ITV

Tag: TRP

  • Total TV seniors not on the run, no arrest so far

    NEW DELHI: The two senior journalists named by Total TV reporter Priya Singh in her suicide note have not been arrested so far. Their bosses have, however, met top officials here and assured that they are available for questioning whenever the police want them.

    Meanwhile, police officials this afternoon confirmed that there will be no arrests till the investigation has progressed to a point demanding such an action.

    Singh had written a suicide note saying that she had been harassed by Tapan Bharti, Output Editor and producer Umesh Joshi.

    When the police had gone to their houses, both were not to be found.

    However, a senior official of Total TV went to the Noida police station and assured the police that none of them were on the run, and would be available when required by the investigators. The official from Total TV has reportedly told the police that Singh was like a daughter to them.

    Singh had joined Total TV about a year ago and was quickly promoted to the education beat as an anchor, but as she has alleged, was later removed from the post by the two, who complained to her boss.

    The news TV channel insiders today feel uncomfortable with the developments, and though none of the senior editors were available for comment, most people spoken to feel there is too much public glare on the channels.

    Some held that it was a purely an internal matter for the channel to sort out, holding that such an incident could happen in any organisation, whether in the media or outside of it.

    One correspondent said that while there could be no comment on the Total TV incident till investigations reveal something, the pressure on news TV reporters due to TRP ratings being the sole goal was enormous.

    “Some manage the pressure, some find other routes to unburden themselves, but Singh chose the wrong way to deal with her stressful life,” he said.

    Most insiders admit that there is too much of pressure, and though the salaries are good, the whole issue about immediacy creates a burden that is often difficult to handle for many in the profession.

    One more aspect that has been commented upon is for the present generation of TV journalists, the need for a quick rise to fame, in terms of being seen on the small screen, is the only goal.

    They point out to the Live India incident in which the reporter and an aide actually went to the extent of concocting a sting that led to horrific results.

    Singh had risen fast in her channel, with just about a year behind her, and she ended her life alleging she had been ousted unduly by her seniors from that chimeric world of being a TV personality.

  • ”Economically sensible model is a combination of CPT and correction of income growth’ : Paritosh Joshi- Star India President

    ”Economically sensible model is a combination of CPT and correction of income growth’ : Paritosh Joshi- Star India President

    It’s now a known fact that HLL has pulled its advertising off the Star India Network, but whether a non co-existence and exchange between the biggest advertiser on television and the top rated television network in the country is a healthy proposition for either of the two parties, is the moot point?

     

    Even though TRP rates have declined across the network by 1-1.5 per cent after the implementation of Cas, it is also true that the television universe has grown drastically. And the truth is, Star has been singled out, leading one to question if there is a larger issue at stake here between the two mammoth corporations in this face-off that kicked off in March this year.

     

    Star president advertising sales and distribution Paritosh Joshi says that it is more than just an individual client issue but part of a larger debate for which the industry cannot behave like a cartel because that is unethical.

     

    Presented here are comments made to Indiantelevision.com on the matter by Star India president Paritosh Joshi. Additonally, relevant comments made in earlier interactions with Indiantelevision.com by HLL GM – Media Services Rahul Welde and Zee Network executive V-P Joy Chakraborthy have been provided in an attempt to offer a more rounded overview of the issue.

    Excerpts:

    How do you propose to address the issue that HLL has put the forth through its boycott of the network and rejection of Star’s advertising rate card?
    A solution to this will emerge as a fallout of the understanding of two dramatic developments in television. First the growth in television homes in the Hindi speaking markets of the East, West and North but not the South that is already saturated.

    Secondly, the GDP, which is estimated to grow by 8.9 per cent year on year. However, there is a disproportionate income increase in which the top 60 per cent of the population absorbs this growth. Out of the 120 million TV homes, 70 million are C&S, therefore with the kind of growth in disposable incomes that the country is seeing, the number of C&S homes will grow by twice that rate.

    The aggregate value of television ad sales is likely to see 20-22 per cent Y-O-Y growth. If this is not reflected as an industry then we are under monetized.

