MxMIndia

Category: SHAILESH KAPOOR

  • The issues with genres outside the Top 4-5 is for everyone to see, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Death of the Niches

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe last two years have been ridden with anxiety for the Indian television business. The uncertainty around the pandemic continues, and with all the NTO mess that has been inflicted upon the industry, a general sense of instability prevails, especially in the group of channels popularly called “niche channels”.

     

    The term “niche channels” came in about two decades ago, to describe channels that cater to specific interests, and hence, cannot be expected to have ‘mass’ viewership numbers. There is no formal definition, and the term is loaded with subjectivity. For example, is a Hindi movie channel that airs only retro films niche or mass? Is the top Punjabi music channel, which garners more viewership than any Punjabi GEC, niche or mass?

     

    The ambiguity in terminology notwithstanding, the issue with genres outside the Top 4-5 is for everyone to see. English entertainment channels have either shut down or contemplating the same. It’s not just the NTO but also the rise of the paid OTT market that has led to this reality. Core viewer base of English entertainment genre, when it was at its peak about four-five years ago, is far less than the paid OTT subscriber base in India today. Which essentially makes the genre irrelevant. English movie channels are currently in a more favorable position, but it’s not going to be a comfortable one over the next two-three years.

     

    Music and youth channels have struggled too, for very similar reasons. Audio streaming apps and YouTube are now primary destinations for new music, and channels running old music cannot claim to be offering much beyond digital music options either. It’s a matter of time that we see more music and youth disappear from our TV sets.

     

    The infotainment genre is facing the challenge too, because of the same two factors: NTO and digital content. So far, they have managed to stay afloat. But the consumption is gradually shifting to the OTT options being offered by the same networks, and it may just be a case of slow death of the linear versions.

     

    That essentially leaves us with five genres, including their language variants: GECs, Movies, News, Sports and Kids. These genres address a wider demographic, where the rising OTT penetration is unlikely to be a cause of concern anytime soon. These genres are also family-friendly (unlike youth channels, for example), and hence, largely immune to the OTT factor.

     

    A medium that was known for its variety may no longer be holding that position. The number of channels on your TV may continue to go up, but the number of channel types (or even sub-genres) will not. You can churn a movie library across six (or even more) network channels, but it’s simply more exposure to the same movies. The total viewing time will not drop, but will consolidate around these five genres.

     

    That’s the nature of a mass medium like TV, in India. It does not go well with the idea of segmentation and niches. It’s more like a one-size-fits-all medium within each language, now more than ever before. Segmenting audience to identify niches from a content perspective may be a sub-optimal, even flawed, approach for a channel operating in any of these genres to take.

     

    Segmentation is the strength of the streaming medium, where the target audience can conceptually be one in number. This polarisation of approaches is perhaps the single-biggest impact of OTT growth in India. In a way, OTT has shaped Indian television’s immediate future in a definite direction. And big networks should not hesitate to accept this reality, than prolong the agony that their niche offerings in the linear space will have to inevitably face.

     

     

  • Our columnists Ranjona Banerji and Shailesh Kapoor comment on the coverage of the Mi-17 crash (and The Wedding)

    Two views on the Mi-17 crash

     

     

     

    News channels this week: One Wedding & 13 Funerals

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe tragic clash of the Mi-17, in which 13 people, including the Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat, died, has understandably dominated news headlines since Wednesday. The accident carries strong national importance, and the human stories around it makes the tragedy even more relevant for the general audience.

     

    But that’s not how the week started for our news channels. They were gearing up for the Bollywood wedding of the year. Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal tied the knot yesterday. The private event at a luxury resort in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan had seen the now-predictable news channels build-up since last week. Anchors in the studios, despite no access to the event, were ready to headline the wedding, and ‘reveal’ its intricate, even inconsequential, details to their viewers.

     

    On Wednesday, that story took a backseat, with the Mi-17 crash being the dominant news. Through the afternoon, news was hard to come by, with no official announcements from the Government of India till later in the day. The coverage was passable, with news channels waiting for official Government sources to confirm the actual details.

     

    Once Rawat’s death was officially confirmed, the coverage morphed into tributes, with some analysis of what may have led to the accident. The patriotic spin, something our news channels don’t like to miss out on these days, was easy to spot. A couple of Hindi channels even wondered if there was a “saaazish” involved.

