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Tag: Rajat Sharma

  • Rajat Sharma elected as president of NBDA

    Rajat Sharma elected as president of NBDA

    Mumbai: The News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) has elected Rajat Sharma as president at a meeting held on Monday. The board also elected ABP Network chief executive officer Avinash Pandey as vice president and Times Network managing director and chief executive officer MK Anand as honorary treasurer for the year 2021-22.

    The other members on the NBDA board include News24 Broadcast India chairperson-cum-managing director Anuradha Prasad Shukla; Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing managing director MV Shreyams Kumar; TV18 broadcast managing director Rahul Joshi; Eenadu Television director I Venkat; TV Today Network vice-chairperson and managing director Kalli Purie; New Delhi Television editorial director Sonia Singh, and Zee Media chief executive officer – cluster 1 Sudhir Chaudhary.

    Formerly known as the News Broadcasters Association, the industry body had renamed itself after it decided to bring digital media news broadcasters within the membership of the association. The members at the EGM unanimously passed the modification in the name of the association and amendments to the memorandum and articles of association.

    “I am glad to inform the members that the ministry of corporate affairs, government of India have approved the new name and the amendments to the memorandum and articles of association,” said Rajat Sharma in a statement.

    The ministry of electronics and information technology notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT rules), thereby bringing digital media, including OTT platforms, digital news broadcasters, and news aggregators, for the first time, within the ambit of government supervision.

    The IT rules which have been framed to regulate digital media, not only lay down a code of ethics to be complied by digital news broadcasters but also establishes a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism to ensure observance of the same.

    Similarly, the ministry of information and broadcasting also notified the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2021(Cable Amendment Rules) to establish a three-tier complaint redressal structure to ensure observance of the Programme Code and Advertisement Code under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.

    “NBDA has challenged the constitutionality of both the IT rules and cable amendment rules in the Kerala high court on various grounds including on the grounds that the rules give the government authorities excessive powers to unreasonably and impermissibly restrict the freedom of speech and expression of the media under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution. Interim orders were granted in favour of NBDA in both matters,” observed Sharma. 

    Despite several months having passed, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) ratings have not been restored as yet. “The NBDA board and Barc have had several rounds of discussions to ensure that reliable, credible, tamper-free data is made available to the news broadcasters,” said Sharma. 

  • I&B Minister Anurag Thakur meets the NBA Board

    I&B Minister Anurag Thakur meets the NBA Board

    New Delhi : The newly appointed union minister for Information and Broadcasting  Anurag Thakur met the board members of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) on Saturday to discuss various pertinent issues concerning news channels and the broadcast industry.

    Led by NBA president and chairman and editor-in-chief of India TV, Rajat Sharma, the delegation included ABP Network CEO  Avinash Pandey, Zee News, editor-in-chief and CEO, Sudhir Chaudhary, News24 chairperson and managing director Anuradha Prasad Shukla, India Today Group vice chairperson Kalli Purie, and NDTV editorial director Sonia Singh.

    The discussions delved into various issues including that of attaining a stable regulatory climate in the industry and other positive changes that can be introduced in the television ecosystem.

    Speaking about the meeting, spokesperson of NBA said, “Effective communication is extremely important for us to uplift the broadcast industry and implement positive changes. The discussion helped us provide direction to various issues within the industry. We are looking forward to working closely with the union minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur to take the broadcast industry to greater heights.”

    Further, NBA members discussed the industry landscape in the post-COVID scenario and apprised the minister about their concerns. The meeting also threw light on creating a strong policy roadmap for growth in the post-Covid era for the broadcast industry. 

  • After Odisha, UP and Tamil Nadu declare journalists as frontline workers

    After Odisha, UP and Tamil Nadu declare journalists as frontline workers

    New Delhi: After Odisha, now Uttar Pradesh has declared journalists as frontline workers to be given priority in the ongoing vaccination drive and also directed authorities to allot separate centres for them where they can be inoculated.