    Is CPT is the answer?
    I believe an economically sensible model is a combination of CPT and correction of income growth.

    Should broadcasters be united on this front?
    The industry cannot behave like a cartel because that is unethical. We have to, as individual broadcasters, explain this to the client in a sensible manner and get them to recognize and find merit in the argument.

    But how then do you fill up the bulk of your inventory?
    The Cricket World Cup has in some ways contributed to clients looking for a more reliable, robust and stable inventory. With April to June being a buoyant period with new category launches and the new financial year, there are enough interested clients. We are seeing high activity from the skin care sector, bottled beverages, refrigerated foods and air conditioner brands.

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    ‘Money is shifting from the big to the small or from the leaders to the challengers‘

    With HLL always known to be television heavy, what happens in the case of mass channels and niche channels, what strategy would you follow in that case?

    Well, we do spend on niche and mass channels, but with the whole area of fragmentation of audiences with multiple channels emerging, where stickiness is a challenge and competition is high. Now what it really means for us is that segmentation and multiplication of channels provides the opportunity to peg note and talk to the consumer.

    Unfortunately, the costs have increased and given that the overall advertising pie is fixed. The ad pie doesn’t grow because there are more channels, but what is happening is money is shifting from the big to the small or from the leaders to the challengers.

    The growth of channels, we will see an increase in the number seconds, but what is often interpreted is that spends are also increasing in the same proportion. It is of course a big challenge as fragmentation makes the task of planning even more difficult, where agencies will produce software and optimizers making the process more sophisticated. This scenario is good for segmentation, bad for costs. Thus I don’t know whether to call it a ‘happy situation’ because after a point of time your returns become sub-optimal when costs are high. Then that becomes a worry.

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    The big news currently seems to be around how Hindustan Lever is significantly increasing spends on your network. You have even been on record as saying you are looking at a growth of at least 100% on Lever spend in FY08 over FY07? How do you justify that optimism?
    Levers is the biggest client in the television space and we have channels across all genres, Levers is a good client for consumption also because they are perennial clients. There has been rate correction but we have also given them big properties. At the same time, Levers buying process over the last two years has changed, initially they used to buy slots that appeared at a particular time band but now they have started buying quality as well so they would necessarily have to pay for that. Therefore, there has been a jump in ad sales rates this year over the previous year.

    When you say ‘rate correction’ – what do you mean?
    The Zee network itself is very under-priced, so we are continuously correcting our rates. I have over my tenure here (which is two years) revised my rates three times, but no rate correction is very drastic, it’s really a gradual correction.

    After all we are still in a World Cup year and although India is out of the tournament, we will see loads of other cricket action as well?
    As a network, we haven’t suffered at the hands of cricket. However a lot of money is diverted there. But thanks to cricket and sport, I believe that the overall PUT (people utilizing television) will also increase, because of World Cup TV sales will also increase, so the whole space is only going to expand.

    It will eventually benefit us also, but my only concern and what I see as a challenge this year is that the unofficial currency is cost per rating point (CPRP), which has to move cost per thousand (CPT). CPT is more important and with Tam’s expanded panel the absolute number of people watching has increased by 50 per cent and we as an industry should be paid for that. Even more, if you are a listed body you also should subscribe to the CPT model, which will happen sooner or later.

    But how soon do you think the transition from a CPRP model to CPT model will take to materialize?
    The IBF and AAAI have already met on two occasions, the next one is in April. But at the end of the day this shift will benefit all of us. It’s not that it is unfortunate for the client alone, as the television medium continues to grow the cost of programming, distribution, marketing and manpower is increasing every day. With the CPT model the ad rates will go up, infact most agencies buy on CPRP and give it to the client on CPT, but after expansion the minimum rate has increased. The recommendations of these two industry body’s should materialize within a month’s time.

    It has been previously stated that Cas impact only accounts for a 1- 1.5% drop in C&S 4+ level across TV. However, with moves to extend Cas to cover the full metros and then possibly go into other cities and towns this argument cannot be sustained for much longer. How does Zee view this situation and how do you plan to use it to your advantage?
    Cas is here to stay but the thing is that Cas growth was marginal, across the Zee network the drop accounted for 2.5 per cent, which is very less in comparison to the kind of growth that we are experiencing.