     

    A day later, i.e., Thursday, the anticipated wedding got muted coverage on some Hindi news channels, while the follow-up to the crash story continued. It would have been interesting to see how the channels would have made this choice if they had access to the wedding itself.

     

    Which brings me to the larger point: Has our news become entirely studio-led now? Even in the Mi-17 crash coverage, ground reportage has been minimal (and restricted to off-prime hours), and most coverage has unfolded through studio shows, with anchors indulging in soliloquys, debates and expert interviews on the subject. In the wedding, that would have been the only method, because the only source of any “footage” is the social media feed of the couple. Indeed, those pictures, shared last night, are likely to be a part of our Hindi news channels, if not the English ones, through the day today.

     

    In my growing-up years, the top news anchors of the time were always on the ground, reporting from there, cutting their teeth and getting us a good story. Over the years, the reporters on the ground have become nameless, faceless journalists, who seem interchangeable and replaceable. The sad part here is that this perception may actually be the truth. An Indian news channel doesn’t need the same firepower on the ground as it needed earlier. Basic reporting, with no insight most of the time, passes muster. Even during the second Covid wave, some of the best ground coverage came from BBC, CNN and digital news platforms like Mojo, or the Hindi newspapers. TV channels had cursory ground reports, and prime-time debates that generally were useless exercises in blame-game or pontification.

     

    Judging basis the rock-bottom expectations we now have from our news channels, they have done well over the last two days. But at an absolute level, there isn’t much to write home about.

     

    		  

    Media responsibility missing in action

    This absurdity of 24-hour “news” channels has been around India for ages to know what the rules of the game are, writes Ranjona Banerji

     

    Ranjona BanerjiBy Ranjona Banerji

     

    The terrible helicopter accident near Conoor which led to the deaths of 13 people in Conoor on December 8 shocked everyone. On board were Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff, his wife Madhulika, Brigadier LS Lidder, Lt Col Harjinder Singh, Squadron Leader K Singh, Naik Gursewak Singh, Naik Jitender Kumar, Naik Vivek Kumar, Naik B S Teja, Havaldar Satpal, the pilot Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, JWO Das, JWO Pradeep A.

     

    Group Captain Varun Singh is the sole survivor.

     

    It took 20 minutes of reading through newspaper websites to get all the 13 names of the casualties. The Times of India was the one I found which had most names, but not all. I had to pick up three names from Twitter, from various ex-armed forces handles that I follow.

     

    The death of CDS Rawat, 63, was a tremendous shock, there is no doubt about that. But the very least a responsible media can do is to at least acknowledge all those who died in the crash.

     

    But media responsibility was missing in action when the news of the helicopter crash broke, especially with television news which is the first port of call for breaking news. Whether it is laziness and lack of basic journalism in television newsrooms (my hypothesis) or the various budget cuts which have led to ground reporting staff being hacked (people kinder than me), viewers get short-changed either way.

     

    As an aside, budget cuts for newsgathering are not new in media houses. No one has had reporters, photographers, videographers everywhere for ages, if they ever did. But all newsrooms should have a network of agencies, freelancers, and local outlets that they can rely on.

     

    As news of the helicopter crash broke however, you would have been hard pressed to find satisfactory on-the-ground reporting or even straight forward information on what exactly had happened. The nation’s first Chief of Defence staff being in a helicopter crash is big news. It is not enough to just focus on it. You need to have more information than anyone else.

     

    Instead, our channels quickly sank into their fallback position: studio discussions. When an incident is unfolding, there is absolutely no sense in collecting a bunch of “experts” to speculate on what has happened. If you cannot go to the scene yourself, tie up with someone who is at the scene until your nearest people can get there. You see this happening all the time with international channels.

     

    This absurdity of 24-hour “news” channels has been around India for ages to know what the rules of the game are. They know how tough it is. News doesn’t “break” nonstop for 24 hours. And yet, when something big does happen, less and less can they manage to get the basics right. Hopefully, they might junk the studio discussion if something happens outside their studio gates but don’t hold your breath on that either.

     

    I am sure that television newsrooms are full of journalists who know how to do the job. I just wish there was more evidence of it. What seems evident from the outside is that whoever or whatever is in charge, does not know enough about the basics of journalism.

     

    There is a place for opinions in a news outlet but it comes after the event. It cannot become the event. That TV has turned this axiom on its head points to the miserable state of the bulk of the Indian mainstream media today.

