NEWS INDIA::: A LOT OF NEWS CHANNELS COMING(STORY ON NEWS CHANNELS)
News programmes have suddenly become hot property and are vying for attention with other popular programmes telecast in different channels. All major television broadcasters are including at least one news channel to their bouquet. The biggest headache for launching a satellite channel is programme software for round the clock. In this juncture, newsgathering is a major task for the 24-hour news channels. To cater this task, the emerging electronic channels have always made an attempt to cover all the incidents irrespective of position, location and time. These channels not only revolutionized the concept of news on Indian television but also changed the news formats. Before 1990s, Doordarshan had monopolized newscast on Indian television and also turned the news programs into a dowdy exercise. Now the private channels made the news an essential commodity like food, cloth and shelter. The strong point of all today’s news bulletins is their topicality, objectivity, glossy editing and high-quality visuals. News has traveled a long way from the DD era. From Local events to International events, breaking news to news analysis, television soap to page3 news, every happening comes under purview of news. In this article, we have covered some significant changes in news broadcasting in India before and after the Gulf War.
Indian Television - Flash Back
Television in India is undergoing significant changes in the current liberalized environment. To understand these changes, one needs to have some brief idea of the road covered by the television channels so far. The journey started as an experimental basis with a financial grant from UNESCO in 15th September 1959. The makeshift studio at Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi was chosen for location of the experiment. The experiment started with one-hour program, broadcast twice a week, on community health, citizen rights, education and traffic sense etc. As far as news is concerned, it was launched exactly six years after the inception of television broadcasting. Daily one-hour program with a news bulletin was served to the Indian viewers. But one major drawback of television was that you could not enjoy the original colour of the objects because of black and white transmission. First multi-color programme was the Prime Minister’s address to the nation from Red Fort in Delhi on India’s 35th Independence Day. In the same day, DD National channel was launched. The aim of launching the National channel is nurturing national integration, and inculcating a sense of pride in Indians. Indian viewers also enjoyed the colored version of the Asian Games hosted by New Delhi in their drawing room. The coverage of major events and different occasions lend a big hand behind the infiltration of television signals to the nook and corners of the subcontinent. Indian Government had taken all possible steps to expand the television broadcasting demographically and geographically. In 1983 television signals were available to just 28% of the population, this had doubled by the end of 1985 and by 1990 over 90% of the population had access to television signals. In 1984, DD Metro channel was added to provide an exclusive entertainment for the urban viewers. In the beginning, this channel was confined to metropolitan cities. As a public broadcaster, Doordarshan presented the news in naturalized manner. All controversial issues were pushed under the carpet. The ruling government had a strong hold on the television broadcasting. Doordarshan news bulletins were unable to provide the international news to the national viewers. Objectivity had been the first casualty as news was invariably slanted to suit the party in power. The news was liberated from the confines of the DD newsroom and gained in objectivity and credibility when New Delhi Television (NDTV) produced ‘The World This Week’ in 1988. Everyone was waiting for the Friday night to watch ‘The World This Week’. This was the only India-based programme, which looked out at the rest of the world. The World This Week was the best current affairs programme on the international scenario and carried good stuff of news, which the regular DD news was failed to carry out. This program is ranked as one of the country’s finest and most popular television shows. In 1989, NDTV produces India’s first live televised coverage of the country’s general elections. The critical and commercial success of the coverage sets a new standard for Indian television. After the Gulf War the media panorama has changed forever.
Golf War – The Catalyst
Post-1990 satellite television in India has become transnational in nature. It coincided with the entry of multinational companies in the Indian markets under the Government policy of privatization. International satellite television was introduced in India by CNN through its coverage of the Gulf War in 1991. In August 1991, Richard Li launched Star Plus, the first satellite channel beamed the signal to Indian subcontinent. Subhash Chandra’s Zee TV appeared in October 1992. It is India’s first privately owned Hindi channel to cater the interest of Indian viewers. This ignition followed by Sony and a little later by domestic channels such as Eenadu, Asianet and Sun TV. Entertainment programs had begun to occupy center stage in the organization’s programming strategies and advertising had come to be main source of funding. Doordarshan’s earlier mandate to aid in the process of social and economic development had clearly been diluted. Doordarshan had faced a stiff competition in news and public affairs programming with international channels like BBC and CNN. Doordarshan planned to sell some slots for news programme under sponsored category. In February 1995, NDTV becomes the country’s first private producer of the national news ‘News Tonight’, which aired on the country’s government-owned Doordarshan set a new landmark for Indian television because of its on-the-spot reporting with pertinent visuals. In the same year, TV Today Network occupied a 20 minutes slot in DD Metro channel and aired a Hindi and current affairs programme ‘Aaj Tak’. This programme became popular for its comprehensive coverage and unique style presentation by Late S. P. Singh. Still we remembered the sign-up message "Ye Thi Khabar Aaj Tak, Intizar. Kijiye Kal Tak". Large number of viewers across India had been watching Aaj Tak as a daily habit because of its innovative style of news presentation. Besides that Nalini Singh’s five-minute fast paced, condensed daily news capsule Ankhon Dekhi, TV Today Network’s Business Aaj Tak and Newstrack was aired on the Metro channel of Doordarshan. This is the period when satellite channels concentrated on entertainment programmes for their respective channels. Doordarshan was still ruled the most wanted area ‘news’.
