ITV

Tag: IBN 7

  • News18 India commands 13.5% of overall Hindi news market: Prabal Pratap Singh

    News18 India commands 13.5% of overall Hindi news market: Prabal Pratap Singh

    MUMBAI: The Hindi news genre is going to enter its peak time with five assembly elections coming up followed by general elections in 2019. With 22 channels in the genre, the audience can expect a deeper coverage from all the channels as well as tough competition to gain their attention. In 2018, the genre has contributed 5 per cent to the total TV viewership from week 1 to week 39. Election coverage is crucial for news channels to increase viewer loyalty.

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with News18 India managing editor Prabal Pratap Singh to talk about the channel’s plan for the upcoming election and the challenges faced by the Hindi news channels.

    If we look at the BARC rating of week 41, News18 India sits comfortably on second position in both Hindi news (urban+rural) and Hindi news urban market. If we talk about the rural market, the channel is at the third position behind Aaj Tak and ABP News, respectively.

    Excerpts:

    Q: After the channel revamp in 2016, how has the channel performed in terms of viewership and the overall performance?

    For some time now, we are there in the top slot of Hindi news ranking. When the channel was re-launched, our total ratings were floating between 5-6.5 per cent. Now, we are at 13.9 per cent, which is more than a 100 per cent growth, if you look it from the point of view of ratings and market share.

    Additionally, our prime time shows are doing very well. If we talk about evening prime time, the 7-11 pm time band, it has been doing extremely well for a long time now; the performance has been consistent.

    Morning shows, from 7-10 am are also doing very good. At times, we are number one in the morning time bands also. So, that speaks for itself. Overall, our performance has been stellar

    Q: Any new show launches in the pipeline and which time slot and which show is getting the highest viewership?

    I’ll answer the second question first. Sau Baat Ki Ek Baat is doing really well. It is one of the most popular shows across HSM market and it has been consistent with almost 15-16 per cent of market share. If you look at the competition, we are facing tough competition, it is the nature of the industry, yet this show is doing really well.

    As for new show launches, we have certain plans but it’s not proper to reveal it at the moment.

    Q: How do you see the competition from other players in the Hindi news genre?

    The other players have a history and legacy. They have been into the news genre from almost over a decade and hence, they have brand recall value – they are an old hand, in a way.

    Having said that, we launched News18 India afresh and with no legacy of IBN7. So, it was a completely new product but despite that, we have been able to get ahead of our competition. Our ratings speak for us – they have been growing consistently.

    Q: According to you, what are the challenges faced by the Hindi news broadcasters in this industry?

    I won’t put them as problems, but, yes, the challenge is there. The challenge is that the viewer wants something new every day and that is the one challenge which we encounter while planning our show flow. Second is that there is no appointment viewership in the sense that the viewer will definitely come to you and watch your channel. The viewers’ commitment to a particular channel, I think, is missing. So, that is one challenge on which we are working – how do we handle this and ensure loyalty for News18 India.

    Q: How are you planning to cover the upcoming assembly elections at the year end?

    We have great plans for the elections. Without going into the details of those plans, I can share some overview. There will be more of the popular shows on News 18 India even as we step up outdoor coverage on the elections. We are planning to take the debates out of the studio. We have plans to re-do Lapete Mei Netaji – one of our most popular shows. We will also see how even with our current shows and those that we are planning specifically for the elections we can engage the viewers more and more.

    Q: What are the content and marketing strategies of the channel going forward?

    To put it in one line, it is to outsmart our competition.

    Our primary aim is to push our shows and channel’s faces in the markets which contribute most to the Hindi news genre. We always reach out to viewers whenever the channel introduces a new element in its line-up. The idea is to keep our viewers updated with what News18 India has in store for them.

    Editorial has planned various election based shows including on-ground shows for upcoming state elections. Our strategy will be to reach out to maximum number of people of these states by doing various branding-cum-engagement activities. This is a key element of our strategy wherein content and marketing will go hand in hand to create greater affinity amongst the viewers.

    We are also keen on building the perception of the channel as a category leader. This, in our opinion, will further drive viewership. Viewers typically depend more and more on channels that they think are the leaders in the category. To that end, we had even done a tactical campaign titled Aaj Ka No. 1 asserting News18 India’s leadership. It directly took on the competition and asserted that News18 India has altered the pecking order in the category. This will be a recurring theme in our marketing communication wherein we would like to position the channel clearly as the leader in the category.

    Q: What is the total reach of News18 India? Which region is contributing to the highest viewership?

    Our cumulative reach is 206.2 million* and major Hindi speaking markets (HSMs) like UP/UK, Mah/Goa & MP/Chhattisgarh contribute maximum to News18 India’s viewership

    (Source: BARC, NCCS All 2+, Wk 36-39'18, 24 Hrs, All Days, All India)

    Q: On the back of the significant growth, how are you planning to keep the growth momentum going to be the leader in the category?