     

    In case you think I’m being unfair, you will find that most of the subsequent coverage has been about famous people condoling the deaths, arriving at the funeral, getting out the car at the funeral and so on.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia every Tuesday and Friday. Her views here are personal
  • There are going to be surprises in M&E next year, and Shailesh Kapoor hopes they are more pleasant than those in 2021

    The Year to Remember… The Year to Forget

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh Kapoor2021 has been a treacherous year, and it’s been generally hard to predict what’s in store next. Even as I write this on the last morning of the year, a third Covid wave knocks on our doors, and this time, we know it’s an inevitability. That it’s likely to be a wave of milder infections is the silver lining we latch on to.

     

    The media and entertainment business has done well to stay afloat in a difficult year. Two categories had the maximum opportunity to make the most of it: OTT and News. The streaming players did their part, and came up with content across languages to keep us engaged while we were locked down. The focus, however, was on quantity over quality. More than 200 series and 75 films launched on streaming platforms in India in 2021, and only about a dozen of these managed to make an impact. It often came down to international content to save the day, such as Squid Game and Money Heist for Netflix. That does not reflect well on an industry that, till not very long ago, had announced itself as the torchbearer of a new content revolution in India.

     

    The news story has been a dichotomous one. While television news shed all pretense and became unequivocally subservient to the powers that matter, the print media, especially in the Hindi language, kept the flag of good journalism flying high. If I had to choose a media brand of the year from India, I’d seriously consider Dainik Bhaskar for that award. It takes courage to go against the tide, and stand up for the truth. Even the subsequent IT raids did not deter them.

     

    Digital news platforms were persistent in their coverage of the second wave too. But that ecosystem is still struggling to find a viable business model, as they try and convince Indians to pay for their news, which is at least two degrees away from the first frontier for any pay digital platform to surpass: To convince audience to pay for content, of any kind at all.

     

    The television sector, in general, would have had another forgettable year, with stagnant viewership and no breakthrough achievement in content. But we can always bank on TRAI to inject some nuisance to counter the dullness. Much of the year saw broadcasters and TRAI tussle over NTO 2.0, and the last chapter of that story has still not been written. There was also the mega-merger of Zee and Sony, which opens immense opportunities for the new entity, with their complementary strengths. But that’s another topic for another day.

     

    We can hope for a lot from 2022, but it’s not a year you want to write a script for. There are going to be surprises on the way, and this time, one hopes they are more pleasant than those in 2021.

     

  • Despite all the disruptions, 2021 saw a lot of content being produced and distributed in India, across media. Shailesh Kapoor presents his list

    Best of 2021: Top 10 Shows or Films

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorTwenty twenty-one, with all its disruptions, saw a lot of content being produced and distributed in India, across media. While much of it did not have any lasting impact, some shows and films stood out during the year, not only because they received appreciation and commercial success, but also because they played a role in shaping the future of video entertainment in India. Here’s my list of the Top 10 shows or films of 2021:

     

    10. Master: It needed a full-blown Tamil superstar vehicle to get audiences back to the theatres in January 2021. Even as Hindi cinema waited, this Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi entertainer reaffirmed that the big screen will never be out of business.

    09. Money Heist: Netflix may have struggled with its Indian originals for most part of 2021. But the final season of Money Heist, with its multiple dubbed versions, managed to receive a lot of love from the audience, recording more viewership than most prominent Indian series in 2021.

    08. The Great Indian Kitchen: The much-appreciated Malayalam film, along with Drishyam 2 and a few others, spearheaded the Malayalam cinema movement in 2021. The national audience, especially in big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Kolkata, took notice of Malayalam films, which became a popular OTT sub-genre among those seeking discerning content.

    07. Shershaah: While many theatrical films went the OTT way, very few of them made you feel they deserved a theatrical release. Captain Vikram Batra’s biopic Shershaah topped this list, and was also the soundtrack of the year by a wide margin.

    06. Anupama: The lone GEC show in the list, Anupama set new benchmarks for success, breaking the 4-TVR barrier, something unthinkable for any show at the start of the year. The show continues to go strong, providing a silver lining to an otherwise inert year for Hindi GECs. You can read my recent column on the show here.

    05. Sooryavanshi: It took a while, but Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi finally got the Bollywood box-office back on track in Diwali 2021. Like Master, the film was a confirmation of the power of the theatrical medium, and of the value of larger-than-life, mass entertainers.