Major Players
Doordarshan’s monopoly was broken in 1992, when private television channels infiltrated into the Indian boundaries and entertain the viewers as much as possible. In the beginning of 1990s, the private channels offered only entertainment programmes. The entertainment programs include family drama, comedy serials, children programmes, cartoons, movies, talk shows, recipe shows, musical concerts, non-fiction programmes etc. Private entertainment channels added some infortainment programmes to their Fixed Point Charts (FPC). Keeping the demand of infotainment programmes in mind, the media houses started to produce news magazines, entertainment magazines and news programmes for different channels. India’s premier business and consumer news broadcaster and a leading media content provider, Television Eighteen India Limited (TV18) started India’s first ever entertainment magazine ‘The India Show’ on Star Plus in 1993. This emerging media powerhouse provided prime time television content to almost all leading satellite channels in India including BBC, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee, MTV and Discovery. After The India Show, TV18 produced a weekly business news program India Business Report for BBC World. Indian viewers had very limited options (like public service broadcaster Doordarshan, BBC and CNN) for watching the television news. For televised news, the viewers had to watch Dordarshan and some international news channels like BBC or CNN. In this race to provide more news, more information, Zee Television jumped into the battlefield by launching the news channel Zee News in 1995. This News and current affairs channel revolutionized the way news was delivered to the viewers. Since its inception Zee News has endeavoured to be the fastest to provide news, working towards a single goal of Sabse Pahle (Always First). The other round-the-clock news channel, the Murdoch-owned Star TV beamed its exclusively 24-hour news channels, Star News in 1998. Star made a contract of five year with Prannoy Roy-owned NDTV (New Delhi Television Company) to provide news content for this news channel. The untiring exhaustive coverage of the Kargil war between India and Pakistan gained more publicity and attracted more viewers towards the electronic channel. This televised conflict also sets a news benchmark for wartime journalism. During the Kargil war, common citizens witnessed how their brave Jawans fought despite in hostile conditions and watched the war front live by the exclusively news channels, Star-TV and Zee-News. The live coverage of the battlefield helped to create a euphoria of patriotism among the Indian masses, which later facilitated into collecting huge funds for the welfare of the families of Kargil martyrs. Every news programme draws the attention of large number of viewers but Kargil war attracts private broadcasters to invest more money in the broadcasting business by launching a news channel. In November 1999, TV18 entered into a 49:51 joint venture with CNBC Asia to launch CNBC India. TV18 is the sole program provider to CNBC India, and produces 12 hours of local content per day on this 24-hour satellite channel. After the huge success of news programme ‘Aaj Tak’, TV Today group launched a 24-hour Hindi news channel with the same name ‘Aaj Tak’, in December 2000, which covers India with insight, courage and plenty of local flavour. Within 11 months of its launch, Aaj Tak emerged as India’s number one news channel and was awarded Best News Channel award from Indian Television Academy Awards. Some mega events apart from regular interesting items (such as Kandhahar hijack, September 11 attacks, Afghanistan war, attack on Parliament, Iraq war, Godhra carnage and riots) have driven up the viewership. As time passed, NDTV’s five years contract with Star group for outsourcing of news and related programming expired on March 2003. With the expiry NDTV forayed into broadcasting business by simultaneously launching two 24-hour news channels; NDTV 24X7 – English news channel and NDTV India – Hindi news channel, which targets the Indian diaspora across the world. News crazy Indians received more news at faster speed from different channels. Any unusual happening can be caught by the television camera anywhere form Rastrapati Bhawan to bedroom. The power of TV journalism was become more visible by the major sting operations like Operation West End and Shakti Kapoor Case. This style of investigative journalism has brought about a change in the way we look at news, amidst new notions of editorial freedom. The world’s largest family ‘Sahara India Parivar’ launched a 24-hour national Hindi news channel, Sahara Samay, in March 28, 2003. It is the first ever city-centric satellite news channels covering 31 cities in India with their own city news bulletins. Keeping the demand of news in mind, the Union cabinet approved the proposal to convert the DD Metro to DD news in a meeting held on 3 October 2003. Consequent to these decisions, DD-News channel was launched on 3 November 2003. You might have noticed that the news channels are language specific. But DD’s news channel contains the round the clock news bulletins in Hindi/ English are also telecast twice a day on the National Network of DD National. ‘Aap Ki Adalat’ fame Rajat Sharma, Sohaib Ilyasi, the man behind the highly successful ‘India's Most Wanted’ and Taun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka roped together and launched a free-to-air Hindi news and current affairs channel India TV on May 20, 2004. Indian viewers had more expectations from this channel. The much-awaited news channel hopes to set itself apart from the existing ones by setting new benchmarks of responsible journalism. Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Rajat Sharma, chairman, India TV, said, "We aim to change the way broadcast news reporting is being conducted in the country. India TV will set new benchmarks by maintaining international standards of responsible and credible news reporting. We will stay away from graphic depictions of violence and sensationalism of news. We will uphold the viewer's right to correct information and their right to truth and verity. India TV is not just a news channel, it is a movement." NDTV as a pioneer in Indian television news, set to create a fresh revolution in high-quality business news with the launch of NDTV Profit. NDTV launched this 24-hour business channel on January 17th, 2005. There is no saturation point in launching of news channel, just booming like sky as the limit. Entertainment channel to infotainment channel, infotainment channel to news channel, news channels to business channel and Business channel to lots more. Now the satellite channels become more topicality with international standard. When we are talking about topicality, CNBC TV18, the only business channel, continues to be the medium of choice for India’s decision makers, affluent audiences across the country since 1999. It has set the pace for the growth in number of television channels by launching a 24-hour consumer channel in Hindi called ‘ Awaaz’. This news channel focusses on empowering consumers on decision-making related to investment, saving and spending. All the programmes are catering to consumers across different walks of life, which included personal finance; variety of markets including commodity, stocks, savings etc.; small businesses; education & career guidance; and verticals like health, shopping etc. Another news channel was finally launched into the already cluttered news space in Indian television. Jagran TV Pvt Limited's news channel, Channel 7 up-linked to the air on 27 March 2005. The channel has been set up to cater to the vast Hindi-speaking audiences, already being targeted by a slew of news channels. Channel 7 developed every programme with a bid to cater to all types of audiences and not just pre-dominantly male audiences who get attracted towards news channels.
Regional Leaders
To cater the interest among the Indians, Doordarshan televises programmes in Hindi and associate Official languages. It has launched a number of Regional Language Satellite Channels (DD - 4 to DD - 11 and DD - 13) and telecast programmes in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Kashmiri, Oriya and Tamil. The Regional channels relayed by all terrestrial transmitters in the state and additional programmes in the Regional Language in prime time and non-prime time available only through cable operators. The Doordarshan regional satellite channels telecast major news programme with some entertainment programmes. If you think about the private regional channels, they have followed the path of the Big brother (i.e Doordarshan). They are neither completely entertainment channel nor exclusively news channel. They are following the middle path and claiming themselves an infotainment channels. The private channels televise through the state dominant languages. Rising advertising revenues and increasing numbers of viewers have provided the impetus for many big players to enter into the business. Some regional media leaders like ETV, Sun TV, Asianet have a strong grip over the regional market. Some major players tried their luck in different states. Zee television has three regional channels; Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi and Zee Bangla. Star Network entered into Tamilnadu by launching Star Vijay, one of the most popular entertainment channels in India broadcasting in Tamil. Besides that ETV Network is a part of the well-established Ramoji Group, has created 12 dedicated infotainment regional channels. ETV network is the source of rich entertainment of eight different languages. Those are: Telugu, Bangla, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Gujarati, Urdu; and Hindi to viewers in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Every ETV Network channel focuses exclusively on its audience’s unique cultural identity, its aspirations and its distinct socio-political character. Let us think about the south Indian language Telugu, there are around twelve satellite channels are roaming around the sky with different taste and different flavour. These channels include three news channels, one song-based channels and rest are infotainment channels. When we confine ourselves into news, three channels (ETV2, TV 9 and Teja News) exclusively devoted to news programmes. Sahara India Pariwar is proud to have five news channels as the bouquet of Sahara Samay. These channels are: Sahara Samay NCR, Sahara Samay Mumbai, Sahara Samay Bihar & Jharkhand, Sahara Samay Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh, and Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh & Uttranchal. Sahara Samay has already managed to gain a loyal audience in India through a bouquet of National & Regional News Channels since its launch. These channels are youthful and vibrant channels targeting students and women, besides that hardcore news stuff. The regional news channels covers the entire spectrum of genre with specific programs on lifestyle, fashion, food, shopping, health and fitness, sports, education, career and city issues, besides giving user-friendly information on traffic updates, city events, train and air timings, etc. Now national news channels cannot confine its boundary to national level. They cannot ignore the regional news because of the stiff competition form the regional cannels. Regional news channels are entering into the competition with a strong will power and also with an aim to portrait regional issues in national and international level.
