ITV

Tag: Arnab Goswami

  • NBF condemns attempt to attack Arnab Goswami

    NBF condemns attempt to attack Arnab Goswami

    MUMBAI: The News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) has expressed concern and shock at the recent attempt to attack Republic TV managing director and editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, and his wife, by a section of a particular political party in Mumbai, while they were driving back home from work.

    "The NBF strongly condemns the attempt to attack Arnab, for performing his professional duty," said NBF secretary-general R Jai Krishna.

    "The attack on Arnab Goswami will not be taken lightly.  We stand by Arnab and will do whatever required in this fight. Attack on media will not be tolerated," said Prag News (Assam) founder Sanjive Narain.

    "Sorry to know about this incident. The government should provide sufficient personal security," said Digvijay News (Karnataka) MD Anand Sankeshwar.

    "It is very shocking," said Twentyfour News MD Sreekantan Nair. "We strongly protest against the incident, and request the police to take immediate action to arrest the culprits."   

    "We at ITV Network condemn this cowardly act of violence against Arnab Goswami and his family in today’s India. This is unacceptable and must be condemned by all," said ITV Network promoter Kartikeya Sharma.

    "It’s disgraceful for someone to attack Arnab and his wife. Such a cowardly act is deeply condemnable and shouldn’t be taken so easily. This is the price a journalist gets for raising relevant questions; it’s a shame. NBF and its members wouldn’t hesitate to go on a protest if the perpetrators are not brought to light soon,” said Fourth Dimension CEO Shankar Bala. 

    Journalists are professionals and reflect the views and sentiments of the larger people, opined NBF in a release, adding that instead of engaging in a democratic debate, such incidents of harassment and attempt to physically attack the individual is shocking and highly condemnable.

    NBF is India’s largest industry association representing the combined interests of over 300 TV news channels, discharging the essential service of taking news and information to the doorsteps of 100 crore Indians.

  • Arnab Goswami speaks during COVID-19 lockdown

    Arnab Goswami speaks during COVID-19 lockdown

    MUMBAI: You can't keep Arnab Goswami out of the news. Soon after chucking up his membership of the Editors Guild of India, he is now seeking succour for TV news channels as president of the News Broadcasters Federation – a coalition of 300 of them. The bespectacled journo, who is not known for mincing his words, wants to make a clear appeal to advertisers, agencies and the media frat to help the news broadcasting sector, during the Covid-19 lockdown phase which has led to the erosion of both their top line and bottom line. News television, which mostly relies on ad spends to fuel its operations, has seen the latter getting shaved even as viewership has multiplied manifold.

    Goswami, who is a founding member and editor-in-chief of Republic Media Network, had an exclusive conversation with indiantelevision.com during the course of which he said that he was making an outreach to brands, ad agencies, and media that they "need to look upon news as essential service and I request them to come forward and show greater support to the news channels.”

    The NBF president believes that the federation has greater responsibility towards the media industry and must support those who may not be leaders in their specific regions.

    Recently, the NBF urged advertisers and advertising agencies to refrain from renegotiating their on-air TV commercial and sponsorship deals when the news broadcasters are ramping up their COVID-19 coverage, despite the fact that operating costs are rising alarmingly.

    “I have been working hard for it and am willing to engage with my friends in the media industry to take this further," says Goswami. "It is said that advertisers are cutting down the effective rates in the current scheme and there are chances that this will worsen things, especially for regional news broadcasters, putting a question mark on their existence."

    Not just from advertisers, the NBF president is also considering requesting a comprehensive stimulus package from the government for the TV news broadcasters. In this regard, the federation has written a letter to union information & broadcasting (I&B) minister Prakash Javadekar for an appointment of e-meeting through video-conference as per his availability this week.

    Points out Goswami: “This is a difficult time for the broadcasting industry and as president of NBF, I look forward to meeting the I&B minister during which we can discuss the measures the government could take to help the news broadcasting sector, which is reeling under the burden of operating costs and despite performing its duty at this testing time.”

    The issues that the federation would like to discuss with the minister during the e-meeting are satellite and bandwidth charges, Prasar Bharati and DD Free Dish, DAVP pending payments, unrestricted availability of FTA new channels, governmental support and liquidity issues.

