MxMIndia

Category: COLUMNS

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on all media – print, television, online and Twitter – twice a week – Tuesdays and Fridays

    Ranjona Banerji: Good job by media on Phailin

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Cyclone Phailin (I almost put a hashtag before Phailin as a default reaction from too much Twitter!) was obviously an acid test not just for state administrations but also for the media. And for the most part, the media did a very good job. Many brave young reporters stood with their rain gear bringing us the latest from the coastline and inner areas of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh last Saturday, with almost non-stop cyclone coverage.

     

    Anchors in the studios filled us in with the meteorological stuff, all in CNN style minus Anderson Cooper and holographic images of course. For some reason, Times Now did not get the memo that Phailin, name chosen this time by Thailand, was pronounced Pey-lin and so continued with the ‘F’ effect.

     

    Of the lot of them, CNN-IBN was the least restrained and most professional. Or at least I was jogging along with this impression until at crunch time when the cyclone was supposed to hit they went into a sponsored feature from Siemens. I mention the company name because I remember it. For newscasters and advertisers, there are times when you have to realise that advertising is intrusive and it is better PR to just put it on hold for a while.

     

    Ads were the problem across all channels however but that was just regular breaks. And everyone understands that media houses have to make money but perhaps even the advertiser needs to wonder if they want their brand associated with natural disasters as they unfold.

     

    Newspapers did what they have to do under such circumstances: gather all the information available and put into perspective for their readers.

     

    **

     

    As usual, social media was steps ahead of everyone else and many followed American meteorologist Eric Holthaus on Twitter for his predictions. As it turned out, Holthaus may have overestimated the category that Phailin would fall into but his constant tweets, updates and pictures were of great help. (His handle is @EricHolthaus for those interested).

     

    **

     

    Phailin and its coverage will hopefully nudge the media in India – of all kinds – towards better weather and climate coverage. Newspapers like The Hindu and Hindustan Times are among the few that take it seriously, the rest just give it a cursory nod. Of the TV channels, NDTV has stuck to bringing the weather to its viewers long after its once most recognisable weather girl Anuradha has presumably moved on to other things.

     

    It seems amazing that this phenomenon which affects our lives and that of our planet everyday is so ignored. And with all the advances in meteorology and in technology, there is plenty of fascinating information available. As we saw with the Phailin coverage, the Indian Meteorological Department has moved forward in leaps and bounds. Surely, the weather is worthy of a little more attention?

     

    **

     

    Taking off from that, why have climate change and the environment fallen below the media’s radar? Its effects are there for everyone to see and experience. We need to take the sciences a little more seriously perhaps in the media. I’m not saying stop salivating over Bollywood, cricket and Narendra Modi. I’m just saying widen the frame a bit…

     

  • You never know when it will surprise you, writes Shailesh Kapoor, commenting on the impact that India's successful run chase in the ODI against Australia had on other television programming (and film release)

    Shailesh Kapoor: Never Underestimate Cricket

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The death of the One-Day International (ODI) cricket format has been debated at length over the last few years, with the advent of T20 in general and the IPL in particular. Till about a decade ago, channels would actively programme to avoid a key event (such as an episode with a turning point, a big movie or any other special) to clash an India ODI. Over time, with cricket ratings dropping, this became less of a concern.

     

    But what happened this Wednesday is a lesson to all – Never underestimate cricket. You never know when it will surprise you.

     

    Most readers would know that India annihilated Australia on Wednesday in perhaps the most ruthless run chase in ODI history. The match day fell on a semi-holiday, on account of Bakri Eid. Two important media events (and there could be others too that I’m not aware of) had planned to make use of the same holiday.

     

    Times Now had a marathon five-hour special (starting at 6pm) to reveal the results of their latest exit poll on the 2014 General Elections. And on the Bollywood side, Akshay Kumar-starrer Boss released this Wednesday, instead of a usual Friday release. Both were heavily-promoted events in their respective domains. When scheduling, neither would have realized that a giant iceberg would hit them between 7 and 9pm.

     

    Boss’ report card is out. The film collected about Rs. 120 million nett on the domestic box-office on its first day, at least 25 million short of what it would have scored if the game had ended up being like the one-sided first ODI on Sunday. Times Now will know the impact next week when the ratings are released, but to their advantage, the chase was so emphatic that it all ended with 6.5 overs to spare, and hence ahead of time too, around when Arnab Goswami makes his regular appearance every night. Talk about silver lining!

