It's TV Stupid

18th May, 2010

Ever since James Murdoch’s recent India visit the speculation is rife that Fox News is all set to enter the country. Murdoch has already met three key players in the Indian media market, including Shobhana Bharatiya of Hindustan Times and Vineet Jain of the Times of India for a possible tie-up. It is believed that the global media moghul is unhappy with the Anand Bazaar Patrika run Star News in India and the FDI cap of 26 per cent leaves him with no choice but to look for other partner in the region. Industry grapevine is that Fox News will start a news channel in English, followed by a Hindi news channel.

This sounds like an impeccable business strategy where the Star-Fox combine can control the business of news channels in the country with their own channels competing against each other in the top slot of the TRP and the ad pie. However, a cursory look at the Indian television news market gives confused and baffled signals. India TV has also announced to launch its English news and business channels. News X has only recently been relaunched and a couple of other players have big plans in the Indian television news business.

Media analysts are apprehensive that whether there is any room for more news channels in a cluttered and over crowded market where every other channel looks like the replica of another channel. The resource pool in terms of technicians and trained quality journalists also seem to be on short supply. So, where is the need and space for all these new channels to accommodate?

However, I personally feel there is not only room but urgent need for serious News Channels in India, since all the channels in the name of news are into business of triviality. The country is perhaps yet to see what a serious news channel should be. It seems mediocrity flows from top to bottom in the business and it went to dogs when a news reporter of a leading television channel asked the then Home Minister of the country, Indrajit Gupta as to what was his name.

This debate just reminds me of the outburst of a friend on the quality of newsmen in business. A journalist-turned-corporate affairs professional he recently remarked that in the world of intellectuals, journalists are at the bottom of the pyramid. He was reacting over a news anchor asking in the live news to the reporter on the spot of a fighter jet crash as to how many passengers were there on board. But this …OOPS Syndrome is a repetitive reality of today’s TV news rather than an exception. A news channel popularly known to lower the standards of journalism and scaling up the TRP ladder ran a story where voice over said the army chief will take the oath of office. It seems the television news channels in the country have grown horizontally than vertically.

In the rat race of TRP (the biggest racket in the business of TV news) the grammar, sensibility and ethics of TV news goes for a toss and an English news channel in its sting operation on changing face of prostitution goes to the extent of asking a sex worker as to what is her rate, per night and per stroke, and then airs it unedited. May be the promoters of the group of channels were calculating their bottom lines on those scales only where hundreds of employees were sacked on the basis of productivity report of an outside agency.

This marketing research consultancy agency had no media or news background and the productivity report was hence quantitative. More the number of bulletins you produce with lesser salary, the more productive producer you are. Poor journalists who focussed on the quality stories, and for a change knew the difference between breaking news, news flash and news update were declared non-productive. If a bulletin producer is so good with producing volumes of programmes, who cares for his linguistic skills. He can even translate an english copy suggesting two chief ministerial claimants to hindi as two chief ministers being installed in the state for the first time.

No wonder, if an anchor is available for overtime and presenting more bulletins, she is a better asset for the channel. One such anchor recently asked the CPI leader D Raja as to what is the take of CPM on the issue. The decency in the left leader made him say that his party CPI believes that……But every body is not found to be that decent. The President of International Tennis Federation was taken aback when an Indian television reporter asked him as to what should India do to make this rich man’s game to common man’s game. He bluntly put a counter question as to who is he to suggest what falls in the domain of Indian authorities.

It seems being dubbed as the Idiot Box, television news channels are determined to turn the tables and make the audience feel like idiots. Does anybody still have any questions as to whether there is any room for more news channels in India?