    With Cas rolling out further, the pressure from media buyers on rates is only going to go up? Do you see the possibility of many channels, including entertainment channels, going FTA to protect advertising revenues? For instance, Peter Mukerjea’s Hindi entertainment channels will be FTA when it launches…?
    Sometime we really wonder whom the media buyers really work for, the channel or the client. They will always pressurize us. Do you think they deal with rate hikes easily? They will fight for each rupee just as we fight for the same. But that is what makes our relationship so lasting.
  • ‘We have stepped up work on digitalization for Prasar Bharati’ : Asutosh – IBN 7 managing editor

    ‘We have stepped up work on digitalization for Prasar Bharati’ : Asutosh – IBN 7 managing editor

    His father wanted him to be a doctor, but he chose science as his discipline in college. Within a short time, having done his graduation from Allahabad University, he switched over to philosophy as his master’s degree subject. He did not stick to that either, and did his M Phil from JNU in Foreign Affairs.

     

    Today at 37, Ashutosh is the managing editor of the Hindi news channel IBN 7. He has been with TV journalism ever since it took off in the country.

     

    But why journalism, and why so many changes? “Restlessness,” he smiles, almost apologetically. Suave and affable, Ashutosh got a prize fellowship, the Dag Hammejoldt U N Scholarship in 1996, and that was one of his two “major jumps in life.”

     

    He has got pretty strong opinions and does not believe he needs to pussyfoot his industry for some of the ills that have gotten in and are sticking out like snot. But he has the analytical tools to examine why these problems are there and tries to find a way out.

     

    Ashutosh spoke to Indiantelevision.com’s Sujit Chakraborty.

     

    Excerpts:

    Why is Hindi news television so loud, often crude, repetitive and boring?
    I agree with you, but only partly. There has been an unbelievable level of dumbing down of content, so much so that some of it ought not to be there at all. I guess the editors of Hindi channels would have to soon sit and decide what goes and what does not. It’s just the rating, the grabbing of eyeballs, which has become the single focal point and, therefore, all this is happening. But as time goes by, we shall have to mature. This is an evolutionary process.

    Eyeball journalism?
    Absolutely. To that extent, I agree with you. But there is the other positive side. Hindi TV journalism has completely revolutionised the news universe. It has educated and broadened the frontiers of news audience. Things have gone so local it is difficult to believe. And yet, we have become unbelievably global as well, for a Saddam story is as important to a Hindi viewer as a rape in Nashik.

     

    The other huge positive is at the cultural level. I mean, who knew Karva Chauth? We in the Hindi channels went and did Karva Chauth and now it is a nationally recognised Hindu festival. So is Ganesh Chaturthi…

    But Ganesh Chaturthi was always a huge affair…?
    Yes, but in Maharashtra. We now have brought it to mainstream news with round the clock coverage. Look at Dandiya dance from Gujarat. It is now an elite-class affair in Delhi, and our people here deck up and go for Dandiya. So we have brought Ganesh Chaturthi and Dandiya to Delhi and taken Karva Chauth and Chhat out of Hindi heartland to the rest of the country. Hindi news TV has re-unified and revitalised Indian culture and identity.

     

    The other thing is that Hindi journalism has brought terror to the law makers and law enforcers. They have changed radically after the sting operations. Corruption has not been wiped out, but things have changed, because now no one knows who is a sting man and who is a common person.

     

    Most importantly, Hindi TV journalism has brought in a sense of urgency, which has forced newspapers to change. They had lost all urgency, till we came along and gave them such a fright by being there 24 X 7. They had to wake up… I mean the Times Of India front page today is not what it was a few years ago.

    Is it that Hindi news channels introduced crudeness and audiences lapped it up? Or is it that the audience itself was like that and you catered to their tastes?
    Both are responsible. But much of this is misunderstood. Take for example: the ‘F’ word…. It sounds OK when said in English but if I were to translate it in Hindi and use it, there would be a horrific repercussion.

