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Tag: news channels

  • News channels building ammo for D-day

    News channels building ammo for D-day

    MUMBAI: As the mother of all elections draws to a close, news channels are working themselves to a frenzy to feed the hungry electorate byte-by-byte updates of the poll results.

      

    Speaking of Times Now, the channel has stretched itself to the limit, promising 250 hours of non-stop election coverage, starting with the poll of polls and culminating in a grand finale.

     

    News Nation, on the other hand, will showcase poll results using innovative graphics between 6am and 3pm on 16 May, followed by expert analyses and later, special shows around formation of the new government.

     

    CNN-IBN and IBN7, with their shows A Billion Votes – Post Poll Survey and Mera Vote Meri Sarkar – Post-Poll Survey, respectively, have promised 100 hours of poll coverage, beginning 12 May and ending 16 May. The last phase will be complete with insights into the world’s largest electoral exercise.

     

    CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai said in a statement, “With the results of the biggest elections of our times round the corner, the entire nation is keeping a close eye on the outcome. The IBN Network has been a front runner in election programming. Through our 100 hours of extensive coverage, we look forward to continuing our leadership and delivering on the expectations of our viewers of being the most accurate and most trusted network for elections.”

     

    Sardesai along with his formidable team will lead the network’s election coverage, with help from political experts including Swapan Dasgupta, Ramachandra Guha, Surjit Bhalla, Manini Chatterjee, Sandeep Shastri, Kumar Ketkar, Dipankar Gupta and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.

     

    For ABP News, counting day will start at the crack of dawn at 6am with live interviews of the key faces of this election and a summary of the trends and results using state-of-the-art election software and graphics that the channel has come to be synonymous with. Helping viewers understand the poll results and their implications will be ABP News’ experienced anchors including Kishore Ajwani, Abhisar Sharma, Sumaira Khan as also Neha Pant from the National News Centre, Noida.

     

    Prannoy Roy will once again step into the role he started off with all those years ago. The ace journalist will anchor NDTV’s show-stopper, India Decides – The Final Countdown. The channel is hoping to ensure the fastest national projection, based on early numbers and Roy’s expertise. Counting day will see Roy and Dorab Sopariwala joined by some of the country’s finest anchors, including Barkha Dutt, Vikram Chandra and Srinivasan Jain among others.

     

    Similarly, prominent faces associated with various news channels will lead the channel coverage for the day. For instance, Ajay Kumar, Ramesh Bhatt and Pinaj Tyagi will be the main anchors on News Nation on 16 May.

     

    As for ET Now, election coverage will commence at 7:00 am. The channel will have a panel of experts comprising Swaminathan Aiyar, Bibek Debroy, Sadanand Dhume and Sanjeev Aga who will decode the election results and give comprehensive analysis of how the economy and markets will shape up post elections. ET Now also has a lineup of industry captains like Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej, Hero MotoCorp joint MD Sunil Munjal, Ashok Leyland vice chairman R.Seshasayee, HDFC vice chairman & CEO Keki Mistry, CII president Ajay Shriram, and FICCI president Siddharth Birla to represent the industry’s viewpoint on the election results and the likely agenda for the new government.

     

    Realizing the kind of viewership these channels are all set to garner on the counting day, a multitude of brands have latched onto the exercise. For example, IBN network has roped in ebay.in, ACC Cement, Renault, Asian Paints and Principal Mutual Funds while Microsoft is its technology partner. News Nation has got onboard Ghadi Detergent, Pepsi, LG, SBI, Hitachi, Airtel, Spice Mobile, TVS Motors and J.K. Cement while ABP News has tied up with Hero, Luminous, Snapdeal.com and Kent Water Purifiers.

     

    Consequently, news channels have hiked their ad rates for a 10 second spot. According to News Nation CEO Shailesh Kumar, the channel has hiked ad rates 15 times the normal rates for prime time for a 10 second spot. However, media planners and buyers beg to differ.

     

    A prominent media planner on condition of anonymity revealed that many such figures are floating around. Like it is being said that Times Now, which used to charge Rs 3,000 for a 10 second spot, has now hiked ad rates to Rs 7,500 or even Rs 9,000. Or for that matter, Hindi news channel Aaj Tak has doubled its ad rate from the previous Rs 4,500 to Rs 9000 approx.

