darshan t.y nl

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Introduction

News is the communication of information on current events

which is presented by print, broadcast (TV, Radio), Internet, or word ofmouth to a third party or mass audience.

Television news refers to disseminating current events via the

medium of television. "News bulletins" or "newscasts" are

programs lasting from seconds to hours that provide updates on

world, national, regional or local news events. Television news is

very image-based, showing video of many of the events that are

reported. Television channels may provide news bulletins as part

of a regularly scheduled news program. Less often, televisionshows may be interrupted or replaced by "news flashes" to

provide news updates on current events of great importance or

sudden events of great importance.

Television news channels are television specialty channels which

focus on presenting news content.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcastinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_mouthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_mouthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_eventshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialty_channelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcastinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_mouthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_mouthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_eventshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialty_channelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing


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Hindi News Market has a clear dominance in the News Channel Genre

with more than 2/3rd of the market share.

However Hindi News genre is a crowded market with several players in

the play.

The English News genre has fewer players with NDTV 24x7 leading thespace with an equivalent competition from Times Now & CNN-IBN.

In the Business News Genre CNBC TV18 & CNBC Awaaz dominate with

others managing a little piece of the market.

Methodology

Research Problem

This work of research & compilation aims to define marketing mix of a

news channel & try to see how the future of news will be.

Research Design

My project is not a single research but a combination of several

researches & every research has had a logical & clinical approach in

the making. The researches have been largely Exploratory in nature.

Sources of Data

A. Magazines & Books


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Various articles of different advertising & media magazines have

been useful in the project. Industry views & trends were studied

through such articles from from different magazines. (See

bibliography). To understand marketing mix study Philip Kotlers

Book was referred.

B. Internet

Internet sites provided with valuable data like class wise, genre wise

market shares, rankings, ratings etc. Such information is very useful

in drawing inferences & other research work. Internet also helped

source documents from agencies like TAM & TRAI.

C. Direct Observation

Direct observation of working of a News channel allowed me to

make an in-depth analysis of the Marketing mix. A synchronized

understanding of both B2B & B2C process of a News channel was

possible because of my stint at Star News. It also gave me access to

interview various Industry professionals & other privileged

information.

D. Viewer Survey

As I conducted the Viewer Survey it helped me discover various

opinions, preferences & test the general awareness of the viewers

with respect to News Media & especially TV News.

Designing Data Collection Forms

I interviewed the viewers residing mainly in the suburban areas of

Mumbai by Telephone & Face to face to fill out the Questionnaire

consisting 13 questions in 4 broad categories. The Questionnaire is

annexed in the schedule of annexure.


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Determining Sampling Design & Sampling Size

I decided to take a sample survey & interviewed a sample size of 50. It

is a non-probability sampling. The Demographic segmentation is

mentioned on the first page of the Viewer Survey.

Processing & Analyzing the Data

After collection of data it was essential for me to present the data in

the correct form & after careful analyzing. Therefore, Usage of pie

charts & Stacked Bar Graphs is done in my project to make it easier &

appropriate to understand.

Preparing the Research Report

After collecting & analyzing data, final report was made consistent withthe objective of the research study.

The Product

Airtime

The American Heritage Dictionary defines airtime as the time during

which a radio or television station is broadcasting. Also called

airspace.

A TV channel like radio normally has a full 24 hrs of airtime in a day. A

decade ago news was just a half hour bulletin on a channel like Door


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Darshan. Today news is provided 24 hrs a day on a dedicated channel

only for news.

A News channel while largely uses airtime for news programming, also

uses this airtime for short commercial breaks during programs. This

time used for commercial breaks is called Free Commercial Time

(FCT). Free means this time is free from program content and can be

sold to advertisers to advertise.

Hence news & other shows serve the people while Free Commercial

Time serves the advertisers. Thus a TV channel including News channel

are actually service providers and therefore provide two types of

services to:

1. Advertisers (B2B process):-

The channel sells Free Commercial Time (ad spots), Sponsorships, and

other advertising avenues to an advertiser to service his advertising

needs.

2. Viewers (B2C process):-

Providing news is the basic service that a news channel gives to its

viewers. Apart from news, news channels these days also broadcast

non news content like talk shows, educational programs, lifestyle

shows and spiritual programs and so on.


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Illustration:

The reason it is called media is because it acts as a medium through

which information is broadcasted to the general population as well as

acts as a medium for the advertisers to communicate to their

prospective customers. Given that there are only 24 hours in a day, the

airtime is a limited resource with a channel & it needs to maintain a

fair balance between time allocated to programs & ads.

Service

provided to the

Service

provided to the


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The Price

ADVERTISING

The pricing of Advertising is mainly market demand based &

always negotiable. The rating agency TAM through its impartial

research efforts awards TVR (Television Rating points) basis on which

is determined the reach of a channel and its shows. For e.g. prime time

& afternoon have more viewership pull than morning & evening. Hence

the best of the shows are placed around these times so that they keep

the viewers tuned in & the advertisers interested as they would be

charged a premium for such time bands or shows.

Revenue Stream for B2B Process

The price is not only determined by the no. of people it reaches

but an advertisers interest in the channels viewer demography. For

e.g. youth centric shows would attract a lot of youth centric

advertisers.

Part of the rate card of the Star Networks news channels for

weekdays.

Day part Time bandStar News(INR/10sec)

Star Ananda(INR/10sec)

Star Majha(INR/10sec)

Morning 5am-10am 3800 1200 800

Day 10am-6pm 2000 600 400

Evening 6pm-1am 11000 3300 2200Source - MCCS (2008 data)

In the advertising pie, the News channels have a significant share of

14%. In fact genre wise after General Entertainment Channels (Hindi +


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Regional), News channels have the second largest market share in ad

spends.

SUBSCRIPTION FEES

This is a fee charged by the Broadcasters to the Cable Operators

who in turn pass on the expense to the Subscriber (Viewer). This fee is

charged per channel per cable home.

If a channel is a Pay Channel even then the pricing is always demand

driven. Offering unique & high quality content allows a channel to

charge a premium to its viewers.

Sr.no.

News channel SubscriptionFee

(Rupees/month)

1 Sun News 1.40

2 Gemini News 7.50

3 Times Now 9.10

4 CNBC TV18 9.105 CNBC Awaaz 4.82

6 CNN-IBN 5.35

7 BBC World 5.00

8 News X 8.50

9 ET Now 8.50

Source - TRAI Report as on June 30, 2009

Revenue Stream for B2C process


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Hypothesis 1 - Content Differentiation & Demand Inelasticity

Competition in the English News genre is just warming up with

new players entering the space. However, the Hindi News genre has

been a highly competitive space for the past few years. If you refer to

the table above, none of the Hindi news channels are in the Paychannel list.

The reason cited is lack of content differentiation among Hindi

news channels. Simply said there is hardly any difference between one

Hindi news channel from another. For a viewer they all look the same.

So if one of the Hindi news channels becomes pay channel then the

viewer would most likely switch to other channels that are free. So the

demand pull is not the same in case of all news channels. Some news

channels (mostly English & regional language) enjoy brand loyalty

because of unique content while some news channels (mostly Hindi)

are commoditized due to lack of content differentiation. Hence the

former can afford to become pay channels without losing viewership

while the case is opposite for the latter.