     

    The series announced itself with last week’s sole T20, which proved like a dress rehearsal to Wednesday’s second ODI. Most primetime GEC programmes showed a 10-30% drop in their viewership that night, in the ratings that were released yesterday. The message was clear: This is going to one good series, unlike those meaningless India-Sri Lanka ones. Underestimate at your own risk!

     

    Five more ODIs still to go, and then Sachin Tendulkar’s 200th Test match, followed by a South Africa series… we are in for one of the most high-profile cricket seasons in a while. This is what cricket is truly capable of, not what we see in those round-the-clock moneymaking games that have a recall of less than a week.

     

    There is another related aspect worth mentioning – The rise of ‘event programming’. As the interest with ongoing serials continue to wane, disruptive content is set to enjoy even higher appeal in the days to come. We can expect movie premieres like Chennai Express, big cricket matches like the ones this winter, season openers and finales of top reality shows, and other such ‘events’ to garner a higher share of viewership.

     

    Meanwhile, cricket has proven itself again. Let the naysayers be silent for a while now.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

     

  • In 2013 'innovation' on Hindi general entertainment channels has come in the form of a genre that has taken the front seat like never before – Period Dramas, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor | Rise of Period Dramas: Storm in a Teacup?

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    2013 is drawing to a close soon. In what would have otherwise been a fairly regular year for content on Hindi GECs, “innovation” has come in the form of a genre that has taken the front seat like never before – Period Dramas.

     

    Life OK’s Mahadev emerged as a success story in 2012 – and continues to be so – propelling other channels to give more attention to the mythological and historical genres. Zee TV’s Jodha-Akbar has met with phenomenal success. Sony’s Maharana Pratap is the top weekday show on the channel. Star Plus’ Mahabharat was the biggest weekday launch on Hindi GECs in three years.

     

    With half a dozen launches, most of which have met with success, is it safe to call period dramas a “trend” that has emerged in the Hindi GEC category in 2013? May be not.

     

    It is important to distinguish a trend from just a serendipitous occurrence. It is important to distinguish the symptom from the real cause. And that’s my attempt in the rest of this piece.

     

    Think of it. Why would period dramas suddenly come of age in India? There has been absolutely nothing of note that has happened in our society or nation in the last decade to suggest that our love for historical and mythological content would show this dramatic surge. There is no subtext here. In fact, in many ways, a young and evolving India watching period content is counter-intuitive, if not inexplicable.

     

    The reason for the emergence of this quasi trend is very direct – fatigue. I wrote about this a few weeks back, that viewer fatigue is fast building up in the category. The sameness of content, coupled with slow pace and dragging perceptions, have meant that the overall category satisfaction index of the genre is at an all-time low since 2009. Cynicism and disillusionment are prime emotions that many core viewers are associating with weekday fiction on GECs.

     

    Of course there are exceptions like Diya Aur Baati Hum and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah. But a handful of shows can’t compensate for the negative imagery created by more than 30 programmes collectively.

     

    As a result, we are in a phase when anything unique will stand out and get its more-than-fair share of attention, as long as it passes the basic relevance cut. Jodha-Akbar does that the best, by focusing on a love story, making it come across like a contemporary story with only the setting being ‘period’.

     

    The question to really ask is: Has there been any other launch in the last year or so that has passed the ‘unique yet relevant’ filter? You will find it tough to isolate even one program outside the period drama genre that fits the answer here.

     

    Hence, the rise of the period dramas is more a ‘default’ phenomenon, symptomizing dissatisfaction, than emerging as a true, stand-alone need gap.

     

    If GECs mistake this to be a trend, they may be tempted to find more concepts in this genre. Two things will invariably happen then. One, the genre will lose its uniqueness if 3-4 more such shows launch, and this will shake the foundation of why it’s working to begin with. Two, in the effort to follow a ‘trend’, channels may pick up concepts that are not entirely ‘relevant’ in the first place.

     

    The need is to look elsewhere. Surely, in a country as diverse and culturally rich as ours, there can’t be a dearth of unique cum relevant stories that lend themselves well to weekday fiction content.

     

    The real emerging trend is ‘fatigue’. Period dramas are the red herring everyone should be wary of. You have been cautioned!

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

     

  • Ranjona Banerji on the new Old Spice ad with Milind Soman, fireworks and more at The Hindu and the set of bathing soaps she has received on renewing her Hindustan Times subscription

    Ranjona Banerji: Old Spice goes down the dude

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    I just do not get the Old Spice ad with Milind Soman. He’s a good friend Milind Soman and a good-looking man. But something about the ad doesn’t click. For one, Old Spice flubbed very badly by dubbing the original international ad starring Isaiah Mustapha on the assumption that Indians don’t understand anything. Having done that, they have now tried to take the same idea – manliness and a sense of humour and cobbled together an ad which achieves neither. Soman looks either too pleased with himself or unconvinced at the words he’s made to spout, which are not that funny anyway. In fact, you cannot figure what he’s saying at first listen which defeats the whole purpose anyway.

