Posts Tagged ‘TRP’
NDTV and the fight for TRP’s
I said this in the past and I will say in again, there is a cut throat race for TRP’s among News Channels. Earlier we saw Ravish Kumar doing a blank screen against the Channel that is getting TRP’s and now we see Barkha Dutt doing the same.
I don’t like Barkha and Arnab equally hence I will try to remain unbiased in my analysis. Why Barkha Dutt wrote what she wrote. From the days of Nira Radia tapes, which Arnab have used time and again to hit at paid journalists, Barkha Dutt have not been able to hit back. Barkha Dutt was the most prominent journalist to have been named in those tapes. No other News Anchor apart from Arnab went against these people. The rivalry was sown that very moment.
Slowly Arnab ate away the TRP’s and hence the Advt. revenue of other News Channels. NDTV was a major casualty in this. Low TRP means less money. Therein lays the sudden outburst. It does not lie in Arnab shaming her for Radia tapes, it does not lie in pointing out Hafeez Saeed naming her as a well wisher, and it does not lie in calling her anti-national. It lies in the TRP and the money.
That Barkha Dutt has to write a blog to put forward he point of view is a sign enough as to how many people watch her show. Few years back she was the one who used to set the primetime news agenda. Nowadays hardly anyone watches her show. It is the frustration. Arnab would be grinning ear to ear. He likes any and all publicity. If people talk about his show, it is a win enough for him.
It’s sad to see a leading News Channel going down the barrel. But it happens with time. Some survive, some perish. I think Arnab’s success lies in the fact that he chooses topics based on what will get more TRP’s. NDTV and Barkha on the other hand have not been able to get out of anti-RSS, anti-BJP ideology and a lot of times end up losing TRP’s as they just can’t give prominence to News that goes against that ideology.
All said and done, the clash has the potential to bring out dirty laundry of media out in the open. And who would not relish it!
In Reply to Ravish Kumar, NDTV
This is in reply to Open Letter from Ravish Kumar.
Ravish Kumar ji, there was a time when I used to watch your show. It was within last 3 years. You see I am also an emotional kind of guy just like you. To watch a news show, I must be able to respect the news person at some level. I had respect for you and hence I watched your show. For the same reason I like to watch Kapil Sharma and not Comedy Nights Bachao.
Just as a proof that I indeed liked you, here is the link to the article I wrote on 10 Sep 2014. And another on Nov 26 2015. The way you grilled opportunistic Kiran Bedi, I admired you. I liked you as you brought with yourself a real thing, which has gone missing on News Channels. A phonyism has engulfed not just news but society in general; amidst that I saw you a glimmer of hope. Then the black screen happened.
I would be honest; I lost more than a bit of respect for you that day. It was more because the reason you chose to do that. The TRP race. It felt as if you were irritated with the fellow channel that got TRP’s and you wanted that TRP for yourself. I would have liked had you berated against the bad Govt. policies or phony politicians. But the reason you chose was as phony as it could have been.
Now you complain about online trolls. You know when people start complaining about online trolls, is what I call the ultimate stage of phonyism. When you refer to ‘change’ in last 3 years, I know you are referring to the current dispensation. I just want to tell that last 3 years have seen infinite increase in online activity, fake accounts, paid accounts and what not. It is the real reason.
There are stages for success. People get successful and then more successful and then they start complaining about online trolls. Karan Johar was also complaining couple of weeks back on NDTV website about twitter trolls. Any public figure can complain about that. You don’t think Modi gets any less abuse online than you do? Take any public personality, you would be better, I bet.
Today’s letter that you wrote to MJ Akbar, I didn’t like that much. I’ll tell you why. I like upright people. If you hated him becoming minister, you should have said so straight. You went about beating around the bush trying to mock him. The holier than thou attitude doesn’t help Sir.
I sympathize with you that your mother was called names on twitter and your channel name was abused, but that is how social media has grown. If you want blame, blame twitter for not controlling such accounts. Blame the IT policy for that. Blame courts for not censuring people online. But don’t play a victim card here Sir. When people with money start playing victim card to online trolling, it doesn’t seem nice.
It’s like a slap on the face of poor people with real problems.
Arnab Goswami is de-facto lead journalist now
I have been open about my views on Arnab Goswami. I hate his over the top approach which is driven by TRP’s rather than ideology. That he has taken yellow journalism to its darkest shade is something which I don’t like. But what I admire about him is he is not biased and caged by his political leanings. For him TRP’s come first, rest all is second. Hence he remains equally harsh on all political parties and leaders, unlike other well known journalists who are shamelessly biased towards Congress or BJP or Left.
I believed he was journalist in an English News Channel, which has limited audience in India and hence does not represent the popular view. For me he represented the view which urban elites liked to hear and hence provide TRP’s. Well let me admit I was right and I was wrong. I was right in saying he has urban elites as his audience, but what I failed to grasp was, these very people are the ones that define policies. His audience comprises of top notch of society. Judges, Doctors, Engineers, Teachers. His audience comprises of influential people, who lead the society.
When I say Arnab has a small audience, I mean in number as compared to 130 cr population. In comparison to other English News channels, his audience is obviously more.
Couple of incidents happened that made me realize the import of what Arnab and his audience represents. A judge recently appointed a lawyer to a case after he saw that lawyer in a Panel discussion on Newshour. How I came to know was, that same lawyer thanked Arnab for inviting him and getting him noticed. He did that on live TV during a subsequent discussion.