The Hypothesis states that Demand Inelasticity is directly

proportional to the degree of content differentiation.

Assumption Effect of brand loyalty due to Promotional efforts are

considered constant.

Inferences: Demand Inelasticity can also be called as Viewers Loyalty in case

of TV channels.

Viewers Loyalty results in no or less effect of price decisions by

the company.

Sustained efforts in producing quality content would result in

growth of viewership. Quality content simply means providing content that the viewers

want & not that the content is differentiated.

Hence quality content results in growth in viewership while

differentiated quality content results in growth in viewership as

well as builds loyalty among the viewers.


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Hypothesis 2 - Impact of conversion from free topay category

Value channel is the one which has a quality content which is unique

compared to its peers. Here quality would vaguely mean providing

content that the viewers want. Commodity channel is the one whose

content can be hardly be differentiated when compared to its peers.

The Hypothesis states that as soon as a channel makes the

decision to become a pay channel its viewership base & rate ofgrowth of viewership are unaffected if its a value channel & is

adversely affected if its a commodity channel.

While the value channel has a sizeable amount of loyal viewers, the

commodity channels viewers are most likely to switch over to other

channels providing the same undifferentiated content.

Assumption Both value & commodity channels provide quality

content.

Distribution (Place)

Viewership Price

Decision Relation

Pay channel

Free to air

channel

Viewershi

Price

Value

Commodity

channel


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Cable Television

India has some 249 million households. It is estimated that in the

Indian Cable Television Market, 45 million subscribers are receiving

Cable TV services, with an annual growth rate of 15% to 20%. At

present, over 160 cable and satellite channels are broadcasting innational and regional languages. The distribution chain in the cable TV

industry consists of Broadcasters, independent Multi System Operators

(MSOs) and their franchisees, and Independent local cable operators.

The distribution chain is depicted in the figure below:

Direct to Home Services (DTH)

DTH is a distribution platform for multi-channel TV programs on KU-

Band by using a satellite system that transmits the programs/provides

TV signals directly to subscribers premises. The reception of

signals/programs requires a small dish antenna and a Set Top Box. TheSet Top Box contains software, which together with the viewing card

unscrambles the digital TV signals and allows the viewer to watch the

DTH service. The viewing card acts as a key to access any DTH

platform for authorizing the service. The delivery mechanism through

DTH is depicted in the figure below:

Satellite Channels

Multi-System Operators(MSOs)Independent Cable Operators (IOCs)

Franchisees of MSOs

Households


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Source: Frontline Magazine

Internet Protocol based TV or IPTV

The advent of high-speed residential Internet access creates an

alternative method to deliver video programming. Where adequatebandwidth exists IP TV is capable of a much richer suite of services.IPTV uses the same network infrastructure as the Internet and iteliminates the need to build a dedicated application specific videonetwork to the home.


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The Cable Dominance

About 85% of the Pay TV market is occupied by Analog Cable TV

(without set top box). In India there are more than 450 channels but

due to the analog nature of the Cable TV providers have bandwidth for

only 98 102 channels. Due to mandatory allocation for DD channels &

other technical allocation, less than 90 channels are available.

Obviously demand has overshot the supply by more than four times.

Carriage Money A Major Distribution Cost for the Broadcaster

today

In such a situation, MSOs & Independent cable operators are the most

sought after by the Distribution Managers of these 450 odd channels.

The Distribution Managers thus have to pay a fee to the cable

operators so that their channel is distributed to the viewers. The

money paid by the broadcaster to the cable operators to carry their

channel on their system is called Carriage money.

It does not matter that a channel is pay or free to air, the reality is to

be among those 90 odd channels the broadcaster has to pay up. The

distribution costs relating to carriage money runs in several crores.

Sagar Pande,Distribution Manager of Star News says that the network

spends more than INR 40 crores annually as carriage money for their


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three channels and this grows by 30 40% YOY. He adds that Colors, a

general entertainment channel, may have spent nearly INR 100 crores

during the launching year of the channel. The Broadcasters margin is

under tremendous pressure due to carriage money.

Is there a Solution?

Can one avoid such an expenditure annually which is growing at an

alarming rate? The answer is one cant do much about it in the short

term. However there are three factors that can ease the pressure &

minimize the expenditure gradually in the times ahead.

Implementation of CAS

When you pay your monthly cable bill, the cable guy never gives you a

breakup of which channel charges what subscription fees as you might

tell him that you dont want that channel. To avoid this he makes abouquet of channels & charges you a lump sum. In another words, he

prepares a bouquet of channels consisting largely those channels that

have paid him the carriage money.

Conditional Access System allows a subscriber to view only those

channels that he wishes & also pay for those many channels. Moreover

all the Free to Air channels will also be available along with the pay

channels he chooses. There will be a minimum billing for distributing

free to air channels & additional cost for every pay channel thesubscriber wishes to view.

This system will take decision making ability from the cable operators

to the end consumers. Hence neither the broadcaster with his carriage

money nor the cable operators with their monopolistic position can

decide what the consumer will see. This will help the broadcasters

reduce the carriage expenses as CAS gets implemented & completely

eliminate the Carriage money concept once CAS gets fully

implemented throughout the country.Competition from DTH

In DTH services, just like CAS, a subscriber can pay only for those

channels he wishes to see. Currently the market share of DTH is only

around 10%. Cable TV still has monopoly when it comes to distribution

needs of the Broadcaster. Strong growth is projected for DTH in coming


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years. DTH market share is expected to double from here to at least

20% by 2013. This will reduce the broadcasters dependence on Cable

operators for distribution needs & gradually reduce the carriage costs

with reduction in market share of the cable operators. Both DTH and

Cable operators will be competing with each other to provide betterservice & more channels to the customers edge each other. With

Emergence of IPTV, which is still at a nascent stage, the competition is

expected to heat up benefiting the end consumer & fair business for all

the stakeholders in the industry.

Both the factors discussed are factors that cannot be controlled by the

Broadcaster. However there is something the broadcaster can do to

reduce the carriage expenses in distribution.

Hypothesis 3 Effect of Increased Demand for the Channel

If the channel is loved by most of the subscribers/viewers, then the

Broadcaster has a bit of a bargaining power while negotiating carriage

money with the Cable operators. The Cable operator cannot take a

channel off his system which is in demand as his customers may get

irate. If the Broadcaster produces high quality differentiated content on

his channel then he retains some bargaining power thereby reducing

the carriage money he spends annually. Moreover such a demand

allows a channel to become a pay channel further boosting its margins.

The Hypothesis states that the rate of growth of Carriage

expenses is inversely proportional to the channels Inelastic

Demand.

Assumptions:

Competition in the Pay TV remains the same CAS is not implemented or is implemented at a uniform

growth rate.

Promotion


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As a TV News Channel has two types of processes, B2C & B2B, it needs

to customize marketing to cater to the needs of both the processes.

One, to increase & strengthen viewership & the other, to attractadvertisers.

CONTENT PROMOTIONS

It is aimed at the viewers both potential & existing to increase

viewership of a channels flagship programs & the channel as a whole.