    04. Spider-Man: No Way Home: In December 2021, the true might of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was on display at the Indian box0office, as the new Spider-Man film became the biggest theatrical success of the year in India, becoming only the third Hollywood film to break the Rs 200 crore barrier at the Indian box-office.

    03. The Family Man S2: In a year that saw many webseries (more than 130 in the Hindi language itself), one stood out as being head and shoulders above the rest. The first season of The Family Man was an unqualified success, but the second season actually managed to raise the bar further, with its nuanced handling of characters, relationships, politics and plot. From ‘Don’t Be A Minimum Guy’ to ‘Chellam Sir’, the show has found its way into pop culture too, and is now the definitive gold standard for Indian web-series to surpass.

    02. Squid Game: Korean content found a sizeable audience in India in 2021. But it was Squid Game that went truly mass, attracting viewers from the smallest of towns in India, capturing their imagination through a story that combined human emotions with thrills and adrenaline.

    01. Jai Bhim: It is only fitting that the top entry in this list is not in the Hindi language. Suriya-starrer Jai Bhim received whole-hearted appreciation from across the country, recording more viewership than many starcast-led Hindi films in the Hindi markets. The film worked both as social commentary and a legal drama, and proved decisively that good content can find audience across languages and geographies.

     

  • Shailesh Kapoor rues that the decision to revive news television ratings came from the government and not BARC India

    News Ratings: “Approval” Received

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorAdvisory. Directive. Missive. Instruction. Notice. Approval. Order. Go-ahead.

     

    These are some of the words that have described the communication sent by MIB to BARC India, for the latter to release new channels ratings with “immediate effect”.

     

    While the decision to revive news channel ratings has been long overdue, that such a decision must come from MIB and not from BARC India itself encapsulates the core issue with India’s television ratings system (or Indian television, in general) today. The industry must suffer from the vagaries arising out of too much interference from government bodies such as TRAI and MIB.

     

    To begin with, some of this interference is extra-constitutional. MIB has no official role to play in BARC India, which is an independent industry body. Some may argue that the MIB note is just an advisory that’s not legally binding on BARC India. But we know that’s not how things actually work. If MIB has said news ratings must restart, BARC India has no practical option but to comply.

     

    The restarting of news ratings is a welcome step. But the MIB statement begs the question: Whose decision was it? Why now, just before some big state elections? Have the “problems” that warranted the stopping of ratings in late 2020 been fixed?

     

    When founded as an independent industry body, BARC India would have aspired to hold the positioning of a credible and progressive TV ratings measurement company of one of the biggest TV markets in the world. It’s a highly technical role, and one that should command immense respect from stakeholders across the board. But today, they are positioned as an agency that’s at the beck and call of ministers and administrators, who seem to know more about research, measurement, and statistics than the company set up to run the show. The role of BARC India CEO should have been arguably the most enviable position in the Indian media and entertainment industry. Instead, it’s one burdened with controversies and bureaucratic hassles.

     

    It’s difficult to say how we reached here. Did BARC India make the mistake of opening its doors to “interference” in its early years? Avoiding government interference in media altogether may be difficult. After all, you never know when an “advisory” or a notification is coming your way. Perhaps BARC India could have pre-empted some of this, and worked on setting committees and processes in its formative years.

     

    So, we will soon have news ratings back. That, in isolation, is a good development on several counts, though some would argue that our news channels have become marginally more watchable since the ratings went out of their lives. But the real issue is: The government is finding new ways to run the Indian television industry by proxy, with no apparent logic at the heart of it. From the disasters called NTO and NTO 2.0 to the involvement in BARC India, the government seems to be back in the old Doordarshan mindset: That the state must exert its influence over the media, even if it is just to flex its muscles. And the television industry must grin and bear it!

     

     

  • Because cricket is an expensive sport from a media perspective, even a minor loss can be a source of concern, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Indian Cricket on a Sticky Wicket?

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorCricket is an expensive sport from a media perspective, even a minor loss in fan base can be a source of concern. Broadcasters have to shell out more for cricket rights with each passing year, and ad

     

    January 2022 has been the most unpleasant month for Indian men’s cricket team in many years. The team lost two Test matches and one ODI in South Africa, all from winnable positions. The remaining two ODIs may put that streak to an end, but it’s been a poor start to the year on all accounts. Even more so because of the unexpected decision by Virat Kohli to quit the Test captaincy.