     

    The media planner went on to say that news channels are in fact still trying to get advertisers on board. And though the ad rate may be the same on paper for any single news channel, new brands may have to pay a steep price as compared to old timers who might even be offered a discount.

     

    Not to be left behind in the online space, immediate trends and results from all counting centres will be relayed to NDTV in Delhi, which will reach viewers with state-of-the-art graphics almost as soon as they are released. ABP News has deployed personnel at various counting centres across the country to digitally deliver real-time data to the servers so that viewers get the results at a fast pace. Separate teams will also work right through the day for delivering results on Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, BBM or SMS, wherever a viewer is, on the device of his choice. Times Now has already launched an app called Election HQ app, which is also available on i-tunes to provide information to its viewers on the go. To make the incoming information simpler for the audience to understand, IBN has created the Microsoft Election Analytics Centre. The CNN-IBN – Microsoft Election Analytics Centre uses a range of Microsoft devices and services, and leverages analysis of current and historical data to provide people with intelligent election insights.

     

    With almost all news channels ready to bombard viewers with wide-ranging news and analyses related to the poll results, it remains to be seen which one manages to grab the highest number of eyeballs, along with of course, the new government.

  • Esha Media Research aims to monitor 200 channels in next 2 months

    Esha Media Research aims to monitor 200 channels in next 2 months

    KOLKATA: Esha Media Research, a media monitoring and research company, has plans of increasing its reach. The media monitoring company, which currently monitors 140 channels, across the nation in all languages, now plans to take this number to 200 channels in the next two months. 

     

    Not only this, the company, which for the past 15 years has been monitoring news channels, is now planning to foray into the entertainment genre as well. Esha Media through this will look at recording, retrieving, transcribing and translating entertainment related content, do celebrity management and movie management.

     

    “Esha Media is a broadcast news monitoring agency and tracks close to 140 channels beamed into India. In next two months, we aim to increase the monitoring to 200 channels,” Esha Media Research managing director RS Iyer told indiantelevision.com.

     

    “News is our bread and butter now but sooner we will monitor entertainment related developments frame by frame,” he added.

     

    The monitoring of channels is done using state of- the-art equipment that allows the agency to record, retrieve, transcribe, translate and deliver reports in formats ranging from CD and DVD to immediate uploads via FTP or a customized web page. “This enables the client to log in and access news of their interest, anytime and anywhere,” he said.

     

    Esha Media tracks Star Jhalsa, ETV Bangla, 24 Ghanta, ABP Anando and Doordarshan Bangla among others in the Kolkata News television market.

     

    The agency had recently conducted a research monitoring television for the banking sector during the period of 1 April-30 April. The research showed that CNBC TV 18 had garnered lion’s share of programme sponsorship by banks followed by ET Now, a distant second. The study revealed that while CNBC TV18 got 39.58 per cent, ET NOW commanded 20.66 per cent.

     

    The ‘Television Monitoring Intelligence Report’ further revealed that private sector banks occupy more television media space than public sector banks.

     

    “Private sector banks enjoy a higher multiple in terms of price to book value over their public sector cousins and thereby a better valuation on the stock market. Our monthly report for April also endorses that the private sector banks have been able to occupy more TV media space than public sector banks, deriving better perception points,” he added.

     

    The research report further found that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) occupies 22 per cent space of the total news in the banking sector on TV. And RBI’s credit policy governs the news coverage. “Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan occupies more space than the vocal deputy governor K C Chakrabarty,” the research further added.

     

    RBI’s share of space in the total news coverage was around 22.16 per cent.  CNBC TV18 has 6.85 per cent, while CNBC Awaaz and ET NOW has 3.08 per cent and 3.87 per cent respectively.

     

    On the other hand, the share for NDTV Profit, Bloomberg TV and Zee Business are 3.73 per cent, 3.45 per cent and 1.18 per cent respectively.

     

    Total coverage of private banks far exceeded the public banks with ICICI Bank garnering 880 clips, HDFC Bank 831 clips and Axis Bank 638 clips. State Bank of India (SBI) commanded 634 clips.

  • Election result fever grips Tata Sky

    Election result fever grips Tata Sky

    MUMBAI: Elections 2014 has gripped not only the News channels, but also the direct to home (DTH) players. One such is Tata Sky that has in yet another customer friendly initiative announced that it will air all News channels to its subscribers free of cost with immediate effect, for next seven days.