     

    One understands that Old Spice doesn’t want to be seen as a fuddy-duddy brand but also doesn’t want to be seen as a dude-y brand. Its current positioning however seems to be neither and nowhere at all.

     

    I found the whole Park Avenue take off on manliness in their Beer Shampoo ads far more amusing. It was ridiculous on the manliness part of it – frightening bears, chopping gigantic logs of wood, being stupid enough to drink the shampoo (something which Old Spice does not achieve) – and then contrasted that with the shiny bouncy hair that is presumably every man’s dream.

     

    **

     

    The Hindu family coup against professional editors has now turned absurd. The newspaper itself ran a story about how employees burst firecrackers with joy because The Family had returned. There was a giveaway tucked into that story somewhere – promises of large bonuses. Yeah, we would all go the firecracker way if those were coming to us.

     

    On Twitter, Malini Parthasarathy has been taking pot shots at professional journalists and very pointedly putting the professional in inverted commas. Meanwhile, MK Venu, resident editor of The Hindu’s Delhi edition has also quit.

     

    Some of the problem seems to be former editor Siddharth Varadarajan’s decision not to give Narendra Modi front-page news every time he squeaked. The Hindu family has said that they are not pro-Hindutva (which has long been evident) but they did not buy Varadarajan’s explanation that Modi did not deserve to hog the front page.

     

    However, these are problems which should be sorted out by a phone call. There has to be something deeper than that in an overnight removal of an editor two years after a dramatic decision to remove editorial from family control. Six members of the Hindu board are still against N Ram’s decision to remove Varadarajan and CEO Arun Anant and also at Ram’s use of a double vote. How that plays out is yet to be seen but the alacrity with which other board members have jumped into editorial roles might show that these six will have to lick their wounds.

     

    The Hindu has achieved something which its mighty magnificence has withstood for 135 years – made itself a laughing stock. If anyone is licking their chops here, it is The Times of India which will see this as a boost to their advancement into South India.

     

    **

     

    Random thoughts: Sachin Tendulkar’s impending retirement has been hogging headlines and that is bound to make his fans delirious and detractors left fulminating. One suspects the fans will win. The Economic Times has dumped its non-economic feature-driven back page and replaced it with sports. How will that play out? The Hindustan Times is still continuing with its half-jacket on the front page, unknown to what purpose. However I did get a very nice collection of bathing soaps as a gift for renewing my subscription. This makes up for the DVD of Paan Singh Tomar which I did not receive last year!

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

     

  • Paid News will be most rampant in the run up to the 2014 general elections. Readers, viewers and journalists will have to be on high alert to separate the dross from the gold

    Ranjona Banerji: 2014 is an acid test for journalistic integrity

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Indian newspapers seem to be trying to follow a western pattern in the run up to the next general elections by picking their favoured candidates/parties most likely to win in 2014. However they don’t quite have the hang of it yet. So while there is a general tilt towards the BJP, they suddenly appear to veer off into the opposite direction. American newspapers seem to have taken their own sides too and much more emphatically. The New York Times is firmly against Narendra Modi while The Wall Street Journal favours him. This has, not unnaturally, caused some heartburn in the parallel universe of the social media which is filled with Modi fans. But there should be nothing to worry for them: several international newspapers like The Guardian and The Telegraph (politically as diverse as you can get) have questioned the sanity or validity of Rahul Gandhi’s various remarks.

     

    **

     

    This is not connected with any evidence, empirical or otherwise, or is not even conjecture. But it vitally important at this time to keep an eagle eye on the media at this point in time. This is when the bogey of paid news rises, as elections approach. This is when managements decide it is time to make money out of political parties and individual candidates by printing pro-stories for a consideration. One easy giveaway is when the same newspaper carries diametrically opposite stories on the same party or same candidate on different days. Often managements, who are extremely clever and strategic, neglect to inform their troublesome colleagues in the editorial department of what they are up to.

     

    There is much confusion about paid news in the general public. Some see at as a tag to be attached to journalists who do not support their chosen political party or candidate. Others see it as journalists looking for freebies and are willing to write anything for in return – whether from a political party or a five star hotel. The first contention is nonsensical. Just because journalists disagree with your political ideas does not make them agents of the other party. Tragically however, the other breed does exist: the journalist who will write anything for money and the journalist who is in the pay or thrall of a political party. There is a third category, seen more often in the non-English media where a journalist is forced by managements to act as a marketer as well.