    The NBF president also put his weight behind viewers for standing tall with the news broadcasters. He says: “Television and digital consumers are making obvious choices as to who is serving the nation and its people and those who are against the national interest. The latter is of course failing to gain any viewership,” he concluded.

  • Arnab Goswami steps down from Editors Guild of India

    Arnab Goswami steps down from Editors Guild of India

    MUMBAI: Republic Media Network’s founding member and editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami has resigned from the membership of Editors Guild of India while anchoring a live debate show. He was discussing the silence by the ‘liberal media' on the lynching of three people in Maharashtra’s Palghar on Monday.

    Urging panellists to pause during a live debate, he said: “I have been a member of the Editors’ Guild of India for a long time and I, on live television, resign for its absolute compromise on editorial ethics, for being an organisation for operation only for personal interests.”

    He also accused EGI president Shekhar Gupta of leading the “compromise on journalism” for not speaking on incidents like this as well as against the spread of fake news amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    He said: “Shekhar Gupta, whatever remaining credibility of the Editors Guild of India has been destroyed by its abject silence on a series of fake news stories. It has been a self-serving organisation.”

    EGI is an association of editorial leaders in India, committed to free, fair and independent journalism. Goswami is one of the members of the Editors Guild of India.

  • News Broadcasters Federation welcomes SC order on fake news

    News Broadcasters Federation welcomes SC order on fake news

    MUMBAI: The News Broadcasters Federation has welcomed the Supreme Court order against the menace of fake news. The apex court in its order on Tuesday, 31 March , made observations on the “menace of fake news either by electronic, print or social media” and has put the onus on the media to ensure unverified panic inducing news is not circulated. 

    The NBF, which is the largest body of news broadcasters pan-India, not just acknowledges but welcomes the Supreme Court Order which states “we expect the Media (print, electronic or social) to maintain a strong sense of responsibility and ensure that unverified news capable of causing panic is not disseminated.” In the midst of India’s current battle against the novel coronavirus, the NBF recognises that there is a great need to be vigilant against fake news that is being proliferated both on certain media platforms, as well as on social media, said the federation in a release. 

    NBF president Arnab Goswami said in a statement that the NBF stands in solidarity and supports completely the proactive initiatives undertaken by the Government of India to contain, control and defeat the COVID-19 pandemic whose grave impact spans over 199 nations and over 8.5 lakh individuals, at present. The NBF believes the nationwide lockdown to contain the COVID-19 threat needs to be upheld, and any fake news that deters this national fight needs to be debunked at the earliest. In light of this, the NBF strives to uphold it's national duty and stands by the Supreme Court intervention to curb rampant fake news. 

    He added that the battle against the novel-coronavirus is and must remain a national effort, with each pillar of our democracy doing its part to ensure the social distancing norms are maintained, the lockdown rules are followed, and the concerted efforts to spread fear and mistrust amongst the people by a handful in detriment to this effort are defeated. The NBF believes that it's fundamental duty “to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so”, in the present times, includes being an active participant in fighting fake news. 

    “India is at the cusp of its battle against the pandemic, and has rapidly increased efforts to flatten the curve and delay the onset of Stage-3, that is, community transmission. The nature of the infection and the person-to-person spread means there is a need for restriction of movement in our nation of 1.3 billion, and any fake news to defeat this effort needs to be curtailed at the earliest,” he points out.

    Goswami notes that the NBF acknowledges that this fight requires a united effort by all sections of society, all organisations and all groups need to come together. The NBF pledges its complete support to our frontline warriors and stands behind the Supreme Court order to curb fake news during the extraordinary situation currently faced by the nation and the world. 

  • English news records highest ratings in 2020 during Delhi elections, results week

    English news records highest ratings in 2020 during Delhi elections, results week

    BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Runup to elections and election results announcements are big viewership drivers for news channels in India. Assembly elections on 8 February 2020 and announcement of the election results of the New Delhi legislative assembly in week 6 of 2020 (Saturday, 8 February 2020 to Friday, 14 February 2020, week or period under review) boosted the combined viewership of the Top 5 English News channels by 49.5 percent as compared to the previous week. Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) reported a total of 2.741 million impressions for the top 5 English News channels in the week under review. The combined total of the top 5 channels during the previous week (week 5 of 2020) was 1.835 million weekly impressions.

