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Tag: CNN-IBN

  • GBN to change name to ibn18 Broadcast

    GBN to change name to ibn18 Broadcast

    MUMBAI: Global Broadcast News (GBN) will be changing the name of the company to ibn18 Broadcast. For this purpose, the members of the company are going to have an extra ordinary general meeting (EGM) on 10 March.

    GBN currently operates English news channel CNN-IBN and Hindi news channel IBN 7. It has already entered into an equal joint venture with Lokmat to launch a Marathi language news channel. GBN is also launching a general entertainment channel (GEC) in a joint venture with Viacom.

    Meanwhile the GBN board has approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 6 billion through qualified institutional placement (QIP). The company has also got FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) clearance to raise up to Rs 5 billion.

  • CNN-IBN launches special series ‘Whose City is it Anyway?’

    CNN-IBN launches special series ‘Whose City is it Anyway?’

    MUMBAI: CNN-IBN has launched a weeklong series Whose City is it Anyway? that explores the rising threat of a clash between locals and migrants over space, jobs and other urban opportunities.

    Each day, the series delves into the inside story of the conflict between old and new in the cities that include Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Guwahati and Ludhiana.

    CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai said, “What has happened in Mumbai is a manifestation of the growing anger and intolerance that is taking place in all major cities across the country.

    Whose City is it Anyway? takes a city-by-city look at what is plaguing some of India’s most populous urban centres with regard to rising migration.”

  • CNN-IBN Awards: RK Laxman lifetime awardee, E Sreedharan Indian of the Year

    MUMBAI: Surprising everyone present, the CNN IBN Lifetime Achievement Award went to “Common Man” RK Laxman, the legendary cartoonist of “You Said It!” fame.

    Laxman broke down while receiving the award from former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and could not speak, partly due to a bad throat, but mostly because he became extremely emotional.

    The award was preceded by a minute’s silence in honour of Mahatma Gandhi.

    By open vote, the Indian of the Year award went to E Sreedharan, the man who masterminded Delhi Metro and has been recognised around the world, including France where he was honoured with the Legion of Honour, the highest civilian award of the country.

    Sreedharan, who is the Chairman of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, was also awarded the Indian of the Year in the Public Service category for setting a rare work ethic and transforming the face of transportation by effective time-bound execution of the Metro Rail project.

    In his speech, he mentioned that the Delhi Metro was looking to span 400 kms in the NCR by 2021.

    Members of the public present, including sportspersons and politicians cutting across affiliations, voted for Sreedharan.

    The Indian of the Year in Politics went to Union Minister of Finance P Chidambaram for engineering a spectacular growth rate and being an astute economic manager despite coalition pressures.

    Chidambaram joked that if there were any prize for a sinner, it would go to a politician, but added on a more serious note that people come to politics because they want to change society and the country for the better, emphatically declaring, “I am proud to be a politician.”

    Except for Laxman, the other awardees received their trophies from Vice President Hamid Ansari, who was the chief guest, with Kalam being the guest of honour.

    But perhaps even more surprising than the Laxman award was the one given to State Bank of India’s OP Bhatt in the Business Category.

    Bhatt’s citation said he got the award for his remarkable achievements in the ascent of the State Bank of India.

    He was responsible for showing how a public sector behemoth could take on the private players and emerge as a force in the fiercely competitive banking sector.

    Bhatt went into an emotional acceptance speech and said he was surprised as it is rare for a public sector enterprise to be recognised at such a magnitude.

    Dedicating the award to “Team SBI,” he further went on to say that this award would make the Team SBI strive to make the bank one of the top 10 in the world.

    For the Entertainment category, the honours went to Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni for delivering the year’s Best Idea Film Chak De India and demonstrating how a simple idea can make a runaway commercial success.

    Earlier, speaking on the sidelines, Rajdeep Sardesai told indiantelevision.com that this clearly shows that the CNN-IBN awards were not about star value, as Shah Rukh Khan was one of the nominees in the category, but the prize went to backroom geniuses.

    On receiving the award, Sahni mentioned the plight of the Indian women’s hockey team and pleaded with the government to take steps to improve the state of the game.