     

    Cricket is by far the most popular sport in India. In our soon-to-be-released report on the sports category, the estimated number of cricket fans in India are almost three times the No 2 sport on the list. The consistency in the Indian team’s performance has managed to keep the sport relevant, especially to the younger audience. However, it now seems that the purple patch is over. The ICC recently announced its World XIs for 2021, and no Indian makes it to the ODI or the T20 teams.

     

    There’s, of course, the IPL to ensure that cricket remains exciting and relevant. In the report mentioned above, IPL emerged as having a stronger following than all forms of nation vs. nation cricket, including T20s.

     

    MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have been the two icons around which the sport, even IPL, has been built over the last decade. The former has retired, and the latter, we know by now, can come up with surprise career decisions without any prior notice. Except Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah, there are no younger stars who carry an aura around them. And despite all the talent that the IPL unravels, the batting middle order is the weakest in the last 30 years.

     

    The Indian cricket team last saw an extended lean patch in the 90s, when they were winning very little overseas. But there was one Sachin Tendulkar then to keep the interest in the sport alive. And there was no competition from other sports, such as kabaddi or football either. We are in a different era today, and a lean patch, if it comes, may be trickier to dodge. Football is a younger sport in India than cricket, and it can make significant inroads as a result.

     

    It’s not to say that cricket runs any risk of losing its no. 1 status in what is still a one-sport nation. That’s not happening in our lifetime. But because cricket is an expensive sport from a media perspective, even a minor loss in fan base can be a source of concern. Broadcasters have to shell out more for cricket rights with each passing year, and advertising on cricket is becoming increasingly unaffordable for many brands. This commercial model, which is driven by IPL at its heart, did not exist in the 1990s and the 2000s, when the team used to win some and lose some. This model is based on the implicit foundation that India generally wins. But what if that is not true from 2022?

     

    As a fan, I hope it doesn’t come to that. But if it does, a lot of calculations may go awry.

     

     

  • India’s biggest television celeb has found a new voice on Netflix, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Kapil Sharma: Definitely Not Done Yet

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorKapil Sharma is arguably (or perhaps inarguably) the biggest television celebrity in India over the last decade. His astonishing rise to fame in 2013, with Comedy Nights With Kapil, was followed by a spate of controversies, where the star comedian lost his mojo, in a manner of speaking. I wrote about it in 2016 (The Loss of Innocence) and 2018 (The Fault in our Star) in this column.

     

    Since then, Sharma’s show has made a comeback on Sony. But the going has been tough, especially because of the pandemic. With an irregular pattern of film releases, the celebrity line-up on the show has been less than ideal, with more ‘filler episodes’ than desirable. The show took a long-ish break in 2020. Since its return in early 2021, the ratings have settled around the 1.5-2.0 mark, which, by no yardstick, is a runaway success for weekend non-fiction property.

     

    I watched Sharma’s Netflix special, interestingly titled I’m Not Done Yet, in this context. What can a 50-minute special achieve for a comedian (besides a wider global reach, perhaps?) than a long-running mass TV show hasn’t already managed to, I wondered.

     

    The first few minutes had me sighing. The jokes didn’t seem to be landing, with only an occasional one worth a chuckle. Maybe he’s trying too hard for this one, and it’s going to be a colossal disappointment… That was my mind racing ahead of the content.

     

    But soon, it dawned upon me that this is not a usual stand-up special. This is a biopic-ish confessional of sorts, almost like a no-holds-barred interview, except that there is no interviewer. Chapter by chapter, Sharma bared his life, finding humour in his own imperfections. It was difficult to say which incidents are real and which are exaggerated, or even entirely made up. But the candor shone though, bright and clear.

     

    I also realised why he needed a streaming platform for this. Drinking has been a huge ‘factor’ in Sharma’s life, and that’s a topic off limits on mass television. In this special, he went on a rampage, dishing out jokes around his drinking habit, not always funny but generally insightful, as if they had been bottled up inside him for the last few years, waiting to find the right destination.

     

    The political jokes, including some very subtle jibes at the current Prime Minister, and an emphatic endorsement of his predecessor, were a delight, if only because they were attempted in the first place. In times when channels and streamers want to stay away from all things political, Sharma must be lauded for having the courage to go down that route, and then be smart enough to make it so subtle it won’t ignite any controversy at all. Well played!

     

    He also spoke about his family, especially his relationship with his father, even dedicating a sappy but surprisingly effective song to him, as the closing act of the special.