VIEWERSHIP BUILDING

It is aimed at attracting new viewers to the channels viewershippool. It is usually done during new launches. A new program will attract

all the Television viewers interested in it irrespective of whether they

are the channels existing viewer or not.

Illustration 1 - Viewership Building

Viewer

s of

newsViewers of

other

shows on

Channel A

Viewers

of news

on

Channel

A


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TOOLS FOR PROMOTION

Outdoor Hoardings

Print Media

Radio

TV

Spiral Marketing

Internet

Press Releases

Events

LOYALTY BUILDING

It is aimed at engaging existing viewers. The channel promotes

the new launches & current shows among its existing viewers on the

channel. This keeps the existing viewers engaged & prevents them

from switching over to other channels to seek news, information &

even entertainment. Continuous practice of promoting the channels

shows among its viewers & differentiated quality programming buildsloyalty of the viewers towards the channel.

Illustration 2 Loyalty Building

They [A]

can move

Viewer

s of

news.

[A]

Viewers of

other shows

on Channel

A [B]

Viewers

of news

on

Channel

A. [AB]


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TOOLS FOR PROMOTION

Promote via same channel

Channel website

Mailing list

TRADE MARKETING

It is aimed at attracting advertisers to the channel & it does not in any

way concern to increase viewership. The approach in trade marketing

is less about creating excitement & more about influencing the

advertisers buy decisions by way of presenting facts & figures as well

as building higher imagery for the brand.

TOOLS FOR PROMOTION

Sponsorships

E - mailers

Tele Marketing

Personal Selling

Advertising (Advertiser specific) Sales Promotion (by way of special offers)

They [B]

can move


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The Battle for time

For the first time in itshistory India is

experiencing a trulyfree market for news. Itis changing the way we

Plenty of


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live, work and vote.

If you are over 35, stretch your mind to your teenage years.

Do youremember thinking that Russia and India were the best of

friends; that the non-aligned movement was the biggest summit

in the world? Many of those beliefs and ideas seem foolish now.

Yet they came to our head and we lived by them (Of course I

wasnt born back then). We accepted an ideology, a government

and decades of economic inactivity since we believed that our

mixed-economy, non-aligned, left leaning way of life was the best

option. If you think India should have snapped out of the Russian

bear hug faster and switched affections to Uncle Sam, youre

doing it again. You are reacting to what you read, hear and watch

on news.

News is to the mind what infrastructure is to the economy - a

crucial network of information, analysis, opinions, discussions,

arguments and visuals. These ostensibly form the backdrop of our

lives but are actually active ingredients in everything we do. If the

network of roads, railways or electric supply is weak, it will

hamper your ability to work efficiently. If it is good, you will hardlyhave an opinion on it. Similarly if a democracy does not have a

free news market with lots of debate and discussion the state of

everything from institutions to government suffers. The way we

think, live, work, the choices we make could destroy us. All it

takes is a look at our past or that of the former communist

countries or current dictatorial regimes to realize that. That is why

a free news market is important. It is a non-negotiable fact of a

working democracy. Coming as we do from a controlled news

environment, a free news market is a concept alien to us. More

often than not, it is equated with the freedom of expression. But

there is more to a free news market than that. It is also about the

freedom to do business - without capital, technology or other

constraints. In a sense, the Indian news media has been freed


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only over the last three to five years, though technically, it has

been free since Independence.

Partial Press freedom came in 2002 when FDI was allowed. It

became completely open in 2005 when foreign institutionalinvestment was permitted. Though TV was given a free hand in

1992, capital and other controls meant that we did not really see

a free news market till 2003. The internet is largely free and so is

the mobile phone. Radio is still hamstrung by regulations that

forbid news broadcasting but if a pending Telecom Regulatory

Authority of India (TRAI) paper becomes policy that should change

soon. The effect of this freedom is resonating across the country

as news media options go through the roof - 67 news channels in

11 languages, 99 million copies of newspapers sold daily and

hundreds of websites vie just for the privilege of giving us news.

We are loving it. And they are battling for a scarce commodity -

our time.

This, in turn, has made information, opinion and analysis available

to everybody, not just a few English-speaking people. More

importantly, it has given a voice to large tracts of India. Notice the

ease with which Indians face TV cameras now, whether to showtheir anger at something or to take part in reality shows. As the

prime accused in the murder of his daughter, Dr Talwar and his

family have been using the news outlets to tell their side of the

story. That is exactly what his compounder Krishnas family did

when he was arrested. Ten years ago, we would never have seen

or heard of them after they had been arrested.

This freedom has come with its own set of problems - that of

tabloidization, sensationalism, of selling out to advertisers and theblurring of ethical boundaries long held sacrosanct in the media

business. Does that mean that it should be regulated? That we

need a content code with committees and sub-committees? No,

we dont. What we see is a phase in the evolution of a free news

market and reacting to it at one point in time and locking


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ourselves into regulation will be disastrous. Right now, the

situation is chaotic, this will eventually balance out, and maturity

will come. I dont think that any punitive action is needed against

news channels. The government would like to control them

because they show government shortcomings. Jawaharlal Nehruhad once famously remarked that even a bad press was

acceptable but that it should be free and self-regulated. The UK is

a great example of a country where the tabloid and the serious

survive and make money and each operates within the same

regulatory framework. In India, there is already a good

programming code in place; all the news media industry needs to

do is apply it well.


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Note: Figures for 2008 are from Jan-May; Source: Hansa Research & IRS and Starcom Worldwide


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The thing is, the industry is too busy coping, enjoying, moping or

freaking out on the growth and so are consumers. This, then, is

the perfect time to ask where it all is headed. This is the righttime to look at the future of news.

After months of research, several interviews and reading tomes

on the news business countrywide, one thing is clear. The biggest

debates in the Indian news market currently are about the

amount of news, its ability to bring in fair returns for investors and

the quality of it. Two facts need to be hardwired into our minds

before we begin the discussion. One, mass media dominates in

India, a high volume market. The focus of this research (Future ofNews) will, largely, be mass media vehicles for news. The online

world is limited to 55 million people, even if it is the world you

and I occupy. TV reaches 437 million people whereas newspapers

are read by over 300 million. So, for those looking for buzzwords

like user-generated content or WAP and VAS, this survey will

disappoint. It sticks to Indias reality. Two, for too long, the

dialogue in policy matters has been limited to the middle-class

English speaking population. The Centre for Media Studies (CMS)data shows that in August 2007, a whopping 57 per cent of the

stories in national newspapers originated from Delhi. Some of top

newspapers and channels are based in New Delhi, so the city is

the de facto lens through which any event is viewed. There is a

joke among most analysts that there is a Delhi- Mumbai corridor

of English speakers beyond which any discussion on India barely

matters.

The fact is that only 100 million Indians speak English, while 500million speak Hindi and its various dialects. The other 500 million-

odd is split between several languages. Just as free news market

is a democratic axiom, so too is a heterogeneous one that reflects

the pulls and pushes of all interest groups is one as well. The

news market now evolving is pushing the business of news to a


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point where the debate on national issues is truly national. If it

manages to do that, the free news market we see now, would

have achieved something that decades of control could not

involve all Indians in any discussion of their future.

We are loving it!

News follows

entertainment as thesecond-largest genreof contentin India. Why?

