards TV news channels. The common man is fed up and everyone is saying that there is no news in TV news channels.

    This has been a particularly bad year, which is why there has been so much hue and cry and there is so much hostility towards TV news channels
    _____****_____

    And in the coming year, there is a dire need for all the editors and proprietors to rethink which direction they will take their channels. And if the only factor is ratings, then we should seriously look into the ratings system. A time will soon come when people will lose faith in the news channels.

    And it is this debate that has given the government the alibi to come out with a Content Code so that they can have control over the news channels. We have given the government the entry to come restrict the freedom of expression.

    That’s one thing. About my own channel, we can say that we were bold enough to stand our ground saying, “Whatever rubbish is going on the other channels, let them do it, but we shall not do that.” I won’t say we have been 100 per cent successful, but very, very successful and I am proud that we are probably the only Hindi news channel that can call itself a news channel.

    We provoked ourselves to get news in the right perspective. We have been aggressive and this has given us excellent results, maybe not in terms of ratings, but in terms of perception. We have severely shaken up the political establishment repeatedly.

    We provoked ourselves to get news in the right perspective. We have been aggressive and this has given us excellent results
    _____****_____

    It was our stories on Maharashtra or Uttar Pradesh that has angered the governments and got Mulayam Singh annoyed with us. After he left, we did excellent reporting on the Mayawati government and they were also very angry with us, which I think is a compliment. This showed that we were not targeting any particular government, and this is why our channel was shut thrice in UP.

    The same thing happened with us in Gujarat also, where we had a tough time. Our channel was shut for about a week when we did the story based on Guajrat Riots expose done by Tehelka..

    We have stood firmly on our feet during these difficult times, and even in terms of ratings also, we have improved vastly. When we started last year, we had six points, and in a year, we doubled that and touched 14 per cent market share, so it is not as if people are not watching news channels. And yet, there is a crisis of content in the news industry as a whole.

    The present ratings system is does not define what is a news channel.

    The problem with TV is that if there is anything dramatic happening, whether it is news or not, people have a tendency to watch that. And a few channels have realised that if they have to improve their ratings, then they have to get that kind of content. It is sex that has become very, very important… it is the gory that has become very, very important…

    In fact, I call them low cost reality channels rather than news channels. People go back home after the whole day and want to see what has happened in India or across the world, but what they see is everything other than news.

  • ‘TRP chasing has done major damage and it is time we took a call on that’

    ‘TRP chasing has done major damage and it is time we took a call on that’

    I t is easy to say that only those channels that got low ratings are criticising the ratings system. But no one can deny that many channels are taking a short cut to improve their ratings not by doing news but something other than news and calling themselves news channels.

    In fact, since we managed to jump from six per cent to 14 per cent of the market share (Hindu TV news space), nobody can say that we are criticising because we failed in that growth. But news cannot compete with low cost reality shows.

    I understand that issues like defence policy or India’s nuclear deal may not be easily understandable for everyone. But in the place of these critical issues, there is someone calling himself a news channel and showing a lion hugging a man from inside the cage, and showing this for hours on end, that is not news. It is, of course, an interesting visual and can be shown for 10 or 12 seconds snippet, but how come that becomes the ‘news’?

    I think the time has come when a line has to be drawn as to who are the news channels. Why are the low cost reality channels eating into the genre of the news channels? If that line is not defined, I think the new TV news channels that are coming up are headed for big trouble. This is because people have started having a very low opinion about news channels.

    What is happening is that in this market of reality TV posing as news, the reporter, the editor or serious journalist is becoming irrelevant, because their coverage is not carried. When the fate of the UP government was being decided, one so-called news channel decided to show only crime or something from the glamour world, which was not news at that point in time, though I am not saying the glamour world does not or should not make news.

    So, this year, in these terms, has been extremely bad, and it has crystallised to the situation that people have become hostile to the news channels. It is has been said that some of the stories could have been concocted, and this is partly right, as some of our stringers realise that these are the interesting visuals and will grab eyeballs, so they sometimes do concoct and sometimes they recreate an entire story.

    No one can deny that many channels are taking a short cut to improve their ratings not by doing news but something other than news and calling themselves news channels
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    Unfortunately, this is happening in a year during which TV channels have done some wonderful work. In fact, some great work. It has seriously posed a challenge to the people in power and exposed them, whether you agree on principle about the sting operations or not. But no one has till date raised a finger against the sting on parliamentarians on the cash-for-query issue.

    But despite all this good work, the whole system of TRP chasing has done major damage and it is time we took a call on that so that this entire positive is not overshadowed by that chase.

    So far as business goes, the main issue is what the advertisers feel they should do: whether they should flock to low cost reality channels with higher TRPs or to those which have a better perception in the market. But this year is a defining one in these terms.

    So far as the trend is concerned, we have seen the big advertisers stay with the respectable channels and there is no definite trend to show that channels getting higher TRP are necessarily getting more revenue. These channels that are doing serious news are getting good business, even if they are number four or five in TRP terms.

    If despite the lower ratings these serious news channels are earning enough revenue to do good business, this so far is a critical point.

    But are the low cost reality channels with higher TRPs getting more revenue, or will they do so? This coming year will show that, whether the advertisers take a ‘perception’ route or a ‘rating’s route.

    If the reality channels start getting revenue in proportion to their market share, then there is no future for serious news in the market

    It is time for the agencies to decide whether a good product should be seen on a respectable channel, or on a channel with higher market share but not such a high reputation, and the decisive battle will be on us this year and the coming months will tell us where the market is going.

    But so far as the industry as a whole is concerned, one major positive thing this year is the coming of the News Broadcasters Association.

    It is because of the NBA that we have been able to send a powerful statement to the government that their content code is not acceptable to us, and despite so much of fragmentation and competition between the various news channels this has happened. I think this is great.