    The new government formed in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal has also classified journalists as frontline workers, a day after emerging victorious in the Assembly elections. 

    “All journalists working in newspapers and the visual media risk their lives and their work will be considered as frontline workers in Tamil Nadu,” said Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin on Tuesday.

    The devastating second wave of Covid2019 has taken a severe toll on news mediapersons, many of whom have been reporting from the ground. According to the Delhi-based Institute of Perception Studies, more than 100 journalists have died since 1 April 2020. Over 52 scribes from various parts of the country lost their lives in April alone.

    The decision comes amid several appeals by the Editors Guild of India (EGI) to the central government to give journalists priority in vaccination along with frontline workers. While several states, including Uttrakhand, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab have already declared journalists as frontline workers, the Centre has not yet made any provision in this regard.

    “Despite the support from various state governments and media organisations, the central government has not responded to this request. Now, even though vaccination has been technically opened for all above 18 years of age, there is an acute shortage of vaccines. Therefore, the Guild’s urgent demand that journalists be given priority along with other frontline workers,” said the Guild in a recent statement, while condoling the death of mediapersons.

    Welcoming the UP government’s decision on Tuesday, News Broadcasters Association president Rajat Sharma said UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed his officials to open special vaccination centres exclusively for media personnel.

    Sharma had earlier written a letter to the UP CM to make the vaccines available to all media personnel and their family members on priority. “Noida has emerged as a big centre for national electronic media, and most of the TV journalists and camerapersons work and live here. In most of the cases, TV reporters and camera persons have to work in the midst of crowds, and meet Covid2019 patients, doctors and health care workers in hospitals. Hence, the need for vaccinating them and their family members on priority,” wrote the senior journalist.

  • Nikhil Mathur joins India TV as head of marketing

    Nikhil Mathur joins India TV as head of marketing

    NEW DELHI: Moving on from TV9 as AVP marketing & events, Nikhil Mathur has joined Rajat Sharma-led India TV as head of marketing. He took on the new role at the start of 2021. 

    Mathur worked with TV9 for a little over a year, overseeing marketing and events for the news network. He has an overall experience of more than 15 years in the industry. In the past, he has worked with PTC Punjabi Network, Focus News, and Zee News.

  • Rajat Sharma re-elected as NBA president

    Rajat Sharma re-elected as NBA president

    NEW DELHI: India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma was re-elected as the president of the National Broadcasting Association (NBA) at its 13th annual general meeting. The board has elected News24 Broadcast India Ltd chairperson-cum-MD Anuradha Prasad as its vice president, and Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd – Times Network MD and CEO MK Anand as honorary treasurer for the year 2020-2021.

    Accepting the charge, Sharma said in his address, “I would like to thank Mrs Annie Joseph, secretary-general, NBA for her efforts in ensuring that the objectives and initiatives of the NBA are achieved and implemented. I would also like to thank the staff of the NBA Secretariat, legal counsel, financial and corporate consultants as well as the auditors of NBA and bankers for their valuable time and cooperation.”

    He also spoke about BARC’s decision to hit the pause button on TRP measurement for news channels. “NBA has welcomed the decision of BARC to suspend the measurement of television viewership ratings of news channels for a period of twelve weeks. I have said in my statement that the corrupted, compromised, irrationally fluctuating data is creating a false narrative on What India Watches and has been putting pressure on our members to take editorial calls that run counter to the journalistic values and ideals of journalism. The current atmosphere of toxicity, abuse and fake news is no longer tenable and NBA as the custodian and guardian of Indian broadcast media believes a bold step of putting ratings of news genre on hold will help in improving the content. I would urge all the members broadcasters during this twelve-week period to take all the necessary steps to improve the content of their channels and move away from the tyranny of ratings and ensure that the independent self-regulatory model adopted by the news broadcasters is vigorously supported and its decisions adhered to by all of us.”