The next major thing was Narendra Modi interview. That an astute politician like Modi decided to give his first Indian interview as PM to Arnab speaks volumes of the strength of Arnab’s audience. The audience which is less in number but lists the Who’s who of Indian society. Arnab is right when he says he sets Nations News Agenda on Newshour. Everyone else just plays catch up.
For most elites of Mumbai/Delhi, news is what happens 9-11 PM on TimesNow. Arnab is the pied piper of urban India.
Sad reality behind ‘huge’ Arnab Goswami viewership
Whoever has watched Times Now, would be familiar with the Arnab’s rhetoric about Newshour being the most watched News Show. Indeed it is. But there is a sad reality hidden behind.
Newshour is the most watched English News Debate show. However the number the people watching this show is not more than 5-6 lacs in reality. It’s just that out of other such shows this is the most watched. Hindi News shows have more than 10 times viewership. Why is this show hailed then?
For most of the part it is his self advertising, telling about how great the show is. How big the crusader he is. And sad part is the per capita income difference between English speaking and non-English speaking Indian’s is too high. More so with people who have subscribed to such English News Channels.
It’s the per capita of his viewers which is high. Not the number of viewers. The much celebrated status and high advertisement rate of Times Now is much due to the economic divide that India faces today. Less people are More rich. More people are Less rich.
In our society since poor people don’t have much money, they don’t have much purchasing power. Which in turn eliminates them from potential TV viewer list. No TV channel wants people to see their show, if they don’t have money to buy products advertised. It’s the game of money.
Hype of TimesNow and Arnab Goswami is due to the purchasing power of his viewers. Who are less in quantity but more in monetary terms. This should not be much of a surprise given Top 1% owns more than 50% of wealth in India.
Brutal Lust for TRP’s and Downfall of Arnab Goswami
Half the time I turn on news channels, I am witness to an advert as to how that channel is No. 1. How it beats others in a given time slot, event or what not. It is not about News anymore. News has taken a backseat. It’s about money, money, money.
As I wrote sometime back, Arnab Goswami’s triumph as per the advert rates backed by TRP’s, gave rise to an army of imitators. Each following his footsteps in shouting match, disrespecting panelists, twisting facts for making interesting story.
It was the day journalism kinda lost. Journalism is the business of News not Views, was a thing of the past. What it gave birth to was motivated news. And the worst kind of, “pick and choose” which story to run based on TRP it can generate.
But days of such yellow journalism are only few. Change has already started happening. Recent viewership of CNN IBN has left Times Now behind and it has come as a fresh whiff of fresh air. A new breed of news readers and anchors headed by Zakka Jacob, have brought a welcome change. Gone are the days of mudslinging and shouting slugfests.
I commend Zakka Jacob and team and would urge them to remain as they are. There will be temptations and pressure to go rogue and initiate a shouting match. But please don’t. Ethics and honor in journalism are hanging by a thread. Hold it together.
I Killed Jessica: Witness No. 301
Recently a movie on the infamous Jessica Lal murder case was released. It brought the memories and related stories back into the news. The movie was called, “No one killed Jessica” referring to around 300 witnesses turning hostile. I beg to differ; I confess I killed Jessica. I, a part of the system that led to the near miscarriage of Justice, killed Jessica.
It’s very easy to sit on this side of the fence and lambast the 300 odd witnesses who turned hostile. Let me ask you one question, “What would you have done if you were the 301st witness”. I would be true to admit that I would have been the first one “jo chat pet tha” (who was on the roof).
A mighty politician’s son! Where do I stand? What can I do? I am the 301st witness; I saw what was happening and did nothing. I killed justice. I killed Jessica.
But the positive that came out of this whole episode was the heroism of media. Birth of a new media, a media which was proactive; a media which was there to help. Considered, media too was not selfless. It did what could have attracted TRP’s. But what really is the TRP? It’s a measure of the interest a news story garners from the public. The public today is interested in the proactive role of media. Up till now we had nowhere to go. Police stations were a dreaded place. Courts used to give us shivers. We have media to rush to now.
Today even common man like you and me can stand up to anyone. Be it even the PM of the country, leave aside any tuchha-muccha politician. The non-confident “I will take you to the police/courts”, has given way to the confident, “I will drag you in front of the media”.
The 301st witness will not be on the roof no more. He is ready to testify.
Media: right or WRONG
Last week a leading news channel was seen patting its back. It carried out an operation in Delhi. A female reporter walked on the road alone during the night to catch the person/persons who tried to take advantage of her.
One must say that this was a clear master stoke. However there seems to be a flaw. It served no positive purpose other than to add to the TRP of the news channel. On the hindsight it did some harm.
Firstly, let me go into as to why nothing positive came out of it. “Are the women safe at night?” is one such question as, “Is cigarette smoking not injurious to health”. Come’ on all of us know that answer to both the questions is a stern NO. What the channel tried to do by proving a well known fact, is far from my understanding. In fact a few days ago, even the Delhi CM agreed that roads are not safe for the females at night. Had the issue been “how this should be resolved”, channel should have been patted. It would have helped creating a better environment. But I guess, it’s easier to be a part of the problem than to be of the solution.
Secondly, why it did some harm? Consider the scenario that the car of a lady broke down at night. Now would anyone stop to help her? I think not. He would be more worried that if the lady turns out to be a reporter in disguise, he would be shown on television as a beast trying to take advantage of a stranded girl. This number would be much higher than the number of real criminals who would turn away due to the fear of being exposed. So in effect it would do more harm than good.
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