     

    Hindi itself and the people who speak the language are robust, rustic, loud, feudal. Hindi is used in the area where feudalism is still prevalent largely. Hindi journalism is evolving to be more liberal and things are changing.

     

    English journalism is sophisticated, modern and in touch with global realities. But English news is only for South Block, India International Centre, South Delhi’s sophisticated lot, may be. Even in Delhi, it makes no sense in Shahdara, a few kilometres from the heart of the Capital. Hence, all these account for the complaint of crudeness, etc., but things are changing.
    In what sense?
    Well, there is this stereotypical image of the Hindi journalist, that you have to be the jholawalla and chew paan masalaa….

    And try your best to be dirty and scrumpy, like this major presenter who makes you feel he could any time spit out the paan juice on the floor of the studio, despite the fact that he is a fine National School of Drama actor…. Why?
    (Laughs) But for him that is his achievement, being sophisticated and yet doing the opposite… Things, though, are changing fast. I mean, look around our studio here, there is none like that. Most of them are fluent in English, dress well… the Hindi news reporter’s image is changing fast. Today, in fact, Hindi TV scribes are better paid than their English counterparts. Because in English TV journalism, there is less competition, so there is less demand and the salaries are lower. We have to compete against huge odds.

    What are the synergies you draw from CNN-IBN?
    We are two entirely different and independent channels. Our outputs are different, but at the level of logistics and information there is a lot of synergising. If there is a murder somewhere, and we do not have that, but they (CNN-IBN) do, they tell us. If they are short of an OB Van where something is happening, they tell us and we give them the back up.

    Why are the names of programmes in your channel ( from Breakfast News downward) in English?
    This is a planned thing. It is a clear signal to the viewers that we have to be international in our approach. There is no point in forcing a bad Hindi name for a good Hindi programme. So if the name sounds good in English, and it catches on, we shall use English names. That is a conscious approach.
    ‘Hindi journalism has brought terror to the law makers and law enforcers. They have changed radically after the sting operations‘

    Breaking news… all the time, Hindi channels are giving breaking news. Pramod Mahajan dies, that is breaking news for all the channels, from morning to late night. Don’t you think this is ridiculous?
    (Laughs) Those two words are the most misunderstood and misused in Indian TV journalism. Breaking News is a TV technique for catching the eye of the viewer; it is vibrant and attractive, but it is being used for everything. We have to evolve somehow to have different methods of presenting big breaking news and the ordinary news.

    Some of your programmes are very long drawn. Do you think any audience would stay that long with a channel?
    These long programmes are meant to tell the audience that here is a basket from which you get everything, from Saddam Hussain to Bollywood to travel and lifestyle. Stay with the channel and you will get everything from the same basket.

    But is it getting reflected in your TRPs?
    (Somewhat uncertainly), Yes, there is a good response. We have gained ratings and respectability.

    What would you say is the driver programme for your channel?
    We simply do not subscribe to the idea of a driver programme. If the driver programme is good, the channel’s showing is good. But if the driver programme flops, it all goes down. So we cannot have one or two driver programmes. The idea is to create a channel that has all good content across.

    I asked a friend once why there were no programmes on environment on Hindi channels, and he said it does not sell. Is that true?
    True, that is the worst tragedy of Hindi TV journalism. There is a lack of concern, and I am party to that crime. Blame it on eyeball journalism. Besides, can you imagine what kind of money BBC or CNN or Nat Geo spend on their programmes?

    Forget big money. Environmental programmes are the most ethical sting operations you can carry out at minimal cost and people would stay glued to them because it relates to their life. Also, corruption is rampant.
    (Ponders) Yes, I see what you mean, but may be we need to give some real thought to this.

    How do you see yourself in the ratings warfare?
    Everyone wants to be number one, and so do we. But as a group, we are have decided that the biggest thing that we need to develop is credibility. We need to bring back the credibility of TV news journalism. In the process, if we become number one, so be it. I would prefer to stay at the second or third place if people told me that we are hugely credible.