    Our channel is already appreciated by the viewers and our numbers are a testimony to our claim. While we have witnessed more than a 100 per cent growth since the channel’s relaunch, we already command a market share of 13.5 per cent (Source: BARC, NCCS All 15+, Wk 36-39'18, HSM)

    We are the leaders in the evening primetime with a market share of 17.3 per cent (Source: BARC India Market: India Urban TG: 15+ Time Period: Wk 36 2018 -40 2018 Mon-Fri 1900-2300)

    Our differentiated content is another growth driver. We have always come out with new concepts of news telling. We are continuously setting new benchmarks in the Hindi television news. We were the first channel which launched two back-to-back debates and no other channel was doing it. Then, a third debate which was out of the studio. Our shows are performing really well and now everybody is imitating us.

    We plan to keep on doing what we are doing best and improve upon the rest to consolidate our position as the leader in the category.

  • iTV Network ups Vikas Khanna as national sales head of India News

    iTV Network ups Vikas Khanna as national sales head of India News

    MUMBAI: iTV Network has elevated Vikas Khanna to the post of national sales head of India News.

    Khanna was initially the senior vice president at India News. He will be responsible for driving the all India ad sales revenue of India News national and will continue to report to India News CEO Varun Kohli.

    Commenting on the elevation, iTV Network MD Kartikeya Sharma said, “We are delighted to elevate Vikas as the national sales head of India News. This elevation is in line with our commitment to growth. His skills and wide experience will surely help India News reach the next level of growth.”

    Kohli added, “Vikas has played an important role in India News sales and with his elevation as national sales head, India News, he will take on a wider role. His strong track record of delivering growth and his understanding of the industry will help us move forward on our path of continued success.”

    “I am delighted and honoured to have been given the responsibility of driving the ad sales revenue of India News National. In this fiercely competitive market, I shall strive to further strengthen the various revenue streams of India News and achieve a robust growth in the coming year,” Khanna said.

    Khanna previously worked with Network18 where he was responsible for the advertising sales of IBN 7 North region. He served India Today Group for six years and then moved to Times of India and thereafter to NDTV Media wherein he handled brands such as NDTV India, NDTV 24×7 and NDTV Profit.

  • iTV Network ups Vikas Khanna as national sales head of India News

    iTV Network ups Vikas Khanna as national sales head of India News

    MUMBAI: iTV Network has elevated Vikas Khanna to the post of national sales head of India News.

    Khanna was initially the senior vice president at India News. He will be responsible for driving the all India ad sales revenue of India News national and will continue to report to India News CEO Varun Kohli.

    Commenting on the elevation, iTV Network MD Kartikeya Sharma said, “We are delighted to elevate Vikas as the national sales head of India News. This elevation is in line with our commitment to growth. His skills and wide experience will surely help India News reach the next level of growth.”

    Kohli added, “Vikas has played an important role in India News sales and with his elevation as national sales head, India News, he will take on a wider role. His strong track record of delivering growth and his understanding of the industry will help us move forward on our path of continued success.”

    “I am delighted and honoured to have been given the responsibility of driving the ad sales revenue of India News National. In this fiercely competitive market, I shall strive to further strengthen the various revenue streams of India News and achieve a robust growth in the coming year,” Khanna said.

    Khanna previously worked with Network18 where he was responsible for the advertising sales of IBN 7 North region. He served India Today Group for six years and then moved to Times of India and thereafter to NDTV Media wherein he handled brands such as NDTV India, NDTV 24×7 and NDTV Profit.

  • IBN7 gears for budget with ‘BK’

    IBN7 gears for budget with ‘BK’

    MUMBAI: Amidst high expectations of investors in India and globally, key stakeholders are now hoping for the next leg of reforms to be revealed in the upcoming Union Budget. The economy is on the path of recovery – will Budget 2015 give it further impetus? Will the common man benefit? What will be the impact in areas that affect the common man such as housing, inflation, commodity prices etc.? As the euphoria continues around the ‘Modi wave’, and the new government gears up to present the first full budget on 28 February, IBN7 has lined up a series of special pre-budget programme that will analyse and identify the expectations of people from the budget.

     

    The pre-budget series will have a special character BK (Budget Kumar) who will draw attention to the issues and concerns of the people and bring it to the attention of the Finance Minister. BK will stamp his own unique style on the show – adding a different dimension to the channel’s budget programming. Owing to the common man’s perspective, Union Budget 2015 will be a test on the promise of good times by the Modi government. IBN7 will present a unique way of understanding the nation’s expectations by becoming one of them. BK will leave no stone unturned to bring forth the voice of the common man and his / her hopes from our elected government.