Conclusion
Now the television industry becomes more specific. In this competitive market, channels are targeting specific viewers. News channels attract more viewers beyond their target by producing interactive and interesting programmes. Every channel needs to do an extensive research on different concepts and different themes to attract more viewers and in the same time more advertisers. After all, advertisements are the bread and butter for the channels. With increased consumer preference for news programmes, television news channels have grown faster than other niche channels. News channels are booming just like sky as the limit. Those days are not far away, when we will get satellite news channel for every major city in India. Staying in abroad, we can update ourselves about all the happening of our hometown. Now news is not restricted to political happenings. It will be extended its limit to every unwanted and hided corners of the society. At last we can reach in the conclusion that anything, which is strange or disgusting, is news. There are no rigid rules, which defines news.Clash of the channelsP Vasanta Kumar January 03, 2004
Why did a studio wall delay the launch of Eenadu Television's Telugu news channel for over two weeks?
The answer: the channel's bosses decided at the last moment to knock down the wall and put up a glass partition between the newsreader and the news production room.
Why did they suddenly decide that the newsroom desperately needed a glass partition? Because that's what one of its rival channel looks like.
That's the level of fierce competition that has broken out between the television channels in Andhra Pradesh. Till this month there were three channels fighting for eyeballs.
Now, the airwaves are getting more crowded. On December 28 Eenadu launched ETV2, its 24-hour news channel, in a bid to stay in front of the competition.
That will be followed on January 15 by the launch of another news channel TV9, backed by entrepreneur and venture capitalist Srini Raju.
The main battle is over news, which is getting a giant chunk of the advertising bucks being spent to reach Telugu viewers.
The battle is so intense that two other channels, Maa TV and Vissa TV, have poached ETV's newsreaders and newsdesk. The two channels have been offering hefty pay-packets to lure the popular newsreaders and experienced desk staff at ETV.
As the fledgling news channels make their debut, the existing entertainment channels are fighting back in other ways too.
Teja TV, which belongs to the Chennai-based Sun TV group, is planning to increase its number of news-related shows from the existing five to 15. That will include new current affairs programmes, debates and talk-shows.
Similarly, Vissa TV, a Telugu channel launched a few months ago by Chennai-based Raj TV, is strengthening its position with four news bulletins a day.
And Maa TV, a two-year-old channel promoted by a troika of young entrepreneurs, plans to have six news bulletins instead of four.
Even Government-owned Doordarshan is gearing up to increase its Telugu news broadcasts. There are also rumours that the Sahara group plans to launch a Telugu channel that will focus primarily on news.
It isn't hard to understand why these channels are fighting over the Telugu news.
Says V Ravi Prakash, CEO, TV9: "Eenadu TV has raked in over Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) from advertisers in the last fiscal from its five news bulletins a day. There's a lot of money and viewership potential waiting to be tapped for news in Telugu."
The Sun Group's Teja channel also earns advertising revenue of about Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million) per month, even though it doesn't put much emphasis on marketing its news programmes.
Besides the viewers in the state, there's an additional bonus for a successful Telugu news channel. The channels are also hoping to catch the attention of the Telugu-speaking diaspora in the US, Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East.
"These non-residents want to know what's happening in their native land and we want to get our programmes to these people," says Prakash, who has just moved to TV9. He was earlier in charge of news at Teja TV.
Some of the new channels are spending heavily to make their presence felt on the small screen. TV9 has received Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million) from Srini Raju's i-Labs Associated Fund and Chennai-based Unify Wealth Management.
The channel is also forking out large sums to put together a team of 100 reporters in the state and five bureaux outside.
However, the channel says it is working for the betterment of society.
Says Prakash: "This is the first time that a 24-hour news and current affairs channel in a regional language has been promoted by professionals with the objective of promoting better values and improved transactions within the society."
Content-wise also, these channels are gearing up to entertain the viewers with innovative programmes. Both ETV and TV9 have enough programmes for a month in place.
ETV2 will have hourly news bulletins in addition to which programmes on agriculture, education, science, culture and health will be broadcast for different segments of the viewers.