     

    The offer  also  includes news channels available on Tata Sky’s  Everywhere TV  service  which  will  allow viewing on  smart phones and tablets  as well.

     

    The move will give Tata Sky subscribers an upper hand on the ‘breaking news’ during the week of the election results.

     

    A bouquet of 13 English News channels, 18 Hindi News channels and 38 regional News channels will be offered free this week, irrespective of the pack that the subscriber has opted for. Regional language News channels include Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Odia, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

  • Elections 2014: Live from Ground Zero

    Elections 2014: Live from Ground Zero

    MUMBAI: The 2014 election fever has gripped the nation and news channels in their quest to feed the hungry electorate with innovative and comprehensive news coverage, are venturing out, literally. Studio produced shows are steadily seen replacing on ground coverage ensuring that information is delivered at source. Some of these shows include Open Mike by CNN-IBN; Kaun Banega Pradhan Mantrai, Nukkad Bahas and Ghosnapatra by ABP; Campus Connect by NewsX; Janta Ka Agenda, Akhada, Pradhan Mantri Pachchisi by News Nation etc.  Well known journalists, the face of these channels including Barkha Dutt of NDTV, Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN, Ajay Kumar, Ramesh Bhatt from News Nation, Abhisar Sharma of ABP and Athar Khan of NewsX, have all stepped out of the four walls of the studio to reach out to the janta.

     

    What have been the primary reasons for news channels venturing out from the comforts of the studio? IBN Network managing editor Vinay Tewari says, “Elections have been always about people. Going out on the field and interacting with the 80 crore electorate is very important for us.”

     

    News Nation CEO and editor in chief Shailesh Kumar said, “Our endeavor is to give a feel that we are present at ground zero. We cannot call voters from far flung areas to our studios. But our studio can certainly move to the door steps of the voters.”  Echoing a similar thought about its show Campus Connect, NewsX says that the show has come up as a unique youth electorate engagement initiative that hopes to build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in the country.

     

    Producing such shows in the open involves a lot more investment, manpower and planning compared to a studio produced show. According to Castle Media director Vynsley Fernandes, producing a half-an-hour show in a studio costs around Rs 45,000 which nearly triples for an hour long show produced on ground costing roughly around Rs 1, 25,000. “But news channels feel it’s worth the effort as they get to know the real pulse of the nation,” he says.

     

     
    News Nation has deployed about 100 crewmen including journalists, four OB vans and 30 bag packs for its different programmes while News   X ‘Campus Connect’ employs 20 odd personnel.  To transmit these shows a combination of 3G back packs and OB vans are being used. Some of these shows are broadcast live while others are pre-recorded.

     

    Bigger states like Uttar Pradesh (UP) and the Hindi speaking belt command more weightage as they send more MPs to the parliament. News Nation says that states like UP, Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan are more important as BJP expects maximum swing of votes in these areas while for ABP News states in the Hindi heartland are of utmost priority and its show Ghosnapatra is limited to bigger cities only. NewsX differs and says that every state is important for them.

     

    As the counting day draws nearer and the election mania reaches its peak, News Nation says that counting day is for results and therefore the studio will be more important to them although reporting from important constituencies will get equal importance. On the other hand, ABP News and NewsX have said that on ground reporting will see a surge on the day results will be declared. For all the effort that has gone in producing these shows and formats it is crucial that an efficient marketing plan is devised to pitch these shows to the right audience. NewsX is relying on considerable amount of word of mouth communication through the audience who take part in their shows. They are also promoting extensively through promos on the channel to build additional viewership. At the same time, each episode is uploaded on YouTube and promoted to digital subscribers.

     

    On the other hand according to MCCS marketing manager Vikas Singh ‘aap apni rajneetik rai kahan banate hain’ is the question that the ABP News brand campaign asks its viewers. Politics is national pastime and is perhaps the only thing after cricket where everybody has a point of view. People can be seen having animated political discussions at bus stops, cafeterias, inside trains, tea stalls, at work station in office, almost everywhere. However not all discussions are backed by sound knowledge. “The campaign tries to get the viewers watch ABP News to form the correct political opinion. It leaves behind a powerful message ‘sahi rajneetik rai banana ke liye dekhiye sirf ABP News’,” says Singh.