    The recipient in the Sports category was not at all a surprise. For his achievements in chess, Vishwanathan Anand took the award.

    The citation read that the award was presented to him for being one of the rare Indians to be the undisputed world champion in a sport and making chess a popular sport in India.

    Anand’s parents received the award, and his father mentioned that the one person responsible for this was Anand’s mother, who always encouraged him.

    Global Indian of the year was Arun Sarin of Vodafone for piloting more than US$ 11 billion FDI in India, one of the largest ever.

    An IIT-ian from IIT-Kharagpur, he is one of those small-town people to have made an impact globally. In his speech, he mentioned that if a small-town boy like him can make it this big, the scope for rise in India today was endless.

    Inaugurating the ceremony, Raghav Bahl, the TV 18 group patriarch, spoke of the fact that this was an honour for the group which has stuck to responsible and credible journalism.

    Bahl said that giving an award to people who have been reported in the channels, often unsparingly, “changed the terms of engagement” and made it that much tougher on deciding between the various nominees, all top rung individuals in their own fields.

    To underline the tough task that the jury had in hand, jury chairman and eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee said that he now realises how difficult it is to decide, and appreciated the judiciary in general because of the nature of job and added that they are often criticised despite their best efforts.

  • Three-way tussle in the English news channel arena

    Three-way tussle in the English news channel arena

    The English news channel market, unlike the situation existing in the Hindi arena, is not about cutthroat competition and a constant search for new and ever more outrageous attention grabbing news pegs. A three player fight for bragging rights as well as a more broadbased target audience allows for far greater ‘traditional news’ play among the channels.

     

    A detailed analysis of the English news channels using Tam data (All India, C&S 15+, all day parts) during the one-year period beginning January 2007 reveals that there is no clear leader in the genre.

     

    2007 has seen the number one position baton changing hands between the three – NDTV 24×7, CNN IBN and Times Now more than. Still, looking at average annual relative shares it is NDTV 24X7 that is ahead by a nose with 29.75 per cent. In second spot is CNN IBN with 28.5 per cent average annual relative share, just ahead of Times Now which at 27.25 per cent.

     

    Hovering in a range between 28 and 31 per cent, NDTV 24X7 was in the top position in the February to June period. In July-August, with 28 and 30 per cent respectively NDTV 24X7 lost the crowning position to CNN-IBN. Occupying 28 per cent in November, NDTV 24X7 had to give away the top place to Times Now. It rounded off the year sharing 29 per cent each with Times Now to be in the top place.

     

    On the other hand CNN IBN started the year in the top position with 31 per cent but handed over the reins to NDTV 24X7 thereafter. Picking up in the months of July and August with 32 per cent and 30 per cent respectively, the relative share of CNN IBN started falling drastically and hit 25 per cent in November and 28 per cent in December.

     

    CNN IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai said, “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.”

     

    In terms of market share, though Times Now has seen some highs and lows in the year, yet the English news channel has displayed the best progress overall of the three. In its second year since launch, Times Now has been able to break the two-channel shackle in the English news genre.

     

    It started the year with relative share as low as 22 per cent. It gained in February to April period to reach 31 per cent but started slipping down since then dabbling between 25 to 26 per cent. It hit 31 per cent in November and for the first time held the highest position. Even though it fell to 29 per cent in December, yet it retained its top place to end the year on a high note.

     

    Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami said: “Our idea was to get into the minds of the viewer which we successfully did in 11 months of launch in 2006, the year of our launch. The clear target was to become the default news habit of the country. And we closed 2007 as the unquestionable number 1 news channel in India not just in the English news channel space but even when putting Hindi and English news channels together. It is a good feeling. But what gives me satisfaction as a journalist is that we have set the modus operandi. We have broken 90 per cent some of the biggest stories of 2007.

     

    “Newshour at 9 PM is doing well. We are the clear number 1 in this segment. People watch news channels for news. So instead of having niche shows in an important band time, we have news at 6 pm, 9 pm.

     

    “We have our sports show at 8:30 pm. We do not place a show in a particular slot just to compete with others in the same slot. Only a confident channel can do that. I do not pass off as a sports show where two people sit in a studio and keep blabbering. The game is more dynamic,” he asserts.