    Combined impressions of the top 5 English News channels in week 6 of 2020 was the highest ratings to date in 2020. The previous highest combined total of the top 5 English News channels in 2020 was in week 4 at 2.582 million weekly impressions. Further, the average combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English News channels during 41 weeks of the previous calendar year was 2.271 million weekly impressions. It must be remembered that BARC had stopped publication of ratings in the public domain to allow viewership to stablise after the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) New Tariff Order (NTO) for the weeks 6 to 12 of 2019. Hence, average of the remaining 41 weeks of 2019 (weeks 13 to 53 of 2019) or post week 12 of 2019 average has been considered.

    Top 5 English News Channels in week 6 of 2020

    Four of the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 English News channels for week 6 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week. Pub-caster Doordarshan’s English News channel DD India exited the list during the period under review, while the Radhika and Pronnoy Roy headed NDTV 24×7 made a rare appearance into BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 English News channels in week 06 of 2019.

    At its normal numero uno position was the Arnab Goswami headed Republic TV with a phenomenal 74.5 percent lead in ratings in week 6 of 2020 of 1.141 million weekly impressions as compared to the 0.654 million weekly impressions in week 5. Also at its normal second rank was Times Now with 0.664 million weekly impressions in week 6 of 2020 which was 24.3 percent more than the 0.534 million weekly impressions in week 5. Continuing on at its previous week’s third rank was the India Today group’s India Today Television with 0.415 million weekly impressions in week 6 of 2020, a jump of 40 percent from the 0.303 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

    Climbing up to fourth rank in week 6 of 2020 from the previous week’s fifth rank was Network18’s CNN News18 with 0.263 million weekly impressions, which was 61.3 percent more than the 0.163 million weekly impressions in week 5. Entering BARC’s weekly lists of Top 5 English News channels for was NDTV 24×7 with 0.258 million weekly impressions. This was NDTV 24×7 second appearance in BARC’s top 5 English News channels list in 2020. The channel had appeared in the lists earlier in calendar year 2020 in week 1.

  • Republic TV clarifies Arnab Goswami holds over 80% of equity

    Republic TV clarifies Arnab Goswami holds over 80% of equity

    MUMBAI: The Republic Media Network said the editor-in-chief of the network, Arnab Goswami, controls over 80 per cent shareholder equity through his promoter entity in ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd, said a company press release.

    The network’s statement said: “Arnab Goswami though his personal investment and family structures entirely controlled by him, had around 84 % of shareholder equity through his promoter entity in ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd at the time of the launch of the English Channel Republic TV.”

    The aim is to make the shareholder pattern public in the backdrop of a series of misleading reports in Indian and international media, making false and malafide claims about the ownership of the consolidated network, the statement said.

    Along with the general English news channel the network has two other entities: Republic Bharat, a general Hindi news channel, and a news website www.republicworld.com. In this regard, the statement says, “Goswami being a sole promoter of the company owns 99 percent equity in the downstream digital entity that controls the digital assets of the network under the URL www.republicworld.com.”

    Post raising initial capital to fund the launch of English news channel in February 2017, Goswami further raised capital for expansion through small equity raise two years later in February 2019. And, since then he continues to hold over 82 % of ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd.

    Goswami’s present controlling equity of 82 per cent makes him one of the largest individual shareholders in the Indian news media landscape and the first journalist to achieve this feat.

  • English News viewership decline continues in week 3 of 2020

    English News viewership decline continues in week 3 of 2020

    BENGALURU: Viewership of English News channels continued a downward spiral in in week 3 of 2020 (Saturday, 18 January 2020 to Friday, 24 January 2020, week under review). Analysis of Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data of 44 weeks between week 13 of 2019 and week 3 of 2020 reveals that the four week combined average viewership of the top 5 English News channels declined 23 percent for week 53 of 2019 and week 3 of 2020  (4 week period under review) to 1.724 million weekly impressions as compared to the average combined viewership of the 44 week period of 2.235 million weekly impressions. Viewership during the period under review declined 15.1 percent from 2.032 million weekly impressions calculated for the immediate trailing 4 week period (week 49 to week 52 of 2019).