     

     According to Lowe Lintas executive vice president Syed Amjad Ali the key objective of the campaign was to take the thought further through an interesting story. “The story is so simple that anyone can connect with and understand it. People resonate with this campaign far more strongly given the timing of such a large scale election that’s going on in the country,” informs Ali. The social media space too is being used extensively to market these shows. ABP News is using interactive poll banners that run on popular sites to establish the message.

     

    As per IPSOS study-‘Kaun Banega Pradhan Mantri’ has the highest awareness amongst all election related shows across news genre. “Audiences specially the youth talk a lot of the Campus Connect show on social media,” says Singh. These dynamic formats have been a huge hit and have developed a big following among the ‘aam janta’ as it gives them an opportunity to share their views and thus makes the audience feels empowered.

     

    NewsX plans to integrate social media to a larger and greater extent to engage with their audience.  The audience response to these new shows has been positive.

     

    All the channels that indiantelevision.com spoke to said that this new format is here to stay even post elections, although the degree and extent to which currently these shows are produced might be low due to budget constraints.

  • Election 2014: The rise of social media

    Election 2014: The rise of social media

    MUMBAI: India is witnessing an election with several firsts to its credit. Not only is it the first time that a million youth are voting, it is also the first time the campaign spends of political parties are second only to the USA, the first time channels are jostling to show which one is more unique and it is also the very first time that social media is so actively involved in elections.

    IBN network managing editor Vinay Tewari puts it as:  “Today for any big event, social media communication is big. No news channel can survive without social media.” The 2009 Lok Sabha elections did not see as much mobile and social media penetration. So much so, the FICCI FRAMES annual report did not have a ‘new media’ section till 2011. 

    According to the report, the total number of internet users in India is 214 million, out of which 130 million access it through their mobile phones. This is just 17 per cent of the total population of the country!

    “It took a decade for the country to grow from a 10 million to 100 million internet user base and only three years to double (2011 to 2013) that number to 100 million.” says the report.

    According to India Today Group COO Digital Salil Kumar, “The age group of 18 to 24 years and then those above 24 years are the most vocal in the metros but maximum growth is being witnessed from tier two and three towns.”

    The FICCI FRAMES 2014 report says that by the end of 2013 there were nearly 72 million rural Indians who had accessed internet at least once in their lives and 49 million were active internet users. The primary reason that holds them back is unavailability of content in their local languages, which is something channels and mediums are trying to slowly bridge.

    Naturally, channels are pulling out all stops to get viewers hooked onto the second screen. CNN-IBN has a tie up with Microsoft and Google; ABP News and Aaj Tak are using their intense social media following; Times Now and CNBC-TV18 have tie ups with Twitter; while NDTV depends on its own proprietary material such as second screen and its app which has six million downloads.

    Aaj Tak had come up with an innovative campaign last year called E-Election (E-Chunav) where users were asked to virtually vote for their state parties in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, in order to gauge the mood of netizens. “With a dedicated team in place, we have been leveraging the medium to disseminate news, listen to feedback, hear views of the community and share  them back with audiences on TV, including the panelists on programmes,” says Kumar.

    ABP News started the trend #KBPMSelfie that encouraged voters to send selfies of their inked fingers through Twitter, Facebook and mail, leveraging its popular show Kaun Banega Pradhan Mantri (KBPM). It claimed to have received more than one lakh pictures. "We use social media actively throughout the year and we only see this activity increasing as news consumption on this platform is growing," says MCCS marketing manager Vikas Singh, the company that runs ABP News.

    An important medium for feedback, social media can no longer afford to be clubbed together with TV.  In fact, intensification on social media is not just for the elections but also post elections to retain people.  While Aaj Tak wants to improve its engagement with viewers as well as build brand loyalty among them, ABP News' Singh maintains, "From a channel perspective, it helps us communicate much better with our audience. Earlier if it used to be a one way communication, social media now helps it to become a two way channel. News travels faster and a lot of consumption of news happens through referrals, sharing and comments."

    According to Tewari, “The current focus is only elections. Post that, the interest in politics may decline but creating stickiness is something everyone is doing.”

    Word of mouth has become the biggest marketing tool today. The fact that news travels and gets consumed faster through social media means that it is effectively used for content dissemination and to provide breaking news. ‘Viral’ and ‘trends’ are the new operative words.