     

    These are the scourges of the profession. It is because of them that managements like Bennett Coleman introduced Medianet where a celebrity or wannabe celebrity can pay the newspaper to get favourable news printed. Other managements have followed suit. These are no longer editorial decisions or the actions of a crooked journalist. Medianet and its variations are now rampant and no reader can (or should) believe most of what appears in the glamour papers.

     

    Paid News is the Medianet of politics. And there are other similar strategies for corporate and business coverage as well. Journalists one has to say have brought this upon themselves. But readers and viewers can exercise judgment for themselves. There are a couple of well-known columnists who appear on TV as spokespersons for the BJP for instance. Therefore when you read their columns you have a clear picture of where they come from. Supporters for the Congress are a bit thin on the ground and every “secular” person is not necessarily a Congress agent.

     

    But there is no question that this is dangerous territory, filled with landmines for readers, viewers and those journalists who have not sold out. The Election Commission has taken Paid News seriously and has recently included newspaper managements in its scrutiny. This general election is going to be extremely vicious and divisive and the scope for transgressing all the rules is massive. On our toes, then.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

     

  • Ranjona Banerji on the perils of writing negatives on the BJP and the RSS, RTI, media ethics and HT Mumbai's series on Mumbai's roads

    Ranjona Banerji: Be damned if you write about the Right!

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Writing or speaking negatively about the BJP, RSS and Sangh Parivar never fails to attract plenty of anger and insults – both on paper and via the internet. There are enough stories about journalists getting various kinds of threats and women usually bear the brunt as imaginative descriptions of rape are often attached to these threats. While other political groups may also take umbrage in unpalatable forms, the rage of the right wing in India is particularly vicious.

     

    In the current battle over who owns the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Hindu columnist Vidya Subrahmaniam went back into history and Patel’s scathing letters to the RSS. Since then, she has received 250 calls threatening death by callers claiming to be from the Tamil Nadu branches of the RSS and VHP. She is quoted as saying, “The callers have been abusive and also threatened physical harm by bombing me at my home. They have used filthy and vulgar words.”

     

    While one can get inured to insults and threats via snail mail, email, social media and the comments sections of websites and journals, getting phone calls at home is quite another matter. Political parties need to work out better ways to control their cadre and the police need to understand how to deal with such abuse.

     

    Interestingly, our political parties are so caught up in scoring points over each other that the Congress’s Ajay Maken took up the matter with the implication that Subrahmaniam had approached the Congress for help, which she denied. The BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi just sidestepped the actual threats with an attack on the Congress. Taking responsibility for actions is not something politicians find it easy to do – perhaps that requires character?

     

    **

     

    The trial into the phone-hacking and bribing of police and other officials by former News of the World editors and staff has started in the UK. It is worth following the questioning of Rebekkah Brooks and Andy Caulson, both the accused editors. Lots of murky and salacious stuff is emerging but behind the muck, there are some very real questions of media over-reaching which have to be tackled. The scandal did not just shut down the News of the World, it also led to Ruper Murdoch being questioned by MPs, with him apologising. A commission into media ethics headed by Judge Brian Levenson was set up and its report is still being debated by editors and Parliament.

     

    **

     

    Media ethics… Hmm not a bad subject to debate in India either? A scuttlebutt says that a prominent cricket “historian” has been dumped by a news channel on which he was a favourite for reasons that could be best described as unknown. However, newspapers of the same group continue to use his ‘writing’. What is going on?

     

    **

     

    The Mumbai edition of the Hindustan Times has started a series on Mumbai’s roads. A full-page everyday looks at problem roads and solutions with excellent graphics. Good layout, negotiable text and plenty of information – HT has to be commended for this effort. This is what establishes a city newspaper.

     

    **

     

    Newspapers – and they are well within their right to do so – have started using RTI and RTI activists to collect information on how much the government spends on itself. We have been informed about how much petrol and diesel is used by government in Delhi. We have been told that meetings were cancelled because people had to catch flights. We have been told that drivers earn more than ministers in Maharashtra because of overtime. All is well.

     

    But as any canny journalist can tell you, all those stories can be reversed. You can outrage that to save on petrol bills, bureaucrats in Delhi who did no work and did not visit troubled areas. The amount of money spent on cancelled plane tickets just for one meeting can be another story. And ministers in Maharashtra who never step out of Mantralaya can be one more. Wait for it!