     

    For Hindi News channel market leader Aaj Tak’s English sibling Headlines Today though, the story continues to be that of the straggler. With an average annual relative share of 11.6 per cent, it had managed its highest of 14 per cent in November. It gathered 13 per cent each in January, June and August. It has its lowest of 9 per cent in May.

     

    Meanwhile, international news channels BBC World and CNN have an average annual relative market share of 1.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.

     

    Still, as Sardesai correctly points out, the news channel battle is not just about eyeballs but perception. “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,” he avers.

  • ‘From the’Small Big’ company to the ‘Big Small’ company’

    ‘From the’Small Big’ company to the ‘Big Small’ company’

    2007 was a remarkable year for the Indian media industry. It was a year that witnessed small steps as well as giant leaps, fundamental shifts as well as tactical maneuvers, greater clutter as well as cutting edge innovation.

    On the whole, 2007 fulfilled a lot of potential in the industry, yet it leaves us with a sense that the Indian media story is still pregnant with a thousand more possibilities… Media players saw newer growth pastures, widened their business horizons, deepened their portfolios and above all competed and cooperated aggressively. This was a sign that the industry was alive, kicking and ready to reach the next level. The fact that many global brands made a beeline to enter the market or strengthen their presence is a testimony to the health of the industry.

    There was widespread strengthening of newer trends such as the heightened sensitivity to user generated content across genres, and a greater focus on interactivity and ‘mobilization’ of content across the board
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    The year saw some good old fashioned competition reach newer pinnacles. Within television, multiple channel launches, especially in news and entertainment, aggressive sales and marketing ploys such as those displayed in the battle for cricket broadcasting supremacy, innovative new show formats, dogged pursuance of alliances and rights and the perennial scramble for prime time shares, ensured 2007 was an exciting period for the industry. At the same time, there was widespread strengthening of newer trends such as the heightened sensitivity to user generated content across genres, and a greater focus on interactivity and ‘mobilization’ of content across the board.

    Even in other media such as print, competition became fiercer amongst the national print majors. Yet, there was also a rise of more targeted products, creating niche plays across regions (launch of city specific compacts in Delhi and Bangalore), demographics such as the youth, women (launch of youth oriented compact paper) or genres such as lifestyle, global fashion, celebrity gossip ( launch of many international magazine titles). The same high intensity and feverish growth pitch could be seen in the online and new media space, with multiple mobile marketing solutions, out of home innovations and web enabled services hitting the market.

    Clearly, 2007 was a momentous year for the industry, with a great degree of optimism in the air. However, there were also concerns that made us exercise caution in all that optimism. Talent management became an important issue for the industry, with sustained levels of attrition. Industry fee and rate structures were under much debate, especially for broadcasters with respect to the surcharge issue. The need for a re-alignment in these became a matter of contention and that is yet to be fully resolved. The regulatory environment for the industry did not improve substantially and a lot of streamlining in policymaking is still necessary in close consonance with industry players. Issues such as revenue leakages through media value chains and a greater level of industry consensus and organization are other key areas that continued to impede us in 2007.

    This year, the group saw tremendous ‘competency expansion’, apart from continued organic growth in its already existing market leading brands.
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    For Network18, 2007 was a defining moment in many ways. Befittingly, in 2007, we confidently unraveled our new brand identity and re-committed ourselves to continue enlightening, entertaining and enabling India. Moreover, the year symbolized a great culmination of the first phase of Network18’s growth story. By 2007, we have progressed from being only a “small company” a decade ago, a production house as our genesis, to now becoming a “small BIG company”, which is considered as one of India’s leading full play media conglomerates.

    In fact, in 2007, our growth story reached newer unprecedented highs. This year, the group saw tremendous ‘competency expansion’, apart from continued organic growth in its already existing market leading brands. In 2007, Network18 expanded into newer media such as print and genres such as general entertainment, through strategic alliances with global leaders like Viacom and Forbes, the acquisition of Infomedia and announcement of the JV with Jagran Prakashan.