    He added, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Prakash Javadekar, secretary and officials in the ministry of information & broadcasting and the TRAI for their continued understanding and support on issues which confront us. Since 2008, our self-regulation initiative has been a source of pride for us. On behalf of the NBA board and on my own behalf I would like to place on record our sincere gratitude and thanks to the chairperson and independent members of the NBSA for their support, invaluable guidance and time.”

    The other members on the NBA Board are: –

    •     Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co Ltd MD MV Shreyams Kumar
    •     TV18 Broadcast Ltd MD Rahul Joshi
    •     ABP Network Pvt Ltd CEO Avinash Pandey
    •     Eenadu Television Pvt Ltd director I Venkat
    •     TV Today Network Ltd vice-chairperson and MD Kalli Purie Bhandal
    •     New Delhi Television Ltd editorial director Sonia Singh
    •     Zee Media Corporation Ltd CEO – cluster 1 Sudhir Chaudhary
  • News Broadcasters Association calls for third-party enquiry into BARC ratings

    News Broadcasters Association calls for third-party enquiry into BARC ratings

    MUMBAI: News Broadcasters Association (NBA) president Rajat Sharma in his letter to BARC chairman wrote that the members of the NBA board feels extremely let down by the ratings body. Sharma's letter to BARC is regarding the unusual ratings of TV9 Bharatvarsh. 

    He wrote, “This is to bring to your notice that for the last eight weeks or more the ratings have been unusable. In particular the ratings of TV 9 Bharatvarsh has been more than unusual. In this regard we would like to draw your attention to the following facts regarding the unprecedented growth of viewership of TV9 Bharatvarsh and the frequent substantial swings in English genre."

    Here's what the NBA has to say:

    "Several news broadcasters have written to BARC drawing their attention that every week’s ratings are not in correlation to the basics of television. The manipulated data is being released week after week without taking any remedial action. These are corrupt practices, which are being done with complete connivance with BARC and the broadcaster. 

    Instead of looking into the problems being raised by broadcaster, we are shocked to receive an unwanted mail addressed to the president NBA from an official in BARC justifying the credibility of TV9 Bharatvarsh weekly data.

    It is a well known fact that several channels of TV9 group have been caught in the past manipulating their viewership data so as to climb up the ratings data, which had resulted in suspension of their channel data by BARC.

    We demand that BARC as an industry body should conduct an independent third-party enquiry, thoroughly investigate, take remedial actions and also take action against officials involved in corrupt practices, who must be removed from the Industry body, which is losing its credibility.

    It becomes pertinent to remind you that we are stakeholders in BARC and we all agreed to its creation unanimously by removing the erstwhile TAM. The sole objective was to create a transparent and neutral system which seeks to address the erstwhile prevalent weaknesses in the system and make it robust. Further, at the time of the recent change in the top leadership of BARC, it was agreed that there would be a complete review of the team and its members at BARC for complete transparency and to restore the credibility of BARC. This has unfortunately not happened resulting in the continued menace and probable scope of manipulation and corruption of data. 

    It is very evident that office holders in charge of measurement science are overlooking some very odd behaviour. They are clearly indifferent to the ground reality, market understanding, and maybe in their obsession to follow a hard coded rule book are failing to catch the new anomalies.   The unstable data is restricted not just to TV9 but also permeates across the English news genre that is lately plagued by wild swings. If there is experimentation taking place we would like to be updated.

    I must convey that the members of the NBA Board feel extremely let down. The members have been very patient but it has been too long since it was broken. Some straight answers on how BARC plans to rebuild a broken system, should be made to the members. What has been done so far to rectify the old mistakes and loop holes. As far as we can see, it has become worse and it cannot go on like this."

    In his letter to BARC, Sharma re-emphasised the points addressed  in the previous letter and mentioned 12 points to make people aware of his concern.