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

     

  • Passion is instinctive. You can't prepare for it. And you don't have to work hard to communicate it. If you are truly passionate, it reflects in your identity, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: The much-abused media word: Passion!

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    “What is the one thing about this role that interested you so much that you applied for it?”

     

    Over a decade now, having met more than a hundred ‘candidates’ (I prefer the expression ‘potential team members’, but it is a mouthful) for various positions, first in the television industry and now at Ormax Media, I have found this to be the one question that does half the job.

     

    Many candidates speak about the company’s credentials in their answers, in which case, being a true researcher now, I reiterate the “you” in the question. After all, why would a company’s credentials interest you, unless there was something in it for you?

     

    Some young people use the “growth and learning” plank for an answer. Most times, I am disappointed with their understanding, let alone articulation, of these two words. Both growth and learning are deeply proactive as concepts. To say that you will learn a lot in the company makes it seems like the company is some kind of an incubator with the responsible of ‘hatching’ you. The truth is, the company doesn’t even know at the interview stage if you are a good egg or a bad egg. The interview is about that itself!

     

    But the word that features the most in the answers, across younger and more seasoned candidates, is the P-word: Passion. “Because I have a passion for television…”, “Because media industry fascinates me…”, “Because I love research…”

     

    Let’s focus on the ‘passion for television’ for now, though you can replace the word with ‘films’ or ‘media’, and still read on. I have taken great pains in some of the interviews to understand what candidates actually mean when they say it.

     

    The first level of detail often given is: ‘I watch a lot of TV’. Television is a household thing. Everyone watches it, in varying degrees. So, “I watch a lot of TV” makes you no better suited for the job than a 33-year old mother-of-two in Indore!

     

    When I probe further, many are at a loss explaining their ‘passion’ as a mental thought. All they can explain is behaviour. I watch TV, I read about TV, I discuss TV, etc. If behaviour was all-important, half of Mumbai will be passionate about local trains.

     

    Here is a little passion-test I have developed over time, which goes beyond behaviour and evaluates the mindset. It will more applicable to ‘non-creative’ roles or to first-timers in the industry:

     

    1. Watching vs. consuming television: Everyone watches TV, but the truly passionate ones ‘consume’ it, at an overall category level. They build their thoughts based on what they watch, discuss them, have a view on them. An easy way to judge this by asking the candidate what her favorite show on television is, and what makes her like it. A ‘watcher’ will talk like a housewife. A ‘consumer’ will talk from inside the watcher’s mind.

    2. Watching breaks and promos: If you surf channels the moment a break starts, your passion for television is highly questionable. Being passionate about an industry includes being passionate about all aspects of it. The most fascinating things happen on TV channels in breaks. Those who are truly passionate have noticed them and can intelligently speak about them.

    3. Deciphering trends: A seasoned guy with a passion for TV will speak the language of trends in an interview. He will instinctively and effortlessly compare the program or channel being discussed to past successes or failures, some of them dating back to more than two decades.

     

    Passion is instinctive. You can’t prepare for it. And you don’t have to work hard to communicate it. If you are truly passionate, it reflects in your identity.

     

    Back in 1997, when I was graduating out of IIT Delhi, an anecdote about one of our seniors was doing the rounds. He had taken up a course on Corrosion Engineering as an elective. It was a post-graduate course and very few B. Tech. students opted for it. He had probably taken it because the faculty was “cool” and it seemed like an easy course to pass. In the first lecture, the professor asked him why he took a course as eclectic as this. His reply, and I kid you not, is a part of the folklore: “Since my childhood, I was always interested in rust and corrosion.”

     

    It was an intentionally irreverent answer. But when candidates try to pass the same ‘interest’ as genuine in interviews, it doesn’t fly.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

     

  • Shailesh Kapoor rues that there is no particular Sachin programme that one can look forward to. Channels are not even promoting Sachin shows anymore… they are promoting Sachin the idea, the concept, he writes

    Shailesh Kapoor | Wanted: Dimaag Wala Filter For Sachin Programming

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    This is the big weekend when he hangs his boots. When all the hype around his retirement and his 200th Test will culminate in what we hope is an exciting climax at the Wankhede over the next 2-3 days.

     

    The core age of the cricket viewing audience in India today varies widely depending on the format. It is 35-50 years for Tests, 25-40 years for ODIs, and 15-30 years for T20. Tendulkar’s loyal audience are largely from the first two segments. Which means that they either started watching cricket when he was already playing, or that they have seen his entire career, from the Pakistan series in 1989 onwards.