Can you hear the babble? It is the sound of an entire country

going jabber jabber. India has over 437 million TV watchers, about302 million newspaper readers, 55 million surfers and 1.2 million

bloggers. Look at it another way as a country we buy 99 million

copies of newspapers everyday, making it the second-largest

newspaper market in the world, after the US. At 115 million TV

sets and 275 million mobile phones we are among the top five TV

and cellphone markets in the world. We have 67 news channels,

arguably more than any other country in the world. If you total up

the average across newspapers, news TV and online, Indiansspend an average of 50 minutes a day consuming news.

Last year, advertisers spent Rs 12,000-odd crore to reach them in

those 50 minutes, according to data put together by Starcom

Worldwide. Add in subscription and news is a roughly Rs 16,000

crore market. That makes it the second largest media business in

The business


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India after entertainment - in audience share, topline and now

investor interest too.

Why do we have so much news?

There is an influx of funds because news is elastic; there has been

no fatigue factor yet. Have you seen any channel close down? Thegrowth in ad spends on news genre has outpaced the growth of

the TV advertising pie. Newspaper advertising has grown below

industry average, but on a base that is ten times that of TV news.

Size, democracy and innocence make for a seductive cocktail of

reasons why the Indian news market rocks. Now stir in a lot of

investment (Rs 1,500 crore since January 2007 and still counting),

low entry costs, a declining global market for news and you know

why we are hot. However, as the rush into news increases, almosteverybody has seen a jump in operating costs, though margins

havent declined yet. The level of competition and the state of the

economy suggests that consolidation is about to happen. There is

usually a strong positive correlation between GDP and advertising

growth; if one slips, the other will, too. A bulk of the news media

in India is advertiser funded, so if GDP slips, expect advertising

growth to decline.

A lot of fun

For now though, the fundamentals of the news business on both

the supply and the demand side, seem strong. According to IRS

data there are 359 million literate Indians who do not read a

publication. Television as yet penetrates only half of India and at


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55 million surfers websites havent even scratched the surface.

The possibilities for growth in unheard of markets, with say a

Bhojpuri news channel or a Bengali lifestyle one, are as yet

unexplored. (See chart, The Entry Points, in The Prediction). To

these building blocks add a couple of qualifiers. The first andbiggest is a functioning democracy. Indians love to debate, argue

and generally drive each other crazy.

And as they move from having one newspaper and one TV

channel they are discovering the fun of arguing across the

country on scores of television channels, newspapers and on the

internet, in about 20 odd languages. The second is a complete

lack of cynicism, so far. We are just discovering what it means to

be media rich. Unlike the west, we are not a sated or bored

audience but a credulous and avid one.Literacy is prized and the

buddhijeevi or intellectual is a man who can debate or discussanything. For decades the debating was limited to coffee houses,

dhabas, schools, colleges or at village panchayats. For long, our

thirst for information and for an outlet to voice our opinion

remained just that - a thirst. Till as recently as 1990 a few

newspapers defined both the news agenda and the texture of the

news market along with the state-owned Doordarshan and All

India Radio. When satellite television first hit India in 1991, CNN

brought a whiff of what independent news could be, and then

came BBC. By 1995 websites such as Indiaworld.com, Rediff and,

later, Indiatimes came into play. Indias first private news

channel, the Hindi/English Star News was launched in 1998. With

economic liberalisation, the opening up of news and information

too had begun. The big news event however happened in 2000


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with the coming of Aaj Tak. This spunky little Hindi news channel

from Aroon Puries Living Media, changed the rules of the game.

Its 24- hour news anchors made news accessible and available to

more than 500 million people who understand Hindi or its various

forms.

Life after Aaj Tak

Aaj Taks success (it is still the leading news channel in India)

made one very important point. It showed that the language of

news, just like the language of entertainment, had to be as local

as possible. This coincided with several things. The first was the

loosening of controls over foreign capital in the newspaper

business. Two, technology had made it easier to launch moreeditions in print or more channels with less bandwidth on TV.

The third was the growth of several new categories of advertisers

who found news suitable for their products. These are advertisers

whose products have a higher male skew or need their

involvement in the purchase decision. Automobiles, telecom,

financial services were(and are) the fastest growing categories of

advertising on newspapers, television and on websites too. News

is very important for us. A lot of our products, such as LCDs, PCs

and mobile phones are targeted at males, says L.K.Gupta, chief

marketing officer, LG India. About three-fourths of LGs ad spend

goes to media vehicles that are news disseminators, saysGupta.

Advertisers like LG and Tata Motors, led to the doubling of the

overall ad pie from just under Rs 10,000 crore in 2003 to Rs

22,000 crore in 2007. This in turn has meant a tripling of the TV

news ad spend and a 60 per cent growth in spends onnewspapers during this period.


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Note: Figures for 2008 are from Jan-May; Figures based on ad volumes in seconds on TV; Advertising during commercialtime (Promosare excluded); All figures for news include regional news channels and all figures for GEC include regional GECs; Base yearfor indexed

growth in ad volumes is 2006. Source: TAM Peoplemeter System and AdEx India - A Division of TAM Media Research TG: CS4+


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What it costs to be on the NewsThe chart shows indexed cost per thousand on the top news brands. Note: Times and NDTV24X7 are not in the top 5 (by channel share) technically, but has been included for Englishcomparison; * TV covers top English and Hindi news channels.

The money argument The youngest newspaper on the block, Sakshi, a Telugunewspaper that launched with 23 editions earlier this year, hashad a great beginning. Designed by Mario arcia, the man whodesigned Mint - among other newspapers - Sakshi aims to be

more contemporary and younger than leader Eenadu. It has, forinstance, three pages of business against Eenadus one,everyday. This means 32 pages for Sakshi against Eenadus 30 onmost days. It takes roughly Rs 100-150 crore to launch anewspaper. The rapidity of launches, (Sakshi is one of about adozen this year) raises the obvious questions on the viability ofthese ventures. Today most newspaper investment happens forvaluation, I doubt whether they are serious about the business.Besides advertising, there is very little that news media can getfrom other revenue streams. Except for the Rs 4,000 odd crore

that newspapers are estimated to make from circulationrevenues, there isnt much coming by way of pay revenues.Internet, mobile, or overseas - any of the other sources ofrevenues - are not yet significant for most companies (except forBennett, Coleman & Co Ltd or BCCL). Then there is the threat ofrising newsprint prices slated to touch $1,000 per tonne by end of


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the year, up from just under $800 a tonne currently. Yet, it isnewspaper companies that most analysts and investors arecomfortable with. Most of the listed and unlisted newspapersmake operating margins of close to 25 per cent or more. So in

spite of the expansion, the bottomlines from existing businessesare still healthy. Also the fit with online and mobile is clearer andmore direct for newspaper companies, so investors like them.

It is in television news that investors should start gettingconcerned. The way the business is structured, there is completedependence on advertising. I wonder why new players arecoming, what is their proposition, do they have a bottomline oronly a topline, quips G. Krishnan, executive director and CEO, TV

Today Network.In TV news right now people are just taking

advantage of the availability of capital, answers Vivek Couto,executive director, Media Partners Asia, a Hong-Kong-basedmedia consulting firm. The fact is that operating costs fortelevision news have gone through the roof. Just the cost ofdistributing a channel went up from Rs 15 crore in 2006 to Rs 30crore in 2007 because the largest form of distribution, cable, islog jammed with new channels. The only figures available are forthe three listed broadcasters, of which two, NDTV and Network18,are now diversified media companies not pure news broadcasters.