    1.After seeing an all-time high during lockdown, News viewership has been declining almost consistently on all parameters. From Wk 12 to Wk 25 News Time Spend (TSV) declined by 36 per cent , this decline is consistent for all news channels except for TV9, which has actually increased by a huge 59 per cent. 

    2.While TV news industry saw an unprecedented growth in Week 12/13, with maximum TSV, oddly TV9 has got its max TSV in Week 25, when most people are back to work and unlock has happened.  More surprisingly it has higher contribution from Urban than Rural.

    3.It is well known that legacy brands have an advantage during LIVE and fast unfolding news events of national importance. However, this week Chinese troops related news and Actor Sushant’s suicide which were the biggest in the recent 2 weeks have not given the legacy brands as much benefit as it has given to TV9 suddenly.

    4.If we compare the viewing pattern of TV9’s common viewers of week 12 vis a vis Week 25, strangely viewers in Wk 12 spent 50 min on the channel (TSV) while in Wk 25 they have spent 71 min. This means that the same viewers are more interested in watching TV9 now than they did when they had all the time in hand during lockdown. 

    5.If we just compare viewer behaviour, New Viewers that added to TV9 in Week 12 had a time spend of 26 min however New Viewer who got added to the channel in Week 25 have a time spend of 36 minutes.

    6. To reach a ranking position as high as no.2 even with landing channel support, brands have at least ranked 2 or 3 in reach. This example is phenomenal where channel is ranked no.7 in Weekly Reach in 000s, and yet No.1 in TSV and No.2 in Impressions. Other channels who have achieved this feat only recently, include R Bharat and News18 that touched no.3 on weekly reach parameter when they breached the ranking barrier.

    7. BARC Rules on Landing on extraordinary surge may have missed 59 Ground interventions: TV9 Bharatvarsh is in landing on 59 head and found below state wise count. Were these tracked and trimmed from the output and in which manner? A similar table for Republic Bharat has been placed below to observe the scale of interventions in the genre, leading to subsequent unchecked rises.

    8. The four big anchors on the channel are Nishant Chaturvedi, Sumaira Khan, Sameer Abbas and Dinesh Gautam. In all likelihood, they would not feature in any instant recall or Qual study. Therefore, no programming led loyalty factor can be attributed to this spike. 

    9.  Compare GRPs below in absolute terms with its own sister channels in regional space. All have fallen in the two weeks, but TV9 Bharatvarsh has grown. So the advantage of the network is also negated.

    10. As per BARC’s BIO News, TV9 Bharatvarsh has very little On Location coverage.

    11. It may be worthwhile to look at the track record of the organisation and assess if any earlier instances of interventions or proven malpractices exist against it. The current floating WhatsApp’s raise serious suspicion.

    12. Besides the Hindi genre, English has been suffering the same pattern of chaos. Many wild swings in single markets, compounded with the failure of a reach outlier picking mechanism, have made the data unusable. Republic TV continues to show exceptional Coverage in Chennai market, possibly because of an Out of Genre placement next to Tamil channels in gross violation of the law. How can an English speaking market be a single channel phenomenon? What is BARC’s plan to course correct? 

    Source: BARC, 22+ M AB, Cumm Reach in 000s, Chennai

    A BARC India spokesperson said: "BARC India is a not-for-profit industry body and concerns raised are duly deliberated amongst its constituents. BARC diligently reports what India watches on television and each week’s data is released only after a comprehensive statistical and security data validation."

  • NBA requests Maharashtra CM to drop charges against ABP Majha journalist

    NBA requests Maharashtra CM to drop charges against ABP Majha journalist

    MUMBAI: News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has requested Maharashtra chief minister to drop charges against ABP journalist Rahul Gurunath Kulkarni. NBA president Rajat Sharma requested to adopt the recourse of filing a complaint before the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA).