If its 100 reporters aren't enough, TV9 has additional strong backing that could help it to be first with the news. It has tied up with i-Vision, another venture promoted by Srini Raju, to buy and sell exclusive national news footage.
i-Vision, a national news agency for television channels, aims to have offices in 150 important locations around India. It plans to be connected by 2MB leased lines to all these locations.
Srini Raju is said to be pinning a lot of hope on the i-Vision venture and is spends a lot of his time on it.
Do Telugu audiences have such a large appetite for news programmes?
V Janaki Rama Raju, joint managing director of Maa Television Network says: "News is primarily watched by the A and A+ segments. High-end car manufacturers, mutual funds, credit cards and other financial services providers are the major advertising contributors to news broadcasts."
Maa TV, a recent entrant into the satellite channel industry, initially hatched plans to launch a separate channel for news, but dropped them later.
The channel started news broadcasts two months ago and in January it will increase the number of its news bulletins from four to six.
Meanwhile, Teja TV is planning to make its channel more news and current affairs oriented by end January.
The four-year-old channel currently broadcasts five news bulletins, with the rest of the time devoted to entertainment. According to sources, the channel plans 15 news and news-related programmes per day.
Teja TV is also making other changes to ensure effective news coverage. Its entire newsdesk is being moved from Chennai to Hyderabad.
In addition, it will start uplinking news broadcasts from Hyderabad in January.
Sun Network is also gearing up to launch Gemini Cable Vision, its third Telugu channel, which will operate like cable TV with focus on entertainment and local events in respective towns.
Why this proliferation of channels? One reason is, of course, demand. Secondly, the advent of digital broadcasting has made it cheaper to put a channel on air.
That's because digital transmissions occupy less bandwidth than analogue For instance, an analogue channel occupies more than half the bandwidth of a 16 MB transponder, while a digital broadcast occupies less than 4.5 MB. Raj TV says this this is one reason it has launched Vissa TV.
Whatever be the reason for mushrooming growth of the news channels, it will soon be time for the Assembly elections. So news-hungry Telugu viewers will have plenty of entertainment on all these channels as the gladiators of the political world vie for their attention.
While the politicos battle it out, the viewing public can sit back in their sofas and reach for their remote controls.TELUGU TV ANALYSIS BY AVINASHETV and MAA TV have regained their market share from Teja TV.
Gemini TV and TV9 are maintaining their number one position in Telugu general and Telugu News successively.
Top Telugu News Channels:.TV9: 52.3% market share. It is gradually increasing its lead over ETV2.2.
ETV 2: 36.4% share.Both news channels are much ahead of Gemini News.
TV9 is marching ahead with its presentation and good brand image.
Top Telugu General/Entertainment channels:1. Gemini TV: 42% of market share.
2.
E TV: 18.3% of total market share. It regained number 2 slot due to some innovative programmes.
3. MAA TV: 12% of market share. It is a niche Telugu channel with less emphasis on serials.
4. Teja TV: 11.4% of market share. It slipped from No.2 to No.4 position.
5. ZEE Telugu: 7.1% of market share.
---ETV, MAA TV and ZEE Telugu are the major gainers while Teja TV is the major loser in the recent Survey. Gemini lost some market share to the rivals due to over emphasis on routine serials with little innovation.
SOURCE::
TAM RATINGSMORE TELUGU CHANNELS COMING IN FUTURETelugu TV channel space may soon see overcrowding due to launch of more channels by MAA TV and TV9.Maa TV will launch 3 Telugu TV channels in Music and Movies, a Devotional and a news channel in this year. Name of the devotional channel is finalised as Maa Bhakti.
Latest share holders in MAA TV:Chiranjeevi-20%Nagarjuna – 20%Prasad (M
atrix Labs) – 20%.
No.1 news channel of Andhra Pradesh, TV9, is planning to launch 3 channels in Andhra Pradesh. It will also launch Mumbai centric news channel, TV9 Mumbai in September.TV9 will soon launch religious channel, Sanskriti, in June and TV1, entertainment channel, in July.
After the launch of these new channels, ETV and SUN networks may face stiff competition from Maa TV and TV9 networks. Zee group also has big plans for Andhra market. Is there really any market left for these new channels? Wait and watch.
AVINASH
Nagarjuna said: “For the first time, I am producing a TV serial on our home production. It is a very sportive and comedy show, highlighting the contemporary issues on each episode. I am confident that it will definitely change the prevailing conditions in TV industry. High energy and creativity are our forte. I am not here to give any messages. There are others – leaders – to do that. My target is clear – to give healthy comedy and make everyone to laugh and seek relief from the routine stuff. I found that the TV programmes these days are mired in weeping 