  • Smarter data and innovations in news selling should go hand in hand

    Smarter data and innovations in news selling should go hand in hand

    MUMBAI: At the Seventh Indian News Television Summit, a panel comprising Zee Sangam national sales head Harsha Vardhan Dwivedi, IndiaTV senior VP and country head ad sales Sudipto Chowdhuri, CNN IBN and IBN 7 national revenue head Vishal Bhatnagar, Times Television Network senior VP business head branded content Hemant Arora, GroupM south Asia CEO CVL Srinivas and IPG Mediabrands Initiatives CEO Anamika Mehta discussed the various means for ‘Innovation in news selling’.

     

    The session moderated by Provocateur Advisory principal Paritosh Joshi revolved around how media agencies can increase brands’ ROI from news channels.

     

    Joshi began by saying that one expects the sales and strategy team in a news channel to show more interesting numbers but what one gets is a rehash of an existing standard rating currency. According to Arora, the right clients, revenue and ROI comes when he and his team turns the big data into smart data. 

     

     “It is not just about the data but one has to be able to effectively show how it can impact the marketing objectives. But the matrix system that is currently in use does not really allow sellers and buyers to go beyond it. Eventually it comes down to CPR, slot rates etc and the value that is being offered. Times Now, for example, does not need to be a news channel, it is part of life. It’s the hue we create with our brand and then we pass on the benefit to the brand which wants to be a part of the ecosystem,” said Arora.

     

    Dwivedi then speaking about the revenue of regional channels said that of the total business that regional channels have been making, only 40 per cent comes from corporate and thus, 60 per cent is supported by government and SMEs. “If it was not for the government and SME, the regional channels would not have been able to survive,” he said adding that two years ago there were 14 news channels in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, while today out of that only four are operating while others have shut down.

     

    Joshi, addressing Mehta, recalled the days when he sold ad inventories. “Those days, agencies worked towards “de-selling brands”, because they had a personal grouse against a particular brand or they simply ignored them and therefore, sometimes broadcasters did approach the client directly to bring them on to their media plan. Now, how healthy is the entire ecosystem?” he questioned.

     

    Mehta agreed to the fact that personal biases could exist in the industry. Credibility of content is what matters and we don’t often see channels coming to us and sharing insights beyond just a channel share, rating etc. She illustrated her point by giving an example. “We have brands like Dettol, which as a pure FMCG typically would be on the GEC platform, Hindi movies and not on a English news channel. However, taking from the national agenda of the Prime Minister which is Swatch India, we tied the brand with it in terms of sanitation,” she said. Integrating the brand and creating custom solutions gave far greater ROI.

     

    Bhatnagar joined the conversation and said that the most important thing is how well one understands the product. “There is a huge responsibility on us to understand what business we are in. Are we in the business of just farming inventory and off loading the inventory?” he asked. He then mentioned that today a lot innovation depends on the kind of discussion news channels have with the agencies or clients. “For example, we tried to do something innovative with Microsoft during elections. And Microsoft of all things wanted to talk about analytics which on news channels does initially snicker people. But then we sat down with the agency, Lodestar, and discussed the various possibilities before pitching for it,” he added. The initiative got Microsoft a lot of feedback globally in terms of how to engage with audiences.

     

    According to Chowdhuri innovation has to be like the topping on a pizza but it can’t be the pizza. “Some news channels may  have done deals like 20 L bands a day for 365 days a year into two years adding up to Rs 5 crore. So, while your content is on screen, the advertisement too comes on screen. Hence, if you have ‘X’ million viewership for a programme then you have the same number of viewers for the ad as well,” he said.

     

    Srinivasan had the last word in the discussion when he was asked if agencies and news channels were ahead of time when it comes to digital. “I think we are a bit late because while digital might be eight per cent of the total adex in India, it occupies 80 per cent of the time with conversation with clients. Today every campaign that is conceptualised, you end up spending a little on digital but the whole thought of promoting and creating the buzz is steeped towards digital. There are huge opportunities to win from digital,” he concluded.

  • The Election Tracker

    The Election Tracker

    MUMBAI: As a run-up to the upcoming General Elections which are possibly the most crucial Elections in recent times, CNN-IBN & IBN7 are gearing up for their most exhaustive and comprehensive programming related to politics, politicians, elections and the expectations of the people from their leaders.

    CNN-IBN & IBN7 began this massive effort with its first round of The Election Tracker in July 2013, which was a one-of-its-kind study that tested the mood of the nation on key governance issues and attempted to track the fortunes of key political leaders; eventually endeavoring to answer the BIGGEST QUESTION – Who will rule India for the next five years? Taking this elaborate study further in the recently concluded 5 State Assembly Elections, both the channels tried to answer all the questions related to the crucial state elections through the Pre-Poll and Post-Poll surveys.