No one is making money from TV news in India, says Couto.

A shakeout therefore is imminent, especially if the market slowsdown. However, unlike many other countries which arehomogenous markets, in India within each genre and eachlanguage 2-3 channels will survive. The ones to survive will be theones who enter the maximum number of small Rs 50-100 croreniches the market offers, from city channels to lifestyle oreducation news. The immediate issue however is not the growthpotential of the market, but the threat of regulation. Thanks tonews televisions wild jump into tabloid news and newspapersinto money for editorial deals, there is a real possibility that anasty content code will hit the business soon. That, as the nextpiece argues, will be more dangerous than a fall in ad spendgrowth.


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The Dumb Blonde is Here toStay

The tabloidization ofnews is here to stay. Itwill co-exist withserious news. Thebalance between the

two will change whenthe structure of thenews business changes.

Try this. When you are at aparticularly dull dinner party next,

just mention the words news channels. Then sit back and watch

the conversation that erupts across the room. You will hear words

like Sensationalist, trivialization, tabloidization, invasion of

privacy....

Welcome to the party. The abundance of news outlets in India

(See previous piece) comes with its own set of social, ethical and

moral issues that any serious analysis of the business cannot

The Invasion


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ignore. How much is too much? In the name of accessibility and

relevance are we really destroying the news ethic? Why does

dumbing down happen in the first place? Will the tabloidization

of news fall to levels where advertisers will start walking out to

avoid being associated with a negative content genre. Willinvestors get put off? What about the viewer the fact is, he is

lapping it up. Every time Rakhi Sawant, a celebrity whose only

talent is the one she has for hogging publicity, is on air, the show

beats everything else on viewership. It is the worst pieces of

programming that the public most wants to watch, so why blame

the media?

Every time RakhiSawant, a celebritywhose only talent is

the one she has forhogging publicity, ison air, the showbeats everything elseon viewership. Why


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blame the media?Alternatively, the question to ask is this - are we getting blinded

by television news channels and ignoring the good things that an

abundance of news across all media has done. It has helped bring

to the forefront issues which would have never made it on to the

news agenda. News outlets have become the new haven for

people who dont have a voice. From activist Binayak Sens arrest

to farmer suicides to Aarushis murder, the news - media not just

TV news channels - has forced authorities to sit up and do things.

As viewers flock to TV news, it has forced newspapers and

magazines to focus on real issues and real people, not just

intellectual babble. For the first time in years the whole issue of

editorial being sold in newspapers, the unhealthy dependence onadvertising in both print and TV that leads to unethical practices,

and the blurring lines between editorial and business are being

discussed openly. The question is how far news media should be

pushing. Can the now very public ridicule for television news help

the government to force through changes such as the content

code that could harm both the news business and democracy in

the long run? If the future is the internet or mobile, (which is as

mass as TV), should these also be subject to the same controls?One of the foundations that make this business robust in India is

democracy. Does the freedom of expression come without

responsibility? Does it translate into the freedom to do bad

reportage, lousy analysis and post whatever you want to on the

net in the name of user-generated-content?

No it doesnt. Just like other freedoms, the oneto express yourself

has to be earned and it is a freedom that not all news outlets

have earned, yet. At the heart of a profitable (and free) news

business lie credible brands that people trust and go to again and

again. The BBC, The Economist, CNN, Guardian, The New York

Times are all profitable, yet trusted brands. They dont sell

editorial, they dont sensationalize news. It is their content and

that from good mainstream news brands that drive the traffic on


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most aggregators and search engine sites, says research from

Poynters The State of the News Media. Of the top 20 news sites

in the US, 17 are from old mass media brands. So whether the

future is more digital, less print, more mobile less TV, being able

to trust a headline blindly, is a real imperative in this business.That doesnt go away with a change in media vehicle.

You could argue that The Sun is still the most popular newspaper

in the UK, not The Guardian or that people prefer ITV and Channel

4 not BBC for their entertainment. That is exactly what will

happen in India. So the Mumbai Mirror will survive along with

Hindustan Times and India TV along with CNN-IBN. The tabloid (as

in popular) and the serious both have a place because there are

people who want them. In any market in the world, the tabloid is

the more popular form and by definition has a larger audience

and ad spend. The serious news media usually has a lower

audience share but commands a higher rate.

There are historical and structural reasons why news is tilting

towards the sensational, especially on TV (more of this later). But

most are just signs of an evolving industry.


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Whats happening?

There is no doubt that TV news channels lead the tabloidization

brigade. An analysis of content on the top six national newschannels by the New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS)

shows that entertainment programming increased almost three

times the level in 2006 while politics plummeted from 23 per cent

to 10 per cent. Sports and crime saw big jumps. Development and

environment issues got a fraction of programming time across the

three years of the study. TAM data backs that. Non-news

programming was 39 per cent of what news channels broadcast

this year, up from 25 per cent in 2006.

Everyone is trying to make a quick buck. Hindi news channels

have turned into cheap entertainment cum reality channels

dishing out content which is not fit for family viewing and can

seriously disturb the social fabric of our country.


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Newspapers, it would seem are, less guilty of ignoring the larger

good. So politics, for some reason seen as more serious news,

remained at the top of the news agenda for the top four nationalEnglish papers, according to CMS. The fact remains that

newspapers are especially weak when it comes to advertiser

pressure and deals that are not in the reader interest. So does

another fact it was newspapers that started the change.

When did it start?

Prime minister visits Yugoslavia. Many years back this was thetypical headline in Indian newspapers. This was the time when

editors treated readers with contempt and readers treated editors

with reverence.

That was till 1986 when a young man named Samir Jain took over

an ailing Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL). In an era when no

one questioned what editors did, Jain, now vice chairman of BCCL,

tried to look at his paper, TheTimes of India like he would have at

a consumer product. He played around with everything - people,

pricing, content and format - to maximize returns. In a few years

BCCL became Indias largest and most profitable media company.

At Rs 2,789 crore in revenues and Rs 760 crore in operating

profits (2005-06), it still is.

That is really when the notion of news started changing. Almost

every major newspaper followed Jains lead in some form or the

other. The content started becoming more accessible, lessintellectually snooty, and cover prices fell, in some cases

drastically. The movement picked up speed with liberalization. As

entertainment channels took off in the early nineties, reading

time went down. Newspapers struck back with more colour, more


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supplements and lower prices, and in much of this Jain took the

lead.

Today, 10 years after the first private news channel was launched

in India, the entire notion of news has been turned upside down.

That raises questions about the definition of news.

So what is news?

News is about relevance and What is relevant has changed,

says Ravi Dhariwal, CEO, BCCL. Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief,

Times Now, points out to stories like Sunita Williams or the


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controversies around the infamous India-Australia series some

time ago. Earlier these would never have made headline news

even if everyone was dying to know more. In the old days (let us

call them the Yugoslavia days), consumers did not have a choice.

Between 1990 and now, four things changed their numbers,patience, time and choice.