    In the letter addressed to the CM, Rajat Sharma wrote: “We write on behalf of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), which is the apex body of news broadcasters and represents the private television news & current affairs broadcasters. It is the collective voice of the news & current affairs broadcasters in India. The fraternity is in an extreme state of shock and anguish with respect to the recent unreasonable arrest of a senior journalist Rahul Gurunath Kulkarni of ABP Majha Channel. The FIR is based upon some reports which purported to draw the connection between the gathering at Mumbai Bandra West station and a news story by him.”

    While condemning the unreasonable arrest, NBA said that it is a serious infringement on the right of freedom of speech and is a frontal assault on the freedom of press.

    “The fundamental right of freedom of speech is sought to be gagged and any further custody and incarceration of him would be a serious infraction of the constitutional mandate and would also threaten his life. As an association we believe in promoting excellence in broadcasting standards and all the members are governed by a Code of Ethics, Broadcasting Standards and Self-Regulation,” said the letter.

  • News Broadcasters Association seeks GST relief on ads

    News Broadcasters Association seeks GST relief on ads

    MUMBAI: The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has requested the government to either remove or reduce the goods and services tax (GST) on advertisements in par with the print media industry as part of the stimulus package, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in India.  

    NBA president Rajat Sharma, in his letter to union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said, “Advertisements are an integral and essential part of the business and the main source of revenue for the news broadcasters which has come under severe pressure during this lockdown due to the virus pandemic.”

    The NBA statement mentions that ad agencies are putting huge pressure to defer the payments to broadcasters and to allow more time over 60-day credit period; the recovery of bills is going to be hugely challenging, while facing an even bigger task of almost zero income in the next 30-90 days.

    “While the news broadcasters are coping with the financial problems of dues’ recovery, we are also facing serious problems of advertising inventory/release orders being cancelled and inventory bookings being than 50 per cent for even the top-rated news channels,” said Sharma.

    News channels have gained all-time viewership in recent weeks, as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India. However, the exponential rise in viewership has failed to get the ad and inventory sales.

    The statement also read, “The news broadcasters have had to take various steps, make alternate arrangements within and outside the premises for newsgathering, reporting purposes. This has resulted in an increase in the operating costs of the news channels during the lockdown.”

    Moreover, “Poor recovery and lack of future income would mean that the news broadcasters would have to weather the storm for two-three quarters and hope for a partial recovery towards the end of the financial year,” mentioned the association.

  • NBA seeks extension from I&B ministry to pay DD Free Dish carriage fee

    NBA seeks extension from I&B ministry to pay DD Free Dish carriage fee

    MUMBAI: With ad sales down and operation costs up, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has sought an extension from the ministry of information and broadcasting for payment of the carriage fee for slots on DD Free Dish.

    According to a report by The Hindu, sources have confirmed that Prasar Bharati has agreed to allow news channels to continue to air on DD Free Dish from 1 April without the payment. However, NBA and Prasar Bharati are working on an alternate model of payment that requires the news channels to pay an interest of 5.7 per cent per annum, which has miffed the association's broadcasters.

    NBA president Rajat Sharma, in a letter to I&B minister Prakash Javdekar, wrote, “Advertising inventory bookings are lower than 50 per cent even for the top-rated news channels — advertising is a single source of earning for news broadcasters and this will lead to a serious cash-flow problem.”

    With 26 slots reserved for Doordarshan-run channels, DD Free Dish has 80 slots in all, of which 54 are open for bidding by private channels. These DD Free Dish channels reach out to at least 30 million households, without paying a monthly subscription.

  • BARC week 27: Middling impact on Hindi news ratings in budget week

    BARC week 27: Middling impact on Hindi news ratings in budget week

    BENGALURU: Like the English News genre, budget week (week 27 of 2019, week under review, Saturday, 29 June 2019 to Friday, 5 July 2019) did not spring too many surprises in terms of spurt in viewership for the Hindi news genre either. The Hindi news genre fared a little better than its smaller English sibling in terms of ratings. The combined ratings of the top 5 Hindi news channels in week 27 of 2019 as Broadcast Audience Research Council of India weekly data increased 7.8 percent or by 31.223 million weekly impressions during the week under review as compared to its immediate trailing week in the combined urban (U) and rural (R) Hindi speaking market or HSM (U+R). The list of channels in HSM (U+R) during week 27 of 2019 differed by one channel as compared to the previous week – ABP News entered BARC’s weekly list pf top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) at the cost of the Arnab Goswami-led Republic Bharat.