    We diversified our gamut of services with the launch of E18, our full spectrum events business which clocked early coups with prominent music gigs such as Americas and Scorpions. Our filmed entertainment venture Studio18 led from the front with innovative distribution and marketing strategies as was evident from Jab We Met becoming one of the year’s blockbusters, despite the high voltage drama from other big budget releases.

    We continued on the leadership path in the Indian online space with stronger performance of all portals across the content, communication and transaction spectrum. Our foray into the Hindi online space with the launch of ‘Josh18’ and success with our latest mobile innovation “Moneycontrol’s Markets on Mobile” ratified our status as new media pioneers in the country. In fact, Markets on Mobile has already emerged as one of the largest mobile subscription services in the country within a couple of months of launch.

    On the television side, our leader brands across business news, general news and music and entertainment (CNBC Channels, CNN-IBN, IBN 7 and MTV Network channels) continued to traverse new boundaries and sustained their momentum through 2007. Ratings, viewer feedback, awards and advertiser interest ratified the continued progress of our television business.

    Clearly, in 2007, it was definitive that Network18 has become a “small BIG company”. The future promises to be exciting and invigorating for all of us at the group. Our long term vision is quite simple and clear. Network18 must emerge as the “Big Big company” on the global media stage, a torchbearer of the Indian media industry’s arrival on the world market.

    However, our immediate objective towards achieving that vision is to FIRST become a “big SMALL company”. The “SMALL” symbolizes our passionate commitment to huddle together (Much like the famous Indian cricket one!) and continue to work as a well knit team which envisions and synergizes together and above all never loses the spirit of innovation and enterprise that has been the DNA of Network18. At Network18, expanding size will not mean furthering distances!

    At the group, our success mantra has always been our ability to execute with great precision, led by India’s best media talent along with strong adherence to our core values and vision. We hope to continue attracting and retaining the most innovative and passionate minds in the business as we strive to achieve the next phase of the Network18 growth story. 2008 and beyond…

  • 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.

  • ‘Consumer annoyance with intrusion in their space will take a new turn’

    If there’s anything more challenging than predicting the media scene in India, it’s reviewing them a year later. It does feel good though if you are more right than wrong on your own predictions. Here’s how the reality played out in 2006 and some more predictions for 2007.

    Technology and its impact

    As predicted, the impact of technology on communication in 2006 was rather limited. Consumer pull rather than organizational push continues to determine the rate of acceptance and dissemination of technology. 2007 will see the adoption of newer technology but again, this is likely to be at the very top of pyramid. CAS may be pushed through by legislation but 3G, TiVo and wi-fi zones still appear to be a while away. Value-added SMS services though are likely to thrive.

    Consumers’ annoyance with intrusion in their space will take a new turn. We don’t think consumers are convinced that a “Do Not Disturb” option keeps pesky telemarketers at bay. In 2007, consumers will hit back. Beware all marketers who think they can intrude on consumers’ privacy and get away with it!

    The television medium
    Last year we had predicted that the television media owners would look at sampling the product and then worry about revenue. The resultant of this would be longer gestation periods and fewer media players who will want to enter the space on a whim. True enough, 2006 has seen no significant launches as far as television is concerned.

    To a great extent, this is also impacted by the lack of differentiation in product offerings. We had thought Times Now had the potential to make a dent in the English news segment but it doesn’t seem to have done as well as its competitors. Sticking to the basics though has meant that a NDTV 24×7 continues to hold its own and a CNN-IBN has created a
    niche for itself.

    We had also mentioned that those who do come in will be serious players with deep pockets. Our prediction that Disney’s entry would make players like Hungama feel the heat couldn’t have been truer. Disney went on to acquire Hungama!

  • CNN to hold ceremony for YJA on 14 December

    MUMBAI: CNN International will host the fifth annual award ceremony of CNN Young Journalist Award (CNN YJA) on 14 December 2007. The awards will be given away at a gala ceremony in New Delhi. CNN YJA is the first of its kind award to recognise quality journalism among young media professionals in India and Pakistan.

    This year, the awards have five categories: the CNN Young Journalist Award for Print/Online and Television, CNN Journalist Award, CNN Photo Journalist Award, CNN Citizen Journalist Award and CNN Aspiring Journalist Award.