Of these, choice is the most critical to understand what is

happening. All media is booming simultaneously in India. In the

US, newspapers took off first, then radio, then television and later

the internet. So each, had time to evolve. Most of Indian

THE TOP 20


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CHANNELSChannel share of the top TV channels.Note: *Figures are descending as perthe year 2008 (Jan- May); The ranking is based onviewership share of individual news channels in the total TVviewership pie.Source: TAM Peoplemeter

SystemTG: CS 15+ yearsMarkets: All India 08

Media has been liberated only over the last ten years. This has

meant over 400 TV channels, thousands of websites and dozens

of newspapers and magazines all jostling for time and attention at

the same time. As a result while the total time spent on media

increased in this decade (it is now going down), it got split

between more and more vehicles. (See charts on the time spend

on media in opening essay). This coupled with liberalization, risingpurchasing power, stressed out lives and all the other

accompaniments of a prosperous India changed everything the

notion of what, when, why, how and who, of news.

News now, has to do with a greater degree of

interconnectedness and relevance in the world, says Dhariwal.

The biggest manifestation is the space that news outlets, even in

regional languages ones, now give to international views,

opinions, business and entertainment.

People dont attach the same glamour to politicians that they do

to sportspersons, entertainers or business people. The new

generation is unwilling to accept people in authority, but are

willing accept successful people. Sakshi, a Telugu paper launched

in Andhra Pradesh this year with 23 editions, offers three pages of

business, against the one page that leader Eenadu does. This

would have been unheard of in a language paper till even tenyears back.

If you plot the centre of a concentric circle of issues that news

vehicles carry then 15 years back politics was at the centre with

lifestyle, crime or entertainment, the lurid stuff at the fringes. The


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target audience was one mass of Indians assumed to be

interested in a common list of things that editors decided on.

Now, the target audience has splintered in dozens of clusters. And

the centre of the concentric circle for each cluster, young, middle-

aged, old, is different. So young people want education andcareer guidance from newspapers, they want timepass from

television and a social life on the internet. Older people want

more politics and serious news and so on and so forth. Finally, the

heterogeneity of the market is reflected in the way news is

changing.

Why news standards are falling

That news is becoming more accessible, more heterogeneous andrelevant is wonderful. However a disproportionate amount of time

is spent on things that cant be called news. Many point out that it

is Hindi channels that are more sensationalist. That some say is

not correct. The viewership numbers in other languages are so

small, that it doesnt show up. Even Tamil and Telugu news

channels get a lot of viewership for dumbed down programming.

But really why is this happening on a scale where there seems to

be a backlash in the making? Why are news channels showing

fake godmen making predictions or MMS clips of a 14-year old

murder victim? Why have things degenerated from accessibility

to sleaze?

We came across several reasons, which work together or

individually to make the Indian news business what it is.

One is the TRP trap. India is an avowed one-TV market. Indian

families believe that TV watching is a family activity and getting a

second TV will isolate younger members. So news television vies

for the same audiences that entertainment or sports does. To this

add the pressure of 24-hour news which stresses the best brands.

In the US, cable channels which run 24 hour news are the ones

accused of sensationalizing while the quality of news on


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broadcast channels, which have intermittent news, rarely draws

any flak. Now factor in sixty seven 24-hour news channels all

fighting for every fractional increase in rating points. The result is

what you see. Ditto for newspapers which try to get the largest

mass of people possible with buckets or kettles as gifts. So whatthey get are gift junkies, not readers.

Two, even with low ratings it is possible to capture the high

impact of the viewership of niche channels, but at 7,200 meters

for 72 million cable and satellite homes, most analysts say the

sample for measuring viewership is too small. Media buyers

obsession with numbers makes it an uphill battle for a niche

brand to prove that the 30 minutes even 10 users spend on it, is

high-quality time. Chandradeep Mitra, president, Mudra Max

agrees that, the buying community is to blame for what is

happening. Since advertisers, marketers or media owners, seem

unwilling to pay higher fees for a bigger sample, metrics become

a limiting factor.


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The third factor, is the lack of revenue flexibility. In TV pay

revenues remains a distant dream because pay TV platforms like

digital cable or DTH are some way from reaching critical mass. On

analog cable, the widest mode of distribution, most news

channels are afraid to go pay for fear of losing viewers andtherefore ad revenues. In newspapers the debate on raising

prices has been going on since Samir Jain came. A newspaper

costs anywhere between Rs 15 and Rs 30 to produce but it sells

for Rs 1-3. Therefore there is tremendous pressure on making

money through advertising and the abject dependence on it. It is

routine for advertisers to pull out campaigns from papers that

critique them even a bit. That explains why there has been no

single corporate corruption story in newspapers in the last fiveyears.

Four, operating costs across the board are going up even while

capital costs have fallen. In dailies, newsprint, marketing and

content costs have gone up the highest. In TV it is distribution and

content costs that have doubled over the last couple of years. As


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a result the depth of coverage has reduced. Against every four

hours earlier, TV news is now refreshed every half hour. That

means more anchors, more reporters and a wider coverage so

that the

chances of getting a fresh story increase. In newspapers beats

are becoming redundant; anybody is put onto any story creating a

sea of people who know a little bit about everything.

What does it mean?

This massification would have happened earlier if controls had not

existed, so this is a natural progression. True. In entertainment

TV, the demand for differentiated content has come now, after 15

years of free private television. Whether we like it or not, in spite


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of the freedom to do so Indian audiences are not switching off the

Babajis and the lurid stories. Only when news audiences are sated

and sick of the popular form of news will they look for news

outlets that offer serious analysis or cutting edge talk shows.

Even then a larger proportion of the audience will prefer thepopular form of news.

What are the implications of this massification? It may mean that

the advertiser who comes to news because there is a male skew

and high involvement is going away. L.K. Gupta, chief marketing

officer, LG India says that he hasnt decided because he cant see

the evidence. If news channels go more mass advertisers will

have to cherry pick what suits their TG (Target Group). It can be

illustrated by way of example of cricket. A brand has to choose

the tournaments and the channels best suited to its needs.

The male skew is coming down in newspapers. This makes news

more attractive to a larger set of advertisers. For instance, ever

since Aaj Tak changed tracks three years back to become more

mass, the Amba Sariya kind of advertiser has been replaced by

the more premium Gili Diamonds type. FMCGs or Fast Moving

Consumer Goods such as soaps and shampoos, which would havenever touched news, are now regulars on news channels. For the

serious news advertiser the options are limited BBC, CNN-IBN,

CNBC, NDTV 24X7, business newspapers and magazines.

In the long run, the players who diversify beyond news in other

genres, geographies and media are the ones that will emerge

healthier, more credible and profitable. They are also the ones

investors lust after. The few broadcasters that are refusing to

massify such as NDTV and Network 18 are the ones with adiversified portfolio. NDTV Hindi is seen as losing share because it

is the only channel that does not have a crime show. In

newspapers, though, this is not necessarily true. The most serious

and credible papers like The Hindu or Business Standard are the

ones whose record on diversification is not as good.