    You see so much sophistication in foreign channels. Why do Indian channels never pick that up?
    Oh, Indian channels are way ahead in terms of energy, vitality and intelligence. And we make mistakes, from the exuberance of youth. That can be corrected. But foreign journalism is not what we want to do.

     

    Indian journalism is far superior. We also went to war in Kargil, and we were taken there by the Indian army. But Indian channels did not spare the army for the mistakes they made. We did critical stories against the army as well.

     

    We have that freedom. But look at CNN’s embedded journalism… they not only go with the army, they become the army. This is unimaginable, there is no democracy. BBC was marginally better, but just that.
  • How not to break news

    How not to break news

    our news television medium seems to have finally begun to distinguish between truth-telling and ideological discourse. Indeed, this seems to be an increasing trend among most news channels today. Take the tagline for Zee News, for example: Haqeeqat jaisi, waisi khabar. Seemingly holding a defiant mirror to society and policymakers in the wake of post-Gujarat criticism, news channels in India have created truths far beyond the imagination of pre-liberalisation policymakers. Rising ratings for news are perhaps the closest endorsements to this trend. Why, then, do we see all around us a growing scepticism about our news channels?

    The reasons have to do with audiences themselves: the question is, do audiences expect news to tell them what’s happening, or what editors think they should know? News television channels would do well to overhaul their thinking, because the technology they use provides them with the inherent power to democratize news. For example, many channels are still experimenting with “breaking news”. An editor even spoke on a platform recently (an event, hosted by another channel), and said that breaking news was passe. Even as he was doing so, his channel was flashing “Breaking News”. Gone are the days when news was just news. Today, the delivery of news has the capacity to attract new eyeballs. A cognitive research done in the US in January 2005 showed that the attention span of a television channel-surfer is so low that his/her decision whether to switch channels is made in the first 0.15 seconds. So what’s on the screen is what either sells or doesn’t.

    Gone are the days when news was just news. Today, the delivery of news has the capacity to attract new eyeballs
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    Research conducted in the US last year concluded after a nationwide survey that news channels regularly use hard, unplanned news to mean breaking news – not something that necessarily takes the newsroom by surprise. The problem with this trend has to do with viewer credibility. It’s simple: ever heard of the “crying wolf” story? Breaking news can work the same way. (Actual example: “Breaking News: Salman reaches court for hearing”) If, for story after story, the attention-grabbing flash continues to disappoint the viewer, breaking news ends up breaking TRP dreams. The Salman Khan “breaking news” is based on the age-old “late news” or “just in” principle: it conveys to the viewer that the story just got in. But with live news now, the concept must undergo a change in our editors’ minds: news stories every half hour should be “just in”.

    News channels only need to stick to their own agenda in order to score: if their claim is to present investigative stories, do so without diluting the definition of an investigative story
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    So how can channels break through the viewer’s attention-span problem? By using a judicious mix of emotive and rational approaches. The pace of news stories is important, and many of our channels are inept at this skill. Because VT editors are armed with the latest techniques and gadgets that allow them to cut rapidly, they often forget basics like establishing scene, sequence and story. Channels seldom depend on visual richness, but too often on anchor branding. News anchors gain credibility and brand strength over time and after much sweat. Merely marketing them like an FMCG product will rarely rake in the returns. And on that note, 57 students of journalism who conducted a comparative content analysis of television channels in 2005 said that the excessive amount of advertising on many news channels is enough to lead away audiences from news.

    Clearly, therefore, news channels only need to stick to their own agenda in order to score: if their claim is to present investigative stories, do so without diluting the definition of an investigative story. However, my prediction is that news channels cannot afford to distinguish their product so clearly, and must present a mix of reportage and discussion. The writing is on the wall: our nascent TV news audiences have been hoping that the news media are an answer to pull up a failing administration. In many ways, our media have lived up to that expectation. However, that may soon change if news channels do not settle down to understanding that news audiences invariably grow more knowledgeable over time, and expect more from their television.

    (The writer heads a media institute in Pune, and is a former news channel employee.)

    (The views expressed here are those of the author and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)