    The first three categories target young, professional/working journalists in India and Pakistan. CNN Citizen Journalist Award was instituted to encourage citizens of India [who are not professional journalists] to play an active role in the process of collecting and disseminating news and information on issues that have an impact on society. Whereas CNN Aspiring Journalist Award offers a platform to students of journalism in India to exhibit their talent in the field of journalism. A novel feature this year has been the large number of entries from both India & Pakistan for the CNN Photo Journalist Award and the CNN Journalist Award – a special award included this year to celebrate 60th year of India and Pakistan’s Independence.

    As in previous years, CNN YJA, once again, received an overwhelming response from journalists in both countries. The winners of CNN YJA 2007 would be announced in the presence of CNN New Delhi bureau chief Phil Turner and CNN International reporter and producer Mallika Kapur.

    All the entries had to go through a stringent selection process. The entries for CNN YJA, CNN Journalist Award and CNN Photo Journalist Award categories have been evaluated by a jury panel. For the CNN Aspiring Journalist Award, the entrants were asked to submit an essay in 1,000 words on the topic: ‘Has the media broadened its reach only to narrow its focus’.

    Ten best finalists will be judged in an on-the-spot contest, a day prior to the awards’ evening. For the CNN Citizen Journalist Award, the executive jury chose the winner from the images/video files broadcast on CNN-IBN, between 1 January, 2007 and 30 September, 2007.

  • CNN-IBN, IBN 7 launch Taare Zameen Par contest

    MUMBAI: CNN-IBN, IBN 7, IBNLive.com and Buzz18.com have launched Taare Zameen Par contest to promote the Aamir Khan’s directorial debut.

    The contest will hunt for seven special children, who will get a chance to perform for Aamir Khan. The contest will conclude with a special half-hour show on 20 December.

    During the show, Aamir Khan will walk through a school, where the show is shot. He will talk about his own childhood days, favourite teachers and favourite moments as a student. In the school auditorium the seven chosen finalists will perform.

    CNN-IBN and IBN 7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai said, “Every child is unique in his/her own right. The idea behind the contest is to celebrate childhood and all the quirks that come with it. I am sure eager participation by parents wanting to showcase what makes their child special, will make this initiative a huge success. ”

    Said IBN 7 managing editor Ashutosh, “While most contests for children invite entries from exceptionally intelligent or talented candidates, our Taare Zameen Par contest stands apart. This is because it celebrates each child for his/her special ability, no matter how banal or unusual. In addition, the opportunity to meet a mega star like Aamir Khan will add to the attraction of the initiative. “

  • CNN-IBN, IBN 7 launch Aaja Nachle – Madhuri Makeover contest

    MUMBAI : CNN-IBN and IBN 7 in association with Buzz18.com has launched ‘Aaja Nachle – Madhuri Makeover contest’. As part of the contest, the show ‘Main Madhuri Bana Chahati Hoon’ will be on IBN 7 and CNN-IBN on 1 and 3 December respectively.

    Three winners of the contest which is open for only female viewers, will be given a makeover by Manish Malhotra and Subbu, the designer-stylist team of Madhuri Dixit in the film Aaja Nachle.

    The ‘Madhuri Makeover Show’ will showcase the journey of the three contestants and their entire makeover experience. 

    “Madhuri Dixit’s nation-wide popularity combined with the opportunity to be dressed by some of the top stylists is bound to make the ‘Aaja Nachle Contest’ will be liked by all. Through this initiative we hope to give our viewers a chance to experience the glitzy lifestyle of the star herself,” said CNN-IBN and IBN 7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai.

    IBN 7 managing editor Ashutosh said, “The year’s next big release – Aaja Nachle has created a buzz around the country as it heralds Madhuri Dixit’s comeback to the silverscreen. Our contest provides her female fan club the chance to realise their dreams of meeting the actress and experiencing what it’s like to be her. “

    “A contest involving one of the biggest names in Bollywood will certainly generate a great deal of interest from the viewers. We are happy to offer our advertisers the opportunity to be associated with this contest and tap into the massie exposure and excitement that it will create,” said CNN-IBN and IBN 7 national sales head Sanjay Dua.