    Combined Ratings of the top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U) increased 6.4 percent or by 15.522 million impressions in week 27 of 2019 as compared to week 26. All the five channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 channels in HSM (U) were the same as in week 26 except for a slight shuffling of ranks. In the case of BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (R), ratings of the top 5 Hindi news channels increased  by 7.8 percent or 12.739 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2019 as compared to week 26.  Four of the 5 top Hindi news channels in week 27 of 2019 were same as those in week 26.

    Hindi news in HSM (U+R)

    The combined ratings of the top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) in week 27 of 2019 was 433.197 million weekly impressions as compared to 401.974 million weekly impressions in week 26. As in the previous week, Aaj Tak led the HSM (U+R) list with 111.001 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2019 which was 11.3 percent more than the 99.763 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Continuing on at second rank was India TV in week 27 of 2019 with 87.484 million weekly impressions which was 6.5 percent more than 82.126 million weekly impressions in week 26.

    Also continuing on at its previous week’s third rank was News18 India with 83.750 million weekly impressions which was 7 percent more than the 78.254 million weekly impressions in week 26. ABP News entered BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) at fourth rank with 76.631 million impressions. Dropping down a place to fifth rank was Zee News with 74.331 million weekly impressions which was 1.4 percent more than the 73.275  million weekly impressions in the previous week.

    Hindi news in HSM (U)

    The combined weekly impressions on the top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U) were 259.773 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2019 which was 6.4 percent more than the 244.251 million weekly impressions in the previous week. All the channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels list in week 27 of 2019 were same as in week 26, except with a slight reshuffling of ranks.

    As has been the norm, Aaj Tak led the rankings with 64.168 million weekly impressions which were 12.8 percent more than the 56.871 million weekly impressions in week 26. Climbing up a place to second rank in week 27 of 2019 was News18 India with 54.426 million weekly impressions, 7.5 percent more than the 50.612 million weekly impressions in week 26.

    Dropping down a rank to third place in week 27 of 2019 was India TV with 53.488 million weekly impressions which was 3.6 percent more than the  51.622 million weekly impressions in week 26. Continuing on at its previous week’s rank four was Zee News with 44.962 million weekly impressions which was 4.5 percent lower than 47.076 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Also continuing on at fifth rank in week 27 of 2019 was ABP News with 42.729 million weekly impressions which was 12.2 percent more than the 38.070 million weekly impressions in week 26.

    Hindi news in HSM (R)

    The combined weekly impressions on the top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (R) were 176.034 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2019 which was 7.8 percent more than the 163.295 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Four of the five channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels list in week 27 of 2019 were same as in week 26, with a slight reshuffling of ranks. Zee News entered BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (R), while News18 India exited it.

    Continuing on at its previous week’s first rank was Aaj Tak with 46.883 million weekly impressions in week 27 which was 9.2 percent more than the 42.892 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2019. Climbing up a place to second rank was India TV with 33.996 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2019 which was 11.4 percent more than the 30.504 million weekly impressions in week 26.

    ABP News also climbed up a place to third rank in week 27 of 2019 with 33.902 million weekly impressions which was 11.5 percent more than the 30.413 million weekly impressions in week 26. Dropping down two places was Republic Bharat with 31.934 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2019 which was almost flat (up 0.28 percent) as compared to 31.845 million weekly impressions in week 26. Zee News entered BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (R) in week 27 of 2019 with 29.369 million weekly impressions.