    Twitter claims that the buzz around the 2014 election on its platform in the last year has increased 600 per cent while the mention of political parties and candidates since the beginning of 2014 has gone up 10 times.

     

     

    Facebook has come up with an ‘I’m a Voter’ campaign urging voters to click the button and tell everyone about their moment of pride.

    This also brings us to the question as to how much of this information can actually be termed dependable? Times Now is doing live sentiment analysis of Twitter feeds while Network 18’s news channels are analysing election data through Microsoft’s technology. However, NDTV group CEO Vikram Chandra feels that these data are not very conclusive. “Though social media is an important factor, it is not necessarily the single factor that will dominate voting decisions. You have to also keep in mind that only a particular segment of the population has access to the internet or twitter. So mood gauging is fine but I am a bit wary of how far you can take it,” he says.

    With ABP News focusing on Facebook (3.9 million), Twitter (5.05 lakh) and G+ respectively while Aaj Tak on Facebook (6.5 million), Twitter (30,000), G+, YouTube, Flickr and Pinterest, CNN-IBN and IBN7 on their own websites first and NDTV depending on the second screen with its own application having 3.2 million followers on Facebook and 1.92 million on Twitter, how much of this information can be relied upon becomes a pertinent question.

    “In the last election, social media was considered a medium of a few. Internet penetration was not so deep. In the current environment, it is considered a major influencer and a lot of recourses have also been deployed by all political parties to influence the voter,” points out Kumar. Online data says that in 2009, the number of Facebook users was 1.6 million which has now crossed 100 million,  while Twitter which had about 0.6 million subscribers, hasn’t really caught up and currently has approximately 40 million visitors. However, it seems to now be making the most buzz.

    “Voting for Lok Sabha #Election2014 in India begins today in what has truly been the country’s first Twitter election” said a Twitter statement on the first day of elections. Even then, the social media user penetration in the country stands at 10.5 per cent of the total population, which is expected to grow to 17.2 per cent by 2017. So, although channels are vehemently focusing on communication through digital media, it still remains a small but actively growing part of the population.

    Quite possible that by then the meaning, use or method of ‘social media’ might change. However, channels are keenly tracking the number of followers, likes, people talking about it and the growth level. As India’s mobile and internet penetration sharpens and connections become better and cheaper, the social media landscape for news will totally change.

  • Action against GECs almost three times more than against news channels

    Action against GECs almost three times more than against news channels

    NEW DELHI: Action was taken by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) 74 times against different television channels in the three years between April 2011 and March 2014.

     

    Of these, action mostly in the form of advisories was taken suo moto by the I&B Ministry 12 times – seven against general entertainment channels and five against news channels.   

     

    Of the balance 62 cases, there were reports of violation by GECs 46 times and news channels 16 times.

     

    In 16 cases, channels had to stop transmission for varying periods, while other punishments were either warnings or directives to run apology scrolls. 

     

    There were only six cases relating to advertisements, four of them about deodorants and two about liquor. 

     

    There is only one case where a channel was prohibited from telecasting a certain film in day-time following a Court order.

     

    The rest of the cases were about telecast of adult certified films before 11.00 pm or in day-time, screening films without showing the certificate of the Central Board of Film Certification, obscene or vulgar content, scenes denigrating children or likely to affect them, revealing identity of sexually abused women or children, inflammatory or provocative matter, scenes that showed the lower castes or dalits in a bad light, and scenes promoting superstition or blind belief.

     

    Individually, action was initiated against Bindass five times and three times each against Sony Entertainment Television, Colors, and Manoranjan TV. Action was initiated twice in the case of Channel V, SS TV, FTV and Comedy Central. 40 other channels faced action only once each.

     

    The advisories from the Ministry related to guidelines relating to taking children in TV programmes or hiding identity of trauma-affected children, telecast of quiz-based programmes, against programmes promoting superstition and blind belief, news about movement of troops, showing as news scenes from uncertified films, barring telecast of a round-the-clock public demonstration, comparison of prime minister’s speech on Independence Day with that of other leaders, and live telecast of Republic Day parade from Doordarshan with sign language interpretation.

  • Andhra Pradesh: A chaotic news market

    Andhra Pradesh: A chaotic news market

    According to the Ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB), there are nearly 800 satellite channels in India, of which about half are news channels. With an already crowded market, an increasingly loud general election has added to the number of news channels mushrooming across the country.