    The last few weeks have been reasonably eventful. Among the newsworthy happenings include the fact that the fall out of the Citizenship Amendment Act is still unfolding, not only in India but in other geographies as well. Further, assembly elections for the state of Delhi have been announced, the lawyers of the condemned Nirbhaya rapists managed to delay their executions to the first of February. Please refer to the figure below for the four week average of combined ratings of top 5 English News channels between weeks 13 of 2019 and 3 of 2020.

    It must be noted that BARC had stopped publishing data in the public domain between weeks 6 and 12 of 2019 to allow for ratings to stabilize after the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) New Tariff Order (NTO), hence data between weeks 13 of 2019 and 3 of 2020 has been considered in this paper. Though the combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels in week 3 of 2020 were slightly higher than those of the immediate trailing week (week 2 of 2020), they were 24 percent lower than the 44 week average.

    The figure below shows that combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels between week 13 of 2019 and week 3 of 2020.

    Week 3 of 2020

    Ranks 1, 2  and were held by the same channels in week 3 of 2020 as in the previous week – Republic TV, Times Now and India Today TV retained places 1, 2 and 3 respectively. DD India pushed its way to fourth rank from fifth rank in week 3 of 2020,  while CNN News18 dropped to fifth place from fourth. Please refer to the figure below: 

    Two channels lost viewership in week 3 of 2020 – CNN News18 and Republic TV as compared to the previous week, while the other 3 made slight gains. Arnab Goswami’sfirst placed Republic TV saw viewership decline by 5 percent to 0.568 million weekly impressions from 0.598 million. At rank two, Times Now saw viewership climb 11 percent to 0.472 million weekly impressions from 0.425 million weekly impressions. Third ranked India Today Television saw  viewership increase 4.3 percent to 0.265 million weekly impressions in week 3 of 2020 from 0.254 million weekly impressions in week 2. At rank 4, DD India saw viewership rise 7.3 percent to 0.207 million weekly impressions in week 3 of 2020 from 0.193 million weekly impressions in the previous week. CNN News18 saw ratings decline 12.3 percent to 0.186 million weekly impressions  in week 3 of 2020 from 0.212 million weekly impressions in week 2.

    Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • Finance Minister meets News Broadcasters Federation, NBF seeks parity in GST with the print industry

    Finance Minister meets News Broadcasters Federation, NBF seeks parity in GST with the print industry

    MUMBAI: On 17thJanuary, 2020 Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman met the members of the executive body of News Broadcasters Federation (NBF). In the meeting, the NBF has proposed a recommendation requesting the Government to treat TV News channels at par with the print industry under GST.  In the current scenario, the GST applicable on the print media stands at 5% whereas the news broadcasters are charged 18% GST.

    In the meeting the President of NBF Mr. Arnab Goswami, President of NBF Board, highlighted the need for parity given the similarity in the business model and the importance of TV news broadcasting in the country.

    The Finance Minister accepted a copy of the recommendation of NBF and assured the members that she would investigate the matter.

    The NBF was represented in the meeting by the President Mr Arnab Goswami, the Vice Presidents Ms.Jagi M. Panda and Mr.SanjiveNarain, and the Secretary-General, Mr R. Jai Krishna.
     

  • JNU incident raises English News ratings afterslump in last week of 2019

    JNU incident raises English News ratings afterslump in last week of 2019

    BENGALURU: After an expected slump in viewership in the last BARC week of 2019 – week 53 (Saturday 28 December 2019 to Friday, 3 January 2020), the combined viewership of top 5 English News channels increased 9.2 percent to 1.835 million weekly impressions in week 1 of 2020 (Wy01 of 2020) from 1.681 million. Viewership was also boosted by the happenings at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 5 and their subsequent fall out.

