News channels back to usual business

Now that Anna’s fast is over ‘insanity’ seems to be returning to our news channel.   All speculations about Parliament accepting Anna’s demands have now been put to rest… Anna Hazare finally broke his fast today morning and the country has been celebrating.

And with all this News channels are back to their usual ways. Since there is no more breaking news and all the people associated with the movment and those against the movement have been reasonably exploited its time to find a new celebrity… and guess who is this celebrity – its IKRA !

Who is Ikra ? Ikra is one of the two little girls who gave coconut water to Anna today. Her 5 minutes of screen presence this morning has made her a celebrity (at least in the eyes of some reporters). I am sure that  if Ikra had any idea what she was going to go through after doing this noble act, she would have thought twice.

News channel reporters were asking her some of the most stupid questions and I can’t help but replicate them verbatim over here

Reporter: Aap ko kaisa laga jab Anna ne anshan toda?

Ikra: Accha laga (obviously J)

Reporter: Aap ne Anna se kya kaha ?

Ikra: Paani Pilo (obvious again J)

Reporter: Anna ne aapse kya kaha ?

Ikra: Thank you (what else do you expect Anna to say)

Poor reporter couldn’t get any dramatic answers  from the kid so he turned to Ikra’s uncle who he initially thought was her father.

The uncle was part of the committee that was managing the event and hence could answer the questions much to the reporter’s satisfaction. ..But even he had to answer some really stupid questions first.

I guess someone will have to start an equally massive agitation to bring an end to this insanity and insensitivity of the news channels.

Ab to Mera Channel bhi Anna !

The Anna Hazare fever has gripped the entire nation for the last couple of weeks. It has brought people from all regions, religions, classes and age-group together and everyone is wearing the same cap – “I am Anna”. I was not born during the freedom movement but I am sure it must have been similar.

What was not present during the freedom movement was the minute by minute coverage by numerous television channels. And that according to me has helped Anna’s movement spread like fire. The news channels have unanimously supported the cause unlike what happened during Baba Ramdev’s movement where it was a divided house. So kudos to the Indian News channels for their unrelenting support to this movement.

But I have an interesting observation to make here. Life has just not been easy for our News channel reporters. They all survive on ‘Exclusive news and interviews”. This is something that they have been struggling to get ever since the fast began. And the credit goes to team Anna, who has been absolutely transparent about all its meetings and discussions leaving no room for speculation. No exclusive bytes have been given and it looks like all the news channels also saying – “Main bhi Anna – tu bhi Anna”

So the channels are trying out various other things to make up for this loss. They are getting all kinds of panelists for debates and discussions (saw yesteryear’s actor Raja Bundela also) but that’s still not making any difference.

And what they did yesterday was hilarious. As soon as there was some news about what  steps the government might take to end the fast, anchors on a few channels jumped with excitement saying that it was only their channel that had predicted that these actions could be taken and how accurate they were – what an achievement, I say. But after two hours when things turned out the other way, they didn’t know where to hide their face.

I think the news channels are doing a fabulous job and at this stage should not bother about exclusive news. My request to them – lets follows Anna’s strategy of being ‘inclusive’ and lets forget ‘exclusive’

Main bhi Anna- tub hi Anna, ab to saara desh hai Anna.

What happened to the Sunday morning TV viewership?

Remember the days of Ramayan and Mahabharat on Sunday mornings? People would have finished most of their daily chores at least 5 minutes before the telecast. And if there was any work left then the work had to wait for an hour at least. Because it was the time when the entire family would sit and watch their favorite mythological show.

Sunday morning in those days was considered as a weekend prime time slot. Of course those were the DD days and one ad spot on these shows used to give you very high GRPs.

With the advent of satellite TV in India, TV viewing has gone through a sea change. Weekday prime time has got extended to 11:30 pm and we discovered the potential of week day afternoon slots. However, one slot that has not seen enough action is the Sunday morning slot. I would say that the slot has been NEGLECTED by the broadcasters and as a result it’s become a dead slot.

No broadcaster is willing to invest in this slot and I really don’t understand why? Colors made an effort with some costume dramas in the morning but that certainly was not the best content they had.  Some of the channels will argue that there is not enough viewership on that slot and hence it doesn’t make commercial sense to invest there. The question that I would like to ask is that do we really need to look at the TAM numbers in this case? The ratings are low because there is no good original content being aired at that time.

Isn’t it common sense that majority of the people are at home at that point of time probably relaxing or doing some weekend work. Yes there will be a segment from the metros that will go out of home for recreation but that is a very small segment. The fact is that if you put up a good show and promote it well you can get ratings that are higher than you weekday prime slot. Don’t we get a good rating for an India cricket match if it’s on a Sunday morning?

I would like to cite the example of the hindi movie blockbuster premiers. Traditionally all channels used to premier e movies on Saturday night. However one of the movie channels experimented with the Sunday afternoon slot and today all premiers happen on Sunday afternoons.

Now my questions is… if there are audiences available at home to watch the movie at 1:00 pm, wouldn’t this segment watch a good show at 10:00 in the morning too?