     

    Andhra Pradesh, which till recently was in turmoil because of the imminent bifurcation into Telangana and Seemandhra, is no exception. Counted as the state with the highest number of satellite TV channels, the last one year has seen newer additions (V6 News, Express News, 10TV and ETV3) to the existing list (ETV2, TV9, TV5, NTV, Mahaa News, HMTV, Studio N, Raj News Telugu, I News, 4TV, Sakshi TV, Gemini News, 4TV, Vanita TV, ETV Urdu, CVR News, ABN Andhra Jyoti, the now shut Zee 24 Gantalu).

     

    It is not as if the number of TV viewing homes is on the rise but that doesn’t deter these newbies from popping up. Indeed, AP has the highest number of cable TV homes in India at 15 per cent. At a national level, channels are deploying cost-cutting measures but in AP, newer channels are being spawned. So, what is the survival strategy of these channels? Apparently, they are all backed by political muscle though no politician will openly come out in support of them. More than anything, it is about party views being propagated through the media, sometimes openly sometimes subtly.

     

    Only two of the 20-odd channels – TV9 and TV5 – have major market share, followed by the likes of ETV, NTV and Sakshi TV. According to local people, YSR Congress funds Sakshi TV, NTV and TV5, while V6 is backed by six politicians affiliated to Congress.  Rumours are that ideologically, HMTV seems pro-Telangana though may not be backed by any party while ABN Andhra Jyoti is pro-Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Let’s not forget Gemini News of the Sun group under Kalanidhi Maran who has the backing of DMK leader M Karunanidhi. The office of Telangana News channel is actually located within the headquarters of the party office in Hyderabad. Now that’s called risk! According to the public, only TV9, Raj News Telugu, CVR News and the newly launched Express TV are apparently among the channels without political bias.

     

    Again, owning a channel may be a power trip but running it is an altogether different ballgame. Approximately Rs 1.2 to Rs 1.5 crore per month is required to run a channel in the state and this includes cost of infrastructure and technology and staff salaries. On the other hand, revenues don’t exceed Rs 70 lakh and typically, a channel takes nearly three years to break even (under good financial condition), which means an initial investment of Rs 40 crore is required.

     

    25 per cent of the Rs 1,000 crore advertisement market is from news channels. Of which, the top five news channels make up for Rs 200 crore while the smaller channels scramble for the left over Rs 50 crore. The ones with high viewership such as TV9, sources say, command up to Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 for a 10 sec slot. On the other hand, the not-so-high-on-viewership channels get just about Rs 600 for every 10 sec. Channels with political backing rarely have to bother about ad revenue since money will flow in anyway…

     

    In such a scenario, it is not surprising that rumours of channels unable to pay their employees have been doing the rounds. While Raj News Telugu has been stuck in revamp for months, ETV has already launched its Telangana-specific channel, ETV3.

     

    With 80 per cent of the state being dominated by Hathway Cable and Datacom, distribution woes are not unheard of. And yet, channels keep growing year on year.

     

    To add to it, soon, many new Telangana centric channels will crop up to add to the existing chaos. The existing channels will be rearranging their distribution and editorial strategies to suit the needs of two states.

     

     It’s time channels realised that the market is oversaturated before it’s too late. Surely the MIB can look into the state of news broadcasters in the state and rethink before giving out licences like freebies.

  • Mr Goswami, please come out of the studio

    Mr Goswami, please come out of the studio

    For the elections of the century, news channels are doing all they can to not only outdo each other but also cover the elections, accurately.

     

    And with half the country already inked, the fight is going to get only tougher. The primetime anchors who are used to the air-conditioned studios have left their comfort zones and are now roaming every length and breadth of the country in the scorching Indian summer.

     

    After the countless exit and voters’ polls and panel discussions, it is now the editors, who have taken upon themselves the task to gauge the mood of the nation. With over 80 lakh polling stations across the country, expenditure nearing Rs 110 crore and 40 lakh polling staff ready for more than 60 crore voters set to exercise their mandate this time, the anchors are venturing out to the villages and city by-lanes to gather ground information from the common man and find out who will they like to see as their new Prime Minister.

