ITV

Tag: IBN7

  • IBN7 unveils special lineup for Christmas and New Year

    IBN7 unveils special lineup for Christmas and New Year

    MUMBAI: With the Christmas and New Year around, all channels are planning to package content differently to woo more viewers. Joining the bandwagon, Hindi news channel IBN7 unveils special programming to entertain the viewer this festive season.

    Beginning 24 December, the programming will have a mix of shows ranging from Bollywood gossips, laughter shows, and musical evening with the Indian Idol contestants and small screen child artists.

    IBN7 managing editor Ashutosh said, “We welcome the New Year with an array of programmes on IBN7 which has specially being designed keeping in mind our discerning viewers’ choice. We have tried to create an innovative package for our audience that would entertain them and reignite their emotions with the year end special shows.”

    On 24 December at 8 pm, the channel will air Director’s Cut, Aamir, wherein Bollywood actor Aamir Khan will talk about the upcoming release Ghajini and his rival Shahrukh Khan in the one-hour studio based show, hosted by Richa Anirudh. On 25th evening, a 30-minute special with Indian Idol contestants will be aired.

    On 28 December at 8 pm, the channel will show Amazing Kids in Zindagi Live. The special episode will feature kids who have set world records at a very tender age and have got themselves registered in Guinness book of world records.

    Hanstey Hanstey will wrap up all special episodes of some of its hallmark shows on 31 December at 10 pm and on 1 January at 10 am. 31 December evening will also see a special one-hour musical show featuring the Indian Idol contestants humming their favorite songs, share their on-stage experience and talk about the show, the judges and their future plans.

    The channel will also air Balika Vadhu special Zindagi Live on 4 January. The special episodes will bring popular child star Balika Vadhu’s – Anandi and her on-screen husband – Jagdish.

  • IBN7 to investigate weekly in ‘Tehqiqat’

    IBN7 to investigate weekly in ‘Tehqiqat’

    MUMBAI: IBN7 has launched a weekly investigative show Tehqiqat. Starting 16 November every Sunday at 10 pm, the show will focus on a big event or happening of the week or a special story and tie all the loose ends to draw a final picture.

    Tehqiqat will not only showcase crime related stories, but will also span over a wide range of other themes like crime, politics, violence, social stigma, odd religious practice.

    The show aims at probing deep into these topics and takes a closer look at facts that were either undiscovered or ignored earlier. The show is an attempt to make people aware about unsolved mysteries, common man’s issues, false taboos, wired truth, frenzyness, malpractices, scams, wastage, negligence, miracles, fake gurus and many such traps that people get into.

    Said IBN7 managing editor Ashutosh, “Tehqiqat is an attempt by IBN7 to uncover the truth behind many issues that are affecting the society but seldom get spoken about. The show will put various malpractices of society under the scanner with topics varying from religion, politics to crime and many more”.

  • Hindi news channels see tough Muqabala

    Hindi news channels see tough Muqabala

    India TV CEO Chintamani Rao says, “For India TV, it has been a good year. Two years ago we were number six or seven in the news channel category, with a five to six per cent share; today we are number three with a 17-18 per cent share. “

     

    In 2007, Zee News was not steady in the numbers game starting the year with 13 per cent and ended with 10 per cent. With an annual average of 11.54 per cent, Zee News had its best runs of 14 per cent in the February and April period. From May with 12 per cent.

     

    It reached it’s lowest ebb of 9 per cent in September. Mid-September, incidentally, was also a time when the channel was headless after Harish Doraiswamy resigned from the CEO’s position, following which MCCS executive vice-president Barun Das was roped in as CEO.

     

    Global Broadcast News’ IBN7 has an average annual share of 10.5 per cent, opening the account with 9 per cent in January. Though low in its numbers, IBN7 has been consistent, with the figures ranging between 9 to 12 per cent market share.

     

    Ashutosh says, “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.”

     

    He asserts, “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. “

     

    Among the news broadcast majors though, it is NDTV India in particular that would like to leave behind 2007 as far as market share is concerned. Its average for the year – a highly disappointing 9.5 per cent. In January it was at 13 per cent, but drastically fell from June on when it stood at 9 per cent. In an attempt to get more eyeballs, NDTV India forayed into fiction by launching its weekly series Bombay Lawyers in July. It got only 8 per cent each in July and August, managed some uplift in September to 9 per cent, but slipped back to 8 per cent again in November and December.