Yes it will be challenging to decide what kind of content would work?-  Mythos, kids programing, reality shows .. or something compeletly new ? However one thing is certain …. If a channel gets the right content and puts the right weight behind its promotion it will change the game for the industry

I will wait and see as to who takes that first step….

The race for a ME TOO show on Indian television

Time and again we have seen similar shows being launched on two competing channels. Either the basic theme is similar or sometimes the entire story line is the same.  So a few years back when Zee launched a show called “Ghar ki laxmi betiyaan” Star One launched a similar show “Betiyaan apni ya paraya dhan”. And then there was “Sabki Laadli bebo” on Star Plus and “Nanhi pari” on Colors. While a lot of controversies have happened over these shows, what I don’t understand is that what does a channel gain by launching a “Mee too” show?

Even if I give the benefit of doubt to the channels when it comes to some fiction shows like those mentioned above,   I fail to understand why do they try and counter competition by a same genre show when it comes to the reality shows.

Often you will see that a Saregamapa on Zee being countered by a Voice of India on Star Plus, or a Dance India Dance competing with a Nach baliye of Dhoom machale on Star and Colors respectively.

This certainly is not a win-win situation for the channels because the same viewers are watching all the channels and this kind of bombardment only results in an overdose of singing or dancing for the audience resulting in an overall drop in the TVRs.

The latest in this trend is the launch of comedy shows – a supposedly IPL strategy for the channels.

Last week saw the launch of a ‘Comedy ka maha muqabbla’ on Star Plus and at the same time Colors has launched another show in the same genre called “Dekh video dekh” which is somewhat similar to America’ funniest home videos.

While one might argue that the show formats are different, we must also see the message that is going out to the audiences. Both of them are pitching themselves as a comedy show.

So if the content of one show is really very strong then it will do better. However I strongly feel that if the two had been launched at different points of time both the shows would have got better ratings.

I am not saying that the channels should not counter each other moves. But then why can’t they attack a comedy genre with a singing reality or a dance reality?

Why use a dance show against a dance show or singing show against a singing show?

If they really mix it up I am sure it will work better for the channels and they will also be doing a favour to the audiences.

India’s Republic Day parade – Grand, colorful, spectacular, but still not a big event for Television

I still remember the morning of 26^th January 1982. It was a cold pleasant morning and the best part was that it was a school holiday on account of the Republic day of India.  On any other day I would have slept till late in the morning (I was just 7 yr. old then). However, that day I was up early and all set along with my siblings to watch a grand event on the television – The Republic day parade.

I am sure a lot of you who have been born and brought up in India would recall how big this event used to be for every Indian household. The morning was spent with the family glued to the black and white TV sets watching the fabulous tableaus of all the Indian states one by one, listening to the stories of the acts of bravery committed by some small children who were being rewarded and the stories of the brave personnel from the security forces who were ensuring that we all lived in peace. And post the event the discussions of the event would continue for the next few days at least.

However, over a period of time as media and entertainment evolved in India, the interest levels of people in this spectacular seem to be diminishing.  Today for some strange reason I decided to watch the event in the morning and my instant reaction was “What an event!!!”

Such a grand event, so colorful…. where else do you get to see all the colors of India coming together in one place? But then why are people losing interest in this? why is no one bothered? Why does this event not attract enough eye balls on television?

This is by far the biggest and the oldest National event of India but it still doesn’t generate the same amount of interest as some of the other events do. It is unfortunately not the most awaited event on television. By this I don’t mean that people in this are no more patriotic and don’t have respect for the Nation. They are probably as patriotic if not more as what people were 60 years back. I think somewhere media has to play an important role here.

Over the last few decades the face of media has changed, entertainment industry has evolved. Everything right from movie making to news presentation has undergone a sea change. Hence may be the event doesn’t seem to be of any relevance to today’s generation mainly because of the way its presented.

And it’s all about creating hype. I am not saying that  26^th January does not generate any hype but I am talking more from the perspective of the morning event that happens in New Delhi. Why can’t TV channels create hype around the event? All they talk about is the security arrangements that are being made for the day. Why can’t they highlight the things that viewer can expect from this? The event is so full of information. Why can’t we build interactivity along the event? Why can’t the event be viewed on media that is more relevant to today’s generation? Why not mobisodes?

These are some of the questions that come to my mind when I think how I could have made this event more popular. I am sure if a channel really wants to promote this we can come up with many more innovative ideas. The recently concluded common wealth games opening and closing ceremonies did attract a lot of audiences. If you ask me the Republic day event is much bigger than that. The only difference was that the CWG was promoted by all news channels while the Republic day event does not get any importance. If we can generate buzz around the live bidding of IPL players I am sure a lot can be done for our National event also.

My intention is not to commercialize the event. But it is important to make it relevant to today’s generation so that they remain involved and make it bigger and better in the years to come. Otherwise we may soon land up in a situation where TV channels might not want to telecast the event at all for lack of viewership.