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There are other ways of bringing credibility back. One is reduce

the dependence on advertising. The reader is reluctant to pay Rs

3 for a paper, but pays Rs 3 for a one line SMS. The point is that

media owners have to move towards charging a fairer price for

their product and improving the advertisers perception of theaudience that they offer. The other is better metrics and research.

Since most research agencies come from markets where

newspaper circulation is declining, they have very little incentive

to invest in newspaper research and measurement and make it

more real-time. That would apply to TV research too. Media

owners need to get together to invest in measurement tools that

make the sample more robust and reduce the TAM town bias or

the readership bias. As the money that rides on news keepsincreasing, news outlets will have to get their act on both the

quality of content and metrics in order. That is the only way to

avoid attracting the regulators eye, losing advertisers and

putting off investors. It will also safeguard the future of a free

news market.


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The Prediction

The future of newsbelongs to mediathat can be adapted

to Indias reality.MyToday offers a bouquet of services on mobile phones. These

include news, stock markets, cricket and health among several

others. The user has to opt for this free service and he gets

headlines with a text ad at the bottom of the screen. Since it was

launched in 2006, MyToday has hooked 3.5 million subscribers.

News is the second most popular service at MyToday after cricket

with more than one million subscribers and is one of the highestrevenue earners. More than 75 advertisers such as Akai, Birla

Sunlife and Shoppers Stop have used MyToday which is on its

way to becoming a very profitable service. At a rate of 300,000

new subscribers every month it will hit 10 million in a year, says

Abhijit Saxena, CEO, Netcore. The Mumbai-based company is the

The little


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brainchild of Rajesh Jain. The man who launched one of Indias

first portals, IndiaWorld.com in 1995 (later sold to Sify) has been

an evangelist of sorts for the online medium. Why then did he

choose the mobile for his next big venture? Internet growth in

India has been somewhat stymied because of penetration, saysJain. The mobile he reckons is a much more versatile device, with

a large penetration. Before you splutter that mobile internet is

just a fraction of the total mobile population of 275 million, rest

easy. Jain is keen on exploiting a service that is low on bandwidth

consumption (a huge limitation in India) and is easily available

SMS. So far all usage of the mobile media has been around

ringtones, wallpapers, things that you create pull for, says Jain.

The result has been an industry where the content creators haveno connect with the consumers they serve. All the VAS (value-

added services) operators sit behind the mobile operators, says

Jain. His idea was to speak direct to- consumer.

Jains insight on what can and cannot work in India is crucial to

understanding where the news business is headed. If there is any

lesson to be learnt from the tabloidization of news, especially on

television, it is that the imperatives of doing business in India will

finally get you. The business plan that your consultants draw up

could be grand. However, all news media will have to operate

within the limitations of India - electricity being the biggest one.

Assuming that this will not change drastically in the near-term,

the question we asked ourselves was which media vehicle has the

hardiness to survive, penetrate and get big numbers the mobile

and radio stood out. (See table below).


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Who will lead?

Radio is out for now. Even if the government allows radio

operators to offer news, most dont see themselves becoming full-

fledged 24-hour news broadcasters. They will at best offer an

hourly or daily bulletin on their stations. In large tracts of India,

newspapers and television will continue to analyze what the

mobile phone alerts you on. This could be through SMS or if

bandwidth permits, through clips. In the metros and top 20 towns,

the internet will play in combination with the mobile phone. It is

not as if the mobile and radio will take over all news

dissemination. They will probably have an increasing share of

news consumption and therefore revenues, especially pay.


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That is the media vehicle part, what about the content? From

whatever one has read so far, it is clear that there are two distinct

needs from news. One is the demand for commodity news on

what happened, when etc. This is the bread and butter of the

news business and across media the pressure on this will keepincreasing. This will by definition be a high-volume, low-margin,

tabloidish game.

It could mean more sting operations on TV, more user generated

content on the net or reams on Saif Ali Khans affair with

Kareena Kapoor in print. This is a market that can be dominated

by any media that can reach faster, quicker and has a fun take on

anything that happens. This kind of news will largely be ad-

supported and subscription will have a smaller role to play.

The other is the demand for an editorially led product that makes

sense of the babble. The kind that consumers are willing to pay

for to read or watch its sharp analysis and viewpoint, a bit like

The Economist. This will be a smaller, very profitable market. It

will by definition be a somewhat verbose product, so this market

will be dominated by newspapers, magazines and websites. The

odd BBC or CNN-IBN could be part of this market, but TV will havea limited role to play here. This could be a blend of ad plus pay

revenues, though considering the texture of the Indian market,

one suspects it will be premium-advertiser supported.

So, the changes coming up in the news market in India, most

expected to kick in by 2009, an election year, will operate at two

levels. The first is consolidation and more specialization and

segmentation especially in the more mature markets where

commodity news outlets are already plentiful. The second is therise in penetration across India and a greater massification and

commoditization of news. Both these changes will mean more

media across a bigger geography and hopefully more variety. It

will be a continuation of what the privatization of news started in


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India a plug-in into the heterogeneity of the market and its

volumes.

The specialized news market

News is becoming a commodity especially on the electronic front.

L.K. Gupta, chief marketing officer LG India, one of the biggest

advertisers on the news genre coincides: Two years back 75 per

cent of our spends went to newspapers, now less than 60 per

cent goes to them because we cant target sharply enough. The

answer is sharper target definition that gets into psychographics,

reading/watching behaviour, time spent et al. From that

perspective, Mint has done a good job. The business paper

launched by HT Media in 2007 has the texture of a daily news

magazine and a deliciously non-businesslike design. In spite of

being the fifth English business paper in a market of barely 100

million English speaking people, it has certainly created a lot of

buzz.

This is change number one. In markets that are well-penetrated

by all media vehicles, where a lot of news brands compete for thetime of a jaded audience, say the seven metros or the top 20

towns, it is more specialization and segmentation that will work.

Some of this is already evident in both print and television.

Evidence lies in more & more gadget shows, education

supplements, foreign news supplements, auto shows and so on.

Since single television homes could limit segmenting, one way of

doing it is by looking at day parts more innovatively. In prime

time, news is becoming entertainment; off prime time it is sharplysegmented. The commodity news will exist here but perhaps will

grow faster on newer vehicles, say the mobile phone or in car

radios. But from an ad spend perspective it will be a falling yield

game, unless the numbers are massive. To really make money


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from commodity news, a brand will have to be among the top two

in terms of reach.

News, the commodity

The second trend - of deeper penetration by geography, language

and by being more local - will see more action. News channels

viewership seems to be moving away from metros to non-metros.

In Hindi news viewership (prime time 9 pm) the growth was 16

per cent in non-metros, as against only a 10 per cent growth in

metros. In the same time band, English news channels have

grown by 20 per cent in viewership in non-metros and stagnated

in the metros. The same is true for regional news channels that

have shown a higher growth rate of over 30 per cent in non-

metros, against 20 per cent for metros.

Media owners know this. Of the 67 news channels in India 23 are

in Hindi, 13 in English, while other major languages have anything

between 2-5 channels each. Many were launched in 2007. Earlier

this year Business Standard, The Economic Times and Dainik

Bhaskar launched business dailies in Hindi. Business Standardlaunched one in Gujarati too. Then there is a Hindi business daily

due from the tie-up between Dainik Jagran-Network18. These

launches, more than anything else, finally acknowledge that

Indias economic growth is not limited to English speaking metros.

This is true for the Internet too. The next level of growth is going

to come from tier 2 and 3 cities. We very firmly believe that the

future growth of India is through small towns. That is why we

have embarked on private treaties, says Ravi Dhariwal, CEO,

BCCL. Private treaties refers to the picking up of equity in small

and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), the largest growing

category of advertisers, in exchange for media. BCCL has signed

on over 100 companies under private treaties. SMEs in fact are

the reason why ad spends growth has kept pace with the growth


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of regional editions of newspapers. The numbers and spend of

SMEs has been rising. And it is to tap into this advertiser who

wants to reach out to his audience in a local context that you will

see the trend towards localization increasing.

The free market for news will eventually connect up all of India

and get everyone jabbering about issues, a feat a controlled news

market could never achieve. That will make for a better


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functioning and robust democracy. That alone should be a good

enough reason to cheer this babble along.

Viewer Survey

Segmentation statement:

Male/Female 18 65 yrs, SEC AB located in the suburban Mumbai.

Demographic Classification of the Total 50 viewers surveyed

In the Adult students category, 6 males & 4 females were

surveyed.

In the Employed/ Self Employed category, 20 males & 10 females

were surveyed.

Finally, 5 homemakers & 5retired males were surveyed.

13 Questions were asked on topics/issues relating to 4 broadcategories:

A. General Opinion/Preferences

B. Opinions/Preferences on Content

C. Opinion on Conduct of News Channels

D. Awareness/Opinions/choices about Intermediary Services like

Cable, DTH & IPTV.

A] General Preferences/Opinions

1) Which is your preferred platform for News?


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Observation:

Nearly half (48%) of the news viewers prefer Print as a medium fornews. This is followed by TV at 38%. This does not mean that those

who read newspapers do not watch news on TV & vice versa. The

data is overlapping & not mutually exclusive. Internet News is

consumed by only 14% & by the younger generation who prefers

Yahoo more than CNBC or Times.

2) Which is your preferred genre/type of news channel on TV?

Observation:

National & Business News is what the viewers like to tune into on

TV. Channels like Aaj Tak, Star News, CNN-IBN & CNBC TV18 were

among the favorite channels for National & Business news

respectively.


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On the other hand only 4% watched International News channels

like CNN International & BBC. International news has not caught

up as an interest to the viewers as yet.

1) What is your preferred language for News?

Observation: Hindi is still the most preferred language for news viewers which

is followed close on heels by English which is fast catching on.

Hindi has a mixed viewer profile.

Most English viewers consist of students & working professionals.

Regional Language is a distant third preferred mostly by some

homemakers & the retired ones.


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1) There are 67 News channels in 11 languages. Do you think a

viewer has more News channels than required?

Observation:

Most (78%) felt that there is an oversupply of news channel & can

live with fewer news channels.

Some (10%) felt that more no. of news channel means more

choice for a viewer & that the number is not an issue.

Some respondents (12%) couldnt make up there mind.

B] Opinions/Preferences on Content

1) Can you differentiate the content of one News Channel from

another or do they all look the same?

Observation: Majority (66%) of the viewers feel that news channels look all the

same to them & they lack uniqueness due to lack of content

differentiation.

This majority consisted of largely Hindi News channel viewers.


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Some felt (34%) that there is some uniqueness among news

channels.

This minority largely belonged to English & Regional genre.

1) Do you watch other non news content on the News Channels?

Observation:

Majority of the viewers watch non news content on the news

channels like lifestyle shows, talk shows, and gadget shows etc.

While most watched it sometimes, some viewers watch it

regularly. However some 38% never watch non news content on News

Channels.


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C] Opinions on the Conduct of the News Channels

1) How do you find a News Channel today?

Observation:

Most of the respondents felt that News channels are

sensationalist & hype small things out of proportion.

Some do feel there are enough news channels which are serious

about news they provide.

1) Do you think the standard of News Channels is dropping day by

day?

Observation:

Majority feels that the standard of the news channels is falling

with each passing day. This is opinion is influenced by the

sensationalist nature of some news channels.

Not so distant minority feels that there are enough news

channels who set high standards in the news industry.


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1) Ethics are going for a toss in some cases in the News Industry. Do

you think the freedom given to the News Media should be curbed

& the Government should regulate the content on the NewsChannels?

An overwhelming majority believes that bad press is better than

one regulated by the government.

While a very small section of respondents felt that there should

be a content code.

D] Awareness/Opinions/Choices regarding Intermediary

Services.


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1) Which service do you avail for your TV?

Observation:

A very large majority uses the Cable TV to avail TV services.

Many feel that DTH does not give them enough flexibility & hence

prefer Cable TV. For e.g. : Whenever there is Indias cricket

match, the Cable Operator provides the very channel the match

is on without additional charges while the case is different in

case of DTH who will charge separately for each channel.

Only 12% use DTH services & believe they provide better picture

quality than Cable TV.

1) Do you think that your Cable Operator charges you fairly?

Observation:

About 2/3rd feel that their Cable Operator is not transparent in the

billing of their services. About 1/3rd thought that the Cable Operators charge an

affordable fee for their services.

Note: Cable Operators are supposed to give a break up of which

channel costs how much to the consumers but it is not practiced.


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1) Do you think the government should make the implementation of

CAS mandatory throughout the country?

Observation:

All respondents unanimously agreed that implementation of CAS

should be made mandatory by the government as they will have

to pay only for those channels that are viewed by them.

2) Are you aware of Internet Protocol TV or IPTV?


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Observation:

Almost everyone, except one respondent, was unaware of IP TV

as an alternative to Cable TV or even DTH services.

Annexure

Questionnaire:

Name:

_______________________________________________________________________

___

Age: _________ Gender: _________ Occupation:

________________________________

1. Which is your preferred platform of News?

TV Print

Internet

1. Which is your preferred genre/type of news channel on TV?

National


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International

Business

2. Which is your preferred language for News?

English Hindi

Regional

3. There are 67 News channels in 11 languages. Do you think a

viewer has more News channels than required?

Yes

No

Cant Say

4. Can you differentiate the content of one News Channel from

another or do they all look the same?

They All Look The Same

There are Differences

5. Do you watch other non news content on the News Channels?

Usually

Sometimes

Never

6. How do you find a News Channel today?

Sensationalist

Serious

7. Do you think the standard of News Channels is dropping day by

day?

Yes

No

8. Ethics are going for a toss in some cases in the News Industry. Do

you think the freedom given to the News Media should be curbed

& the Government should regulate the content on the News

Channels?

Yes


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No

9. Which service do you avail for your TV?

Cable TV

DTH

10.Do you think that your Cable Operator charges you fairly?

Yes

No

11.Do you think the government should make the implementation of

CAS mandatory throughout the country?

Yes

No

12.Are you aware of Internet Protocol TV or IPTV?

Yes

No

Bibliography

TRAI Consultation papers TRAI Report

TAM Media

TAM Adex

E4m.com

Afaqs.com

Marketing Mix Philip Kotler

Brand Reporter

Frontline

Screen Digest Hansa Research

IRS

MyToday

Starcom

Mudra Max


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darshan t.y nl

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