     

    I belong to the second category. My first memories of watching live cricket on TV are from the 1984-85 England tour of India. By the time Tendulkar made his debut, I was a cricket fanatic. I grew out of it to some extent around 1999-2000. Hence, Tendulkar’s performances in his first decade are well-etched in my memory, while the decade that followed is a bit of a blur, besides the 2003 World Cup of course.

     

    Which brings me to my problem. As much as I would want to relive those memories, and that footage (which I vividly remember, complete with commentary), I just don’t know what to do about it. There is information everywhere. Star Sports has four channels showing various things on the great man. News channels are doing 24×7 Sachin programming it seems. Social media is abuzz with links to articles, videos, cartoons and a lot more. Newspapers are coming out with special editions. It’s all there, but it’s way too much to make sense of.

     

    In the good old DD days, it was easy. If someone was retiring or passed away, DD would make a tribute programme. There was no guarantee on quality, but you knew where to find the tribute. The documentary tribute to Raj Kapoor they aired upon his death was a riveting one. Simi Garewal produced it about four years before the showman died, but came across as highly relevant on the occasion.

     

    Today, there is no particular Sachin programme that you can look forward to. Channels are not even promoting Sachin shows anymore. They are promoting Sachin the idea, the concept. But that does not translate into saying that at such time on such day(s), you can watch a great show on Sachin. So, we have to wait for the stand-out shows to go viral on Twitter and Facebook. Call me old-fashioned, but that’s still not my idea of watching TV.

     

    This information overload is an increasing phenomenon in general these days. All of us are missing out on so much content that we would have loved to watch, simply because we don’t know where to find it. There are TV guides and EPGs, but individual tastes are so diverse and complex, just “genres” are not enough to recommend shows to audiences.

     

    Borrowing from Krrish 3, what we really need is a ‘Dimaag wala filter’. An app or a website that can read my mind, find my ‘real’ tastes and preferences, and recommend very specific programming to me around it.

     

    It’s a technology challenge, all right. But if addressed, it can open doors for niche channels and cutting-edge niche content like never before.

     

    Meanwhile, if you know a good Sachin show airing on TV, please share the details of telecast.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

     

  • Kicking off our series on the Master & the Media, Ranjona Banerji writes on why it's tough to imagine how the media will survive once Tendulkar has retired

    Why the media will miss Tendulkar much

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Is the media going needlessly gaga over Sachin Tendulkar’s impeding retirement? Or is this in the natural course of events, given the great cricketer’s tremendous influence on Indian life?

     

    In fact, it is hard to imagine how the media will survive once Tendulkar has retired. At least one week will be very difficult, given the range of our collective memory.

     

    1. The most upset will be those writers and journalists who have made a career out of slamming Sachin Tendulkar. Some have had the good sense to quickly bring out books on the subject before his retirement so they can make a little money from sales for at least three days. Although they had been calling for Tendulkar’s retirement for at least 10 years, it would actually have served their cause if Tendulkar had kept playing till he was about 53 or indeed, never retired at all.

     

    2. The secondmost upset will be those who have made a career out of Tendulkar memories. I saw him first, I recognised him first – well, those one can understand. And then there are spin-offs like I saw him last but I still knew he was great and so on. However, it is likely that these writers will manage to get leverage a little longer than the anti-Tendulkar brigade. Because nostalgia gives everything a nice rosy colour: many more books will be written about My Times with Tendulkar than How I Wish Tendulkar Had Retired At 53 So I Could Keep Bitching For Another Thirteen Years.

     

    3. Cricket statisticians will find themselves temporarily jobless as many records will remain unbroken or unchallenged for a while. There are only so many times you can mention “This is XX’s first Test match”. Actually, you can say that only once. Unless of course some other player decides to keep playing till they’re 53 or at least 40. Then the Anti-Tendulkar brigade can also jump on to that bandwagon and get some reflected glory. This ploy works best if the next player you target will be the one you had supported against Tendulkar. Like life coming full circle or a helicopter shot.

     

    4. Advertisers and sponsors will now have to find some other sure-shot selling smile, squeaky to non-squeaky voice, curly hair to non-curly and back. I would suggest that tennis sports goods, fast cars and rock bands can continue to use Tendulkar as a celebrity endorser. His large fan base (larger than the anti-Tendulkar base, much to their own disgust) will keep the cash registers clinking and chi-chinking away. Sports channels though can keep making programmes on Tendulkar. Retired sports greats make excellent fillers in between cars going round and round or people pretending to bash each other up.