     

    In the drive to get the most accurate election coverage, Headlines Today has even got a special bus made. The Dilip Chabaria designer-made Election Express claims to cover over 8,000 kilometers, informing the nation on everything and anything that has to do with elections.

     

    The journo couple, Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Sardesai, of CNN IBN too have covered the various cities to know which candidate will be opted for and why, locally.

     

    The Hindi and regional news channels too have boarded the outdoor express. The debates are taking place out in the open, now.

     

    However, one man (read Arnab Goswami) who knows all the questions which the nation wants to know hasn’t left the four-walled studio. Wonder why?

     

    Is it that he is too used to shouting down at people in the studio or is he is afraid that someone might just yell back at him if he tries to do the same what he does in the studio, out in the open?

     

    Maybe Mr Nation-wants-to-know, who suffers from OCD of not being able to see others talk, feels it to be a waste of time and money to go out to the streets where the real political debates are held.

     

    Imagine even if he did go out to the streets what will happen? Many might just fall on the feet of the ‘Rajnikanth of news.’ That’s quite a possibility.

     

    Hate him or love them, but you cannot ignore him. One has to give him that much credit. And yes, he is that one reason, which makes many switch on Times Now.

     

    So while he did go out to vote (his selfie caught everyone’s attention); it will be a sight, when he actually steps out on the streets, to cover elections.

     

    Wish Mr Goswami listens and comes out of the “shell” to cover the real deal in the Indian summers!

  • NBA, DUJ condemn AAP’s remarks about media

    NBA, DUJ condemn AAP’s remarks about media

    NEW DELHI: The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has expressed shock at what it described as ‘the unverified and objectionable’ allegations being made by Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal and his associates against news television channels. The leaders of AAP have been alleging that news channels have been “paid” by rival political parties to drive their agenda in the run up to the general elections.

     

    NBA has reminded Kejriwal and his associates that the electronic media is independent and is discharging its responsibilities in a fair, transparent and balanced manner and urged AAP not to hurl unsubstantiated and unverified charges at the electronic media.

     

    NBA requested Arvind Kejriwal, the convener of AAP, to immediately refrain from making such preposterous allegations failing which NBA members would be forced to reconsider coverage of the activities of the Aam Aadmi Party.

     

    The Ethics Council of the Delhi Union of Journalists also condemned both repeated vile sniping against select media channels and the equally venomous threats to select media by the AAP.

     

    It said the DUJ is deeply concerned at the falling standards of objectivity in media coverage of the current elections by some TV channels, working on the assumption that they are key players in deciding who will rule the country.

     

    Sensationalism and hype are very evident these days in election reporting, particularly in coverage by television channels and other electronic media. Attempts to influence and manipulate the media through various means are also in evidence.

     

    The DUJ said: “As journalists, we cannot condone the AAP Party’s strong language against the media in various papers on 15 March but we also recognise that the media itself loses credibility if it carries paid news and biased views. Hence we demand an impartial inquiry by the Election Commission into the allegations made into the election coverage so far.”  

     

    The Press Council too must objectively examine the election coverage to detect any irregularities rather than just issue guidelines which these days are not followed.

     

    The DUJ further demanded that the Election Commission conduct an impartial inquiry into the ostensibly objective election polls being flashed by various media. The allegations of manipulation of poll results on behalf of various political parties need to be addressed.

     

    The DUJ added that the economic crisis has made the media, particularly the electronic media, vulnerable to influence from big advertisers. It is well known that the election propaganda budgets of the two main political parties are enormous and that much of this money is being fuelled into the media, whether in the form of advertising or otherwise. Some other parties also have substantial budgets for media campaigns. The spate of government advertising over the past months has been clearly aimed at influencing the voting patterns in favour of the ruling party.  The increasing ownership of media by powerful corporate houses is also adversely influencing the media’s objectivity.          

     

    DUJ president Sujata Madhok and General Secretary S K Pande said: “We uphold the right of all journalists to report news and views freely and fearlessly. We call for greater vigilance within the media to ensure that the highest standards of professionalism prevail.”

  • NDTV Prime to fully operate on sponsored programmes

    NDTV Prime to fully operate on sponsored programmes

    MUMBAI: New Delhi Television (NDTV) is carrying forward its de-risking strategy of reducing dependence on advertising revenues. Higher revenues from programme sponsorship had helped the news broadcaster report a small net profit of Rs 2 crore in 2012-13 despite weak advertising revenues, after two years of losses.