     

    In August, NDTV India saw a major change in leadership when Dibang stepped down as the managing editor. In his place, senior staffers Sanjay Ahirwal and Manish Kumar were entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the day-to-day news operations of the channel.

     

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

     

    Punya Prasun Bajpai’s taking over the content, the channel getting a revamp with a fresh look and feel and even changing its name could hardly contribute anything to Sahara’s national Hindi news channel Samay. With an annual average market share of 5.1 per cent, the month-on-month figures have hovered around 4 to 6 per cent.

     

    Likewise Broadcast Initiative’s Live India re-positioning itself from a views channel to a news channel and its re-christening could not however save it from hitting rock bottom. Soon after being re-launched it was slapped a month’s ban for a sting operation gone horribly wrong. However, it can take solace from the fact that it had 1 per cent market share in January, which has gone up to 4 per cent at the close of the year.

     

    DD News on the other hand does not have a success story to its credit. DD News has to be satisfied with an annual average of 3.3 per cent of the market share.

     

    Whatever the figures say though, news broadcasters across the board agree unanimously that there has been a lot of compromise in content.

     

    Naqvi says, “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.”

     

    Rao says, “If it says that on a certain night some news channel was number one, then more or less it works that way. It is another matter that that news channel was then showing a sex show. But that is for the viewer to decide. If he wants to see a sex show in news, it is his choice.”

     

    In the same breath news broadcasters also believe that “it is going to be hard hitting, proper investigative journalism that will have to come back to the news channels.”

     

    2008 would require the Hindi news channel market already flooded with more than 10 channels to accommodate a long list of channels waiting in the wings. B.A.G Films and Media News24 is the first one in the fray, with many others to follow in the year.

  • ‘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
    _____****_____

    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.

  • IBN7 to launch ‘Gujarat Chunav – Satta Nau Sangharsha’

    MUMBAI: IBN7 has tied up with Divya Bhaskar for a show ‘Gujarat Chunav – Satta Nau Sangharsha’ on Gujarat assembly elections. The month-long show, kicking off on 14 November, starts with findings of an opinion poll conducted by Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).

    As a part of the show, interactive live debate sessions, ‘Kyun Chune Aapko?’ will be conducted on a daily basis in 15 different towns and cities across Gujarat and aired on 5:30 pm election special shows. Featuring various party leaders and prominent authorities, the discussions will take up issues pertinent to the state.

    From 26 November to 13 December extensive programming run of half-hour shows daily will provide a comprehensive step-by-step account of the entire election process from the pre-polling phase, the actual ballot casting to the post-poll results.

    As a special segment in the 8:30 pm series, ‘5 Saal 5 Reporter’, five IBN 7 reporters will revisit the worst riot affected areas of Gujarat.

    The exit poll surveys will be conducted throughout Gujarat on the day the state goes to vote. IBN 7 will telecast special half-hour shows from 11 to 16 December at 8 pm to track and project the nature of voting in the state and the likely winner.

    On 23 December IBN 7 will have a one-hour special show in the evening. It will discuss and analyse the election results and the implications for the state and nation.

    IBN 7 managing editor Ashutosh said, “The Gujarat state elections are undeniably one of the most anticipated polls of the year. Therefore, with ‘ Gujarat Chunav – Satta Nau Sangharsha’ IBN 7 will be on location to provide its viewers the latest news from ground-zero, including in-depth analyses of all developments occurring during the electoral process. ”

    CNN-IBN and IBN 7 director marketing and online projects Dilip Venkatraman said, “Our editorial and marketing partnership with Divya Bhaskar for this extensive initiative will ensure maximum reach and visibility of our campaign by going beyond television to include print.”

  • News channels back on cable networks in Ahmedabad

    MUMBAI: After facing a blackout in Ahmedabad for showing the Tehelka sting expose, the seven news channels are back on air since late Saturday.

    Aaj Tak, NDTV India, NDTV 24X7, IBN7, CNN-IBN, Tez and Headlines Today were put off air since 26 October.

    Cable operators were ordered by the District Collector of the city, Dhananjay Dwivedi, to put the channels off air, following Tehelka’s ‘Operation Kalank’ sting expose of the Gujarat riots.