     

    5. The band of Bengali sports writers who feel that Sourav Ganguly was done badly by Tendulkar in the Greg Chappell as coach days will now largely be out of sorts. They have to find someone else to feed their persecution mania. Since Ganguly has established himself as a very good commentator in English and Hindi, their best bet to feed their rage is in case Tendulkar becomes a commentator too.

     

  • Two things that upset Ranjona Banerji this Friday, the 11th: Why didn't The Times of India ask a staffer to write the front-page story on Sachin Tendulkar. And: the job of the ombudsman is to protect the viewer from the channel and not the other way around

    Ranjona Banerji: Same old same old on Sachin

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement from cricket on Thursday and hardly surprisingly it shook the world and the media. Although the announcement has been anticipated, it was a still a moment of sorrow if not shock. Almost every newspaper led with it and most tried to outdo the other with a catchy headline. The Economic Times said “India will never be the same again”, The Times of India went for “God Bye”, Mid-Day took a bold decision to dedicate the whole paper to the great cricketer, Hindustan Times said, ‘There will never be another you” and The Indian Express went poignantly simple with “The Void”.

     

    The articles inside were a mix of rehashes of old comments by former cricketers and old interviews as well as some new writing. Plus all the facts we did and did not know about Tendulkar. (Yes, I did know that he was a big John McEnroe fan as a kid, so there!) The problem is that so much has already been said about Sachin Tendulkar, good, bad, indifferent. However, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s recollections of his first meetings with his idol in TOI were moving. If only TOI had found someone other than the dull and cliché-ridden Boria Majumdar to write its front page piece on Tendulkar. India has a vast collection of excellent cricket writers, some of them within the TOI stables. Why go to an outsider? Why not ask your national sports editor Bobilli Vijay Kumar? This is the easiest way to demoralise your own staff.

     

    News channels must have all gone gaga on Tendulkar but I could not watch the same old same old. They have all already had innumerable debates on when will Sachin go, why doesn’t Sachin go, who will make Sachin go, to make any discussions they have from now on seem like a bunch of hypocritical hooey.

     

    **

     

    This week, MxM editor Pradyuman Maheshwari wrote about communications he had with NDTV’s new ombudsman eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee. It is clear from the exchange that the role of an ombudsman is still muddy as far as India is concerned. Sorabjee’s responses were those of a lawyer rather than someone who had been appointed to act as the viewer or reader’s representative when it comes to grievances against a news outlet. A similar confusion can be observed in the manner in which Markandey Katju treated his earlier days as chairman of the Press Council of India.

     

    Much as everybody thinks that they can be a journalist, life as a newsperson is neither that simple nor apparent at face value. That old saying “it’s not rocket science” is deceptive – anything that you don’t know enough about can be as confusing as rocket science to a lay person. So yes, journalism is rocket science to an outsider and it is definitely not the same as law.

     

    The Hindu is the only newspaper which has taken the idea of an ombudsman seriously, where complaints against the paper are printed and addressed. The Mumbai edition of Hindustan Times used to have a reader’s editor but not any longer after the person who did it quit.

     

    As for NDTV, it is laudable that they have an ombudsman and such a well-respected one at that. However the job of the ombudsman is to protect the viewer from the channel and not the other way around. Also, it would help if the NDTV website told you how to reach the ombudsman. The Complaints Redressal section took me to this:http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/new/Complaint.aspx

     

     

  • Ten years ago, BCCL was primarily a print organization. Today, it has spread its wings, notes Shailesh Kapoor, as he talks about two aspects of the 175-year-old multimedia organization that interest him most

    Shailesh Kapoor | BCCL 2.0: The Integrated Media Organization

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The oldest media organization of the country, The Times Of India group, also known as BCCL (Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd.), completed 175 years last Sunday. In today’s world of instant gratification and media overload, history may hold little significance for many. But with more than a 150-year heritage gap between BCCL and other media bigwigs in the country today, fascination can’t be too far away.

     

    Two aspects of BCCL interest me in particular. One, it remains the only true multimedia organization in the media and entertainment industry in India today. While Zee is a TV-cum-print force too, and Living Media has presence across television, print and radio, none of them match the scale at which BCCL has managed to operate across sectors. Their scale and dominance in print and radio is well-known, and the last four years have seen strong consolidation on the television side.

     

    But BCCL’s multimedia presence goes beyond these three conventional media. They invested early in the internet, events and OOH businesses, albeit with varying degrees of success. In my stint at Zoom, I got a first-hand understanding of the power of a multimedia organization. There was always an ‘inhouse marketing option’ available to you, no matter which market or audience you wanted to reach.