    There was a small change in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 1 of 2019 (Saturday, 4 January 2020 to Friday 10 January 2020) – pubcaster network Doordarshan’sEnglish News channels DD India exited the list to be replaced by the Pronnoy and Radhika Roy led NDTV 24×7 which re-entered BARC’s weekly list after a short hiatus of two weeks. Earlier NDTV 24×7 had re-entered BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 51 of 2019 for the first time since BARC Recommenced publication of viewership data in the public domain in week 13 of 2019. BARC had stopped publication of weekly data in the public domain between weeks 6 and 12 of 2019 to enable  stabilisation of viewership after the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) New Tariff Order.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    As has become the norm, the top 2 channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 1 of 2020 were same – the Arnab Goswami led Republic TV and his previous employer – Times Now. India Today Television moved up a place to rank 3 in week 1 of 2020 from rank 4 in week 53 of 2019. CNN News India also moved up a place to rank 4 during the week under consideration from rank 5 in the previous week. As mentioned above, NDTV 24×7 re-entered the list at rank five.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    Republic TV saw its ratings climb 8.1 percent to 0.615 million impressions in week 1 of 2020 from 0.569 million in the previous week. Times Now saw its viewership climb 14 percent in week 1 0f 2020 to 0.481 million weekly impressions from 0.422 million weekly impressions in week 53 of 2019. The India Today group’s India Today Television saw ratings jump 27.7 percent in week 1 of 2020 to 0.327 million weekly impressions from 0.256 million.

    CNN News18 saw viewership climb 26.6 percent to 0.224 million weekly impressions from 0.177 million weekly impressions. NDTV 24×7 entered the list with 0.188 million weekly impressions in week 1 of 2020.

    Please refer to the figure below

  • CAA protests helped English News ratings spurt in weeks 51 and 52

    CAA protests helped English News ratings spurt in weeks 51 and 52

    BENGALURU: Anti and pro CAA protests helped bump up English News viewership in weeks 51 and 52 of 2019 as compared to the previous week according to Broadcast
    Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data. BARC data of top 5 English News channels for weeks 51 and 52 saw viewership jump 22.68 percent and 16.99 percent respectively for weeks 51 and 52 as compared to week 50 of 2019. Viewership of Top 5 English News channels in week 52 declined 4.63 percent as compared to week 51 of 2019.Combined viewership of top 5 English News channels in weeks 50, 51 and 52 was 1.883 million, 2.310 million and 2.203 million weekly impressions respectively.

    Week 50 = Saturday, 7 December 2019 to Friday, 13 December 2019
    Week 51 = Saturday, 14 December 2019 to Friday, 20 December 2019
    Week 52 = Saturday, 21 December 2019 to Friday, 27 December 2019

    It must be noted that (1) BARC released viewership data in the public domain for weeks 51 and 52 of 2019 on 3 January 2020 due to problems in collection of data from a number of states that faced protests for and against the CAA. Also BARC has reverted to an older method of considering data starting week 23 of 2019.

    Please refer to the chart below for combined ratings of top 5 English News channels
    between weeks 13 and 52 of 2019.

    Ratings of top 5 English News channels

    Please refer to the figure below for ratings of top 5 English News channels between weeks 13 and 52 of 2019. It must be noted that NDTV 24×7 was present for only week – week 51 of 2019 during the 40 week period in the figure below:

    Week 51 saw the entry of Prannoy and Radhika Roy-run NDTV 24×7 in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels after a long hiatus at the cost of pub-caster’s English News channel DD India. However, NDTV 24×7 entry was short-lived – it exited BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 52 with the return of DD India. The other 4 channels in BARC’s weekly lists were same during the three weeks under consideration in this paper. Please refer to the figure below for the ranking of top 5 channels between weeks 13 and 52 of 2019.

    As has been the norm in general, the Arnab Goswami-headed Republic TV was ranked one during all the three weeks under consideration. Republic TV scored 0.589 million,
    0.806 million and 0.748 million weekly impressions in weeks 50, 51 and 52 respectively. Times Now was also ranked second during all the three weeks under consideration with 0.508 million, 0.618 million and 0.569 million weekly impressions in weeks 50, 51 and 52
    of 2019.

    In week 50, DD India was ranked third with 0.313 million weekly impressions. In weeks 51 and 52, it was the India Today Group’s India Today Television that was ranked third with 0.362 million and 0.371 million weekly impressions respectively. India Today Television was at rank 4 in week 50 with 0.265 million weekly impressions. As mentioned above, NDTV 24×7 entered the list in week 51 with 0.269 million weekly impressions, while in week 52 it was DD India at rank 4 with 0.291 million weekly impressions.

    Network18’s CNN News18 was ranked fifth during all the three weeks under consideration. The channel scored 0.208 million, 0.255 million and 0.224 million weekly impressions in weeks 50, 51 and 52 of 2019 respectively.