    NDTV has now brought on board a channel sponsor and a channel partner for its split channels NDTV Profit and NDTV Prime. NDTV has from tonight converted its business news channel NDTV Profit into a dual channel – NDTV Profit will be a business news channel from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm on weekdays and will thereafter convert into a lifestyle and entertainment channel NDTV Prime. Over the weekends, the channel will be entirely NDTV Prime.

    The 2-in-1 channel will provide NDTV with two primetime segments, one during the market hours and the second in the evening.

    Mobile phone maker Micromax will be NDTV Prime’s channel partner for a three-year period, under a deal, according to sources, that’s valued at a shade above Rs 30 crore. Micromax will gain huge mileage as its emblem ‘M’ will be replacing the character ‘m’ in NDTV Prime.

    NDTV has a channel partner for NDTV Profit in the country’s largest exchange the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The channel will carry a line ‘Partnered by NSE’ under the NDTV Profit logo.

     

    A promotional campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan has already begun through print and TV with the tagline ‘Work Hard Play Hard’ embodying the dual nature of NDTV Profit and NDTV Prime.

    NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramakrishnan said the goals of NSE and NDTV Profit were similar in terms of investor outreach.

    Says Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma, “NDTV Prime provides an ideal opportunity for Micromax to reach out to evolved viewers through new programming on lifestyle, reality, automobiles, sports, music, property, gadgets and gizmos and comedy. With digitisation and advancement of technology, we are seeing a trend for greater consumption of high quality
    content among the viewers.”

    In addition to the channel sponsor for NDTV Prime, the channel will also have sponsor or sponsors for every programme. This is expected to help NDTV Prime break-even within a year.

     

    As reported earlier by indiantelevision.com, NDTV Prime’s big-ticket show will be ‘Ticket to Bollywood’ sponsored by Videocon d2h along with VLCC and Fortis. Prime has been divided into various bands that are sponsored as well.

    Education band ‘Mindspace’ at 6:30 pm is sponsored by LIC, IMS, Vidyalankar and Rau’s IAS study circle, Property at 7:00pm is powered by Supertech and indiaproperty.com, Tech band at 8:00 pm is sponsored by Croma, Nokia and Toshiba, Auto band at 8:30 pm is with MRF, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Volvo, VistaTech, Mobil1 and Polaris as main sponsors.

    The Comedy band at 10:00 pm and Strip movies at 10:30 pm are currently the only ones without sponsors. “How often do you see a channel which even before launch is pre-sold? People know this channel will work and I was sure we won’t launch it without having the money in the bank,” says NDTV group CEO Vikram Chandra.

    Each band will have a different show each day of the week. Along with TV, NDTV Prime will also have exclusive shows on its website www.ndtvprime.com. One of the first is two technology pieces of five to seven minutes that will be exclusively on its website every day.

    Does the genre have enough of such content to put out on a daily basis? Tech anchor Rajiv Makhni says, “In technology, something or the other is happening every day. If a mobile is launched say on a Monday why would you wait till Saturday to see a feature on it? So on Prime you will see news, analysis as well as suggestions. Not only will we zoom in on a few best in every category but we will also tell you exactly which product should you buy.”

    He also goes on to explain that just because Micromax and Nokia are sponsors, there will be no bias in favour of these brands. “If a product has flaws then it has flaws. You will see it on our shows,” says Makhni.

    Men will drive the viewership for NDTV Prime. “A lot of our evening content is aimed for people with interests besides stock market. In fact, now our morning viewership will be a subset of our evening one and the evening will see 10 times more viewership,” says NDTV co-chairperson Prannoy Roy.

     

    With the facelift that NDTV has given to NDTV Profit with a split channel in NDTV Prime, it is also looking at beefing up its distribution with a lot of pull effect coming from people who want to watch Prime, especially Ticket to Bollywood.

    “Entertainment and comedy usually has a pull distribution effect. So in this case we don’t have to pay carriage fee as well,” admitted Roy.

    Roy, who was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of NDTV Prime, also spoke about the future prospects of NDTV. “Our future has got more to do with the digital platform ndtv.com,” says Roy.

     

    Chandra had earlier said a large part of NDTV’s losses were due to NDTV Profit and now with Prime in place, the company is confident that its profits will get a boost.