     

    Such cross-promotional opportunities can be a marketer’s delight. If you had the right idea, the system will give you the platform it deserves. At that time, with the TV business being nascent, set processes to exploit such opportunities did not exist. I’m sure they exist now, as one gets a flavor of the same while consuming BCCL products, especially the newspapers.

     

    The second aspect of BCCL that interests me is the sales institution that it is. We all hear strong criticism of TOI ‘selling out’ through ad innovations that interfere with editorial content, and paid news via the Medianet platform. I find none of it either surprising or offensive, given the group’s clear sales focus. You can feel upset as a reader, but as a media commentator, you can’t help marvel at how BCCL has reinvented the advertiser part of their business over the last two decades.

     

    Many top executives in television today, especially in the ad sales function, come from a Times Response (BCCL’s ad sales division) pedigree. They bring three distinct qualities with them – a leader’s attitude, strong sales processes and an appetite for sales innovation. In just this one way, BCCL’s contribution to the TV industry goes well beyond its TV channels alone.

     

    It is difficult to say if integrated media organizations will be in vogue over the next 25 years. But in the era of convergence, integrated players like BCCL will hold an edge over other media giants.

     

    Ten years ago, BCCL was primarily a print organization. Today, it has spread its wings. And many like me will be keenly watching its flight ahead!

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

     

  • Some unintentionally comic moments notwithstanding, Star Sports’ Hindi commentary this season has been well above the mark, both in terms of the choice of panel and the execution, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Roll our the red carpet for Hindi cricket broadcast

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The recently concluded India-West Indies Test series, better known as Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series, recorded some of the highest ratings for Test cricket in recent times. The second day (when Tendulkar came into bat in the morning in what many hoped will be a century effort in his final Test innings) and the third morning leading upto his farewell speech, rated at par with regular ODIs, a rare occurrence over the last two decades.

     

    What interested me more about the ratings was the Hindi to English viewership ratio, which ranged from 2 to 6, on various days. Some of this variation is explained by which channels Star Sports may be pushing on the last mile, and the fact that for the second Test, they had two channels showing the English feed vis-à-vis one showing the Hindi feed, which is when the ratio dropped.

     

    The fluctuation of ratio apart, all indicators tell us conclusively that Hindi sports broadcast is the future in the non-South markets in India. That’s what the viewers will increasingly shift to, and that’s what the broadcasters and MSOs will push with greater confidence in the months to come.

     

    Hindi commentary attempts are not new to Indian cricket, but the Star Cricket campaign last year (Jo baat Hindi mein who kisi aur mein nahin) was the first serious communication attempt in this direction.

     

    It can be argued that the language doesn’t matter in cricket. But that’s far from the truth. High language comprehension can enhance viewing experience and get irregular and light viewers to watch more. These are a large section of viewers who watch only India World Cup matches or select parts of exciting ODIs and T20s. Getting them to watch more matches for more time is the only real growth opportunity in cricket viewership today, and there can’t be a better growth injection for this than Hindi commentary.

     

    The criticism on the quality of commentary in Hindi has existed for decades now. But it has been primarily fuelled by Doordarshan and All India Radio commentary. Some unintentionally comic moments notwithstanding, Star Sports’ Hindi commentary this season has been well above the mark, both in terms of the choice of panel and the execution. The ‘elite’ audience who compare the two languages don’t really count. It’s more like The Big Bang Theory audience commenting on Balika Vadhu.

     

    If you are an ‘intersection viewer’ like me, who understands both languages equally comfortably, there is a good chance that you will still prefer English commentary. My two main reasons for this choice are the comfort level built with English commentary over three decades, and my preference for international commentators versus the Indian ones. The latter has nothing to do with language. Our lead commentators are generally not as articulate and opinionated as their counterparts in Australia and England.

     

    But most viewers are not intersection viewers. Comprehension of English ranges from nil to poor to barely-there in most households in India. Then there is the additional issue with foreign accents. We are perhaps the only country to subtitle all English entertainment content on TV in English itself!

     

    For this section of audiences, the Hindi broadcast is a lifeline. It has taken some time to come, but come it has. As time passes and generations change, the habit (my first reason above) will die too, and we will see the Hindi broadcast gain even more momentum.

     

    IPL too introduced Hindi commentary this year. They should be encouraged with the Star Sports performance and invest more in it in the coming year, with a stronger panel and better reach and marketing. IPL, in many ways, is the defining cricket tournament on television today, and it has the ability to set and fuel trends.

     

    So, well done, Star Sports. It would have been even better if you put your Hindi feed on Star Sports 1 and English feed on Star Sports 3, than the other way round. Would have been a nice, symbolic gesture!

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor