No, I am not trying to make any changes to the spelling of ‘News’, however if you look at news channels closely in India you will know what I am trying to say.
What does “E” in News stand for? – East…? (North, East, West, South… we have all heard about it). The answer is NO… not any longer. ‘E’ stands for ENTERTAINMENT. Yes. Entertainment is the key word around which the TV industry today revolves.
Recently when I visited a friends place his mom generally started talking to me about the good things and bad things on television (this usually happens with me wherever I go given my long association with the advertising and media world). And as it happens all the time there was this one show which she was really upset about and also upset with the industry for showing such crap on television. The discussion was about ‘Big boss’. She went on and on explaining me why such shows should not be aired and how no one in her house is allowed to watch that show.
I couldn’t agree with her more but what happened next was really an eye opener for me. Just a mention of the famous ‘Dolly Bindra’ and the lady knew everything that she had done on the show and also what she was going to do in the next episode. Now, how does she know all this when no one is allowed to watch the show?. I asked her this question and pat came the reply ‘ Aree woh to sab news channel pe dekha hai’ (I have seen it all on the news channels).
I started thinking about it and realized that if you follow any of the hindi news channels today you will get all the highlights of all major shows on Indian television. So if you can’t catch your favorite show on the entertainment channel, switch on to the news channels. I recommend the Hindi channels for this as the English channels (most of them) still seem to be in the business of news.
It’s only ‘Breaking News’ now
There was a time when ‘Breaking News’ was a really a big thing to happen on news channel and what used to follow was a detailed report on the story. But now the channels flash the breaking news story and quickly go back to where they had left the entertainment channel update. Sorry state of affairs but since every news has become breaking news today, this was bound to happen.
It’s all about Eye balls
Let’s be a little realistic and let us not blame the news channels for everything. It takes a lot of money to run a channel today – satellite costs, cable distribution costs, studio and staff maintenance…. All this requires a lot of money. The channels primarily rely on advertising revenues and advertisers only pay for eye balls. The more you attract the higher price you get for your 10 sec slot. Obviously entertainment programs attract more audiences and hence find their way on to the news channels.
How much news content can you generate in a day?
Remember those days of DD? One half hour news slot on DD used to give you an update on all that happened in the world today (yes – 5 mins was dedicated to international news also). Now if you think about it how much can you extend that slot even with today’s fast paced lives and modern communication gadgets? 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours….? Imagine if someone has to fill in 8-10 hours of original programing content today. It’s an uphill task ! Here I am not talking about the days of exceptional days of natural calamities and terrorist attacks…. I would never want these to happen.
Siblings after-all
Ever wondered then that today when every channel is trying to outsmart the other and attract more eyeballs why would someone share their content free of cost with the news channels. The fact is that they are no longer competitors. News channels need the content to fill up their programming hours and the entertainment channel need the news channels to promote their shows. Who will not want a free of cost 30 min advertising slot when every 10 secs cost a bomb? For the news and GEC channels – it’s all in the family.
While I am not at all happy with the present state of affairs and would want the news channels to seriously think about the “news business”, I am not completely against the “E” content on News. After all everyone has to survive this mad battle for the eyeballs. But just a word of caution …. Let News remain News.
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