    Dwivedi, who is also the District Election Officer, on 26 October issued an order to all cable television operators not to telecast the Tehelka expose of the Gujarat riots “Operation Kalank.”

    The Friday order quoted the cable television network rules and regulations, 1995, clause five, sub-sections 1(C) and 1(E), under which the operators must not telecast any programme that could incite communal hatred or come in the way of maintenance of the law and order.

  • Tehelka fallout: News channels off air in Ahmedabad

    MUMBAI: Following Tehelka’s ‘Operation Kalank’ sting expose of the Gujarat riots, seven news channels have been put off air in Ahmedabad since 26 October.

    Ahmedabad District Collector Dhananjay Dwivedi, who is also the District Election Officer, on Friday issued an order to all cable television operators not to telecast the Tehelka expose of the Gujarat riots “Operation Kalank.”

    As a result, news channels including Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, Tez, CNN-IBN, IBN7, NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India are off air since Friday.

    The Friday order quoted the cable television network rules and regulations, 1995, clause five, sub-sections 1(C) and 1(E), under which the operators must not telecast any programme that could incite communal hatred or come in the way of maintenance of the law and order. 

  • Reliance Capital buys 6 per cent in GBN via open market

    Reliance Capital buys 6 per cent in GBN via open market

    MUMBAI: Anil Ambani group company Reliance Capital has acquired 6.27 per cent stake in Global Broadcast News (GBN) through an open market transaction on the BSE.

    The purchase of 1.68 million shares in a bulk deal was made on 12 February. GBN, which operates English news channel CNN-IBN and Hindi news channel IBN7, was listed on the stock exchanges on 8 February.

    After a debut opening on the BSE at Rs 417.10, the scrip had closed at Rs 510.10 with over 13 million shares changing hands on the first day of trading.

    A day after Reliance Capital’s purchase, the scrip opened at Rs 495 and touched a high of Rs 526.70 before closing at Rs 508.65.

  • IBN7 appoints Times Now’s Sanjay Singh as senior editor

    IBN7 appoints Times Now’s Sanjay Singh as senior editor

    MUMBAI: IBN7 has roped in Times Now’s deputy news editor Sanjay Singh as the senior editor. In his new role, he will head IBN 7’s Mumbai bureau along with the additional responsibility of the entertainment desk.

    Singh has been credited as the man who authored Telgi Scam – Reporter Ki Diary the only written document on the Telgi scam. He was recently honoured with the International Press Institute Award by the President of India, according to a statement.

    He has held a number of senior positions in leading news channels like NDTV, and Zee News in the past.

    Announcing the appointment IBN7 managing editor Ashutosh said, “Sanjay is an old hand at journalism with great editorial experience. I am confident that his energy and commitment will further strengthen our operations and his leadership will take our news coverage to a different level.”

    “Sanjay is an exciting addition to IBN 7’s strong editorial team. His commitment to creative programme-making will ensure that IBN 7 broadcast the news in an accessible and engaging way.” added CNN-IBN and IBN7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai.

  • CNN-IBN launches series ‘The Golden South’

    CNN-IBN launches series ‘The Golden South’

    MUMBAI: CNN-IBN has unveiled a series focusing on south India . The series The Golden South also marks the 50-year celebrations of formation of the four southern states – Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka.

    Launched on 30 October, The Golden South will run till 26 November. The series will feature weekend half hour specials, which will air programmes pertaining to south India ranging from its diverse culture, food habits, music, entertainment, religion etc. The programming would also announce the Golden Keralite, the Golden Andhraite, the Golden Tamilian and the Golden Kannadiga (basis a viewer voting) in each of the four half hour specials on 4 November, 11 November, 18 November and 25 November respectively, informs an official release.

    The series will also have a special feature The Big South Debate, a one-hour special show on 26 November. The findings of a nationwide poll that would sense the mood of South India will be revealed in The Big South Debate.

    According to CNN-IBN & IBN7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai, “Our aim for presenting this series is to celebrate the golden jubilee of the grand southern states. Our effort is to provide our viewers an in-depth knowledge about the formation and development of the states and its people, who have made India proud. I am confident that our viewers will find this programming interesting and engaging.”

    “Thematic content like this differentiated offering generates higher interest with advertising community” adds CNN-IBN & IBN7 national sales head Sanjay Dua.