    The upcoming round of The Election Tracker on CNN-IBN and Agar Abhi Chunav Hon Toh on IBN7 scheduled from 20th January to 24th January, 2014 will see participation of approximately 17,000 respondents to be surveyed across 20 states with focus on social and political issues of national importance. Based on a rigorous methodology, this study will project voting patterns and likely outcome. The study will be conducted by the ‘Centre for the Study of Developing Societies’ (CSDS).

    Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat, said, “It is widely believed that India conducts one of the most complex and arguably the most fascinating and exciting elections anywhere in the world. We believe in arming our viewers with extensive and accurate information related to our present political and social scenario, so that they can make informed decisions while voting and take our country forward in the right direction. The Election Tracker aims to do precisely this.”

    Watch The Election Tracker on CNN-IBN and Agar Abhi Chunav Hon Toh on IBN7 from 20th Jan to 24th Jan, 2014 @ 8:00 PM.

     

  • Ashutosh formally joins AAP

    Ashutosh formally joins AAP

    MUMBAI: When IBN7’s former managing editor and one of India’s most well known faces of Indian journalism, Ashutosh resigned a few days ago, speculations about him joining the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were rife.

     

    After dillydallying a bit with the fellow media people for some time, the veteran journalist confirmed it in the morning with a tweet that he will be formally joining AAP today at 3 pm. The tweet has also been retweeted by AAP’s official handle. “Good morning. Need your blessings. Today I am formally joining AAP at 3 PM,” says the tweet.

     

    A formal announcement is probably going to come from Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh who are addressing a press conference around the same time in the capital.

     

    A string of tweets from Ashutosh Ashtosh shows his inclination towards the new step that he has taken to serve the nation.

     

    Here’s what he has tweeted:

     

    Tweet 1: ‘There will be enough time to make careers but such times come rarely in history when one gets an opportunity to help make a better nation.’

     

    Tweet 2: ‘I did not like politics, the politics of big cars, of five star hotels, of money and muscle power. Common man had no role in that politics.’

     

    Tweet 3: ‘Today politics is changing. This is the time to empower and support that energy which is agent of change and which will cleanse the system.’

  • IBN 7 to refurbish Sunday programming with fresh shows

    IBN 7 to refurbish Sunday programming with fresh shows

    MUMBAI: IBN7 is refurbishing its Sunday programming from 9 March with ‘IBN7 Super Sundays’. The 360 degree approach of programming will provide news, issues, information, technology, sports, children, lifestyle, entertainment and reality.

    “IBN7 Super Sundays’ is an integral part of IBN7’s overall new look – both visual and editorial. From news, talk shows, to entertainment and sports, IBN 7 on Sundays will have it all and more,” said IBN7 managing editor Ashutosh.

    As part of ‘IBN7 Super Sundays’, the channel will air an interactive show IBN7 Junior at 11:30 am. With current affairs, sports, entertainment and world events, it is aimed at keeping the young audience informed about the events and news of the week.

    At 1:30, Tech Mantra is a guide from and about the gizmo world. Sunday Shopping at 2.30 pm will showcase the newest trends, latest styles and hippest new stores for the viewers followed by The Citizen Journalist Show.

    Starting 29 March, at 10 pm the channel will telecast a docu-drama series ‘Bawandar’ which will showcase series of epic cases in the jurisdiction of independent India that shook and changed the entire judiciary system of the country . It will reconstruct for viewers some of the biggest crimes from across the nation.

    The ‘Super Sunday’ at 11:30 pm will round up with ‘Sunday Ka Tadka’ which will provide a round up of the entertainment and glamour news of the entire week. It will focus on all news from Bollywood, Hollywood, the glamour world and showcase the latest trends and controversies, the events, the parties, film premieres, music launches and controversies.

    Besides, IBN7 has retained its existing feature programmes like Zindagi Live , Top Drive, Bouncer and Hot Seat on Sunday.

  • CNN-IBN to air ‘Exam Fever’ series for students

    CNN-IBN to air ‘Exam Fever’ series for students

    MUMBAI: With CBSE annual exams round the corner, Network 18’s English news channel CNN-IBN is all set to air a daily special report “Exam Fever” in its 8 am show Breakfast with India from 25 to 29 February.

    “Exam Fever” will have tips about handling the stress, last-minute revision and guidelines for parents to help their children cope.

    “Each year, students are put under tremendous pressure regarding the board exams. ‘Exam Fever’ is our way of alleviating this load and consequently helping them do better with subject-by-subject advice from those who know best,” said CNN-IBN and IBN 7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai.

    For students preparing for the class X exams, each day a subject like maths, science, social studies, etc will be discussed by an expert who will provide tips on how best to go about the last few days of preparations.

    In addition, issues like handling exam and parental pressures, questioning the use of memory pills to exploring the benefits of helplines will be dealt with, and students and parents will have their questions answered.

    Viewers can log on to ibnlive.com to post their questions, which will be answered by the guest experts on the show.

  • 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.