     

    It may not be the best content through its length, but the Kapil Sharma special on Netflix stands out. It a rare comedy special where the comedian’s stardom is the central subject, and it is (rightly) assumed that he is famous and admired enough for content that focuses on him, as a celebrity and a common person, to be engaging. I say “a common person” because that continues to be Sharma’s public connect with the GEC masses, despite him having amassed wealth and fame that is anything but commonplace.

     

    I wish he spent a couple of minutes on the Sunil Grover chapter of his life too. Their pairing remains the crowning jewel of Sharma’s long and successful TV stint. And we don’t know if they will come together ever again. Maybe Sharma is keeping that material aside for his second special.

     

    We can’t call this a ‘comeback’, because his TV show continues to be on air. But Kapil Sharma has found a new voice on Netflix. A voice that we want to hear more from.

     

  • The show has pushed the envelope in the stagnating Hindi non-fiction space on TV & OTT, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shark Tank India: No Fishy Business

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorLast week saw the end of a seven-week first season of Sony’s new show Shark Tank India. The show, a worthy adaptation of the successful international format that goes by the same name, managed to get the social media buzzing. Through memes, reviews and other ancillary content, Shark Tank India has become a favourite among digital content creators in India. The Sony LIV app even has a separate Shark Tank tab, which is tell-tale sign that the show has been a digital success.

     

    The television performance, however, has been less-than-flattering. In a tough weekday 9pm slot, the show didn’t find much traction in the mass television audience, touching only the 0.5% rating mark in urban Hindi-speaking markets. One hopes that the show’s economics are good enough for a next season, and a few more. Because Shark Tank India is arguably the best new show that may have come up in the Hindi non-fiction space in a while.

     

    The Hindi non-fiction market is almost entirely driven by franchise shows, some of which are in their double-digited seasons now. While they make for comfort viewing and enjoy a loyal fan base, they certainly do not provide freshness. Before Shark Tank, Color’s live singing reality show Rising Star (first season in 2017) was the last successful new non-fiction format to be introduced in India. That show has not returned post-pandemic.

     

    But Rising Star was also a talent show, a genre that now has so many shows that it’s difficult to keep track. There are at least half a dozen Hindi shows with Dance or Dancer in their names. Then there are the singing shows, and the those on talent in general, like the recently-launched India’s Got Talent and Hunarbaaz. Many talent shows rate fairly well, and have good reasons to be on TV. But they do not raise the bar. They are the safe, low-risk options, even at their high costs. Even on streaming, the non-fiction experimentation has been stilted. Most attempts have been in the comedy talent space.

     

    I have to say I was a bit surprised when I first heard that Shark Tank will get a Hindi GEC adaptation. To use the show’s terminology, the TAM (Total Addressable Market) is only a small fraction of the Hindi GEC audience universe in urban India, given how little the weightage of the metro cities is in the mix. And how much can you ‘mass-ify’ the Shark Tank format anyway, when its essence is rooted in the idea that it caters to a niche? But then, you add the streaming factor to the mix, and the decision to do the show begins to make more sense.

     

    But for the dull Rannvijay interludes, designed only to cater to monetisation demands, the show makes for engaging viewing. The sharks have their individual and distinctive personalities, and the unmistakable Delhi vibe in some of them provides the entertainment quotient without taking away from the purposeful idea of the show. The pitches ranged from banal to interesting to inspiring, and will only get better with subsequent seasons.

     

    Corporate India has been poorly represented in our entertainment. Except some online shows, mostly produced by TVF, authentic portrayal of the corporate world in mainstream media has been conspicuous by its absence. And on the rare occasion when it’s done, it’s generally been broadstroked and lame (“I have an important presentation today”).

     

    I’m not entirely sure if Shark Tank India can fuel the entrepreneurial culture in India in the short run. But it can build awareness in that direction, over a few seasons. But what the show has done already, in just one season, is to push the envelope in the stagnating Hindi non-fiction space on Hindi television and streaming categories. And that’s no mean achievement.

  • The consumption had stopped many years ago, and now, even the conversation is dying, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Gehraiyaan indeed: GEC Perception in a Deep Hole

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorEarlier this month, the Deepika Padukone starrer Gehraiyaan released on Amazon Prime Video. Over the last two weeks, the film has been incessantly analysed, intellectualised and dissected by the critics and the audience alike. It’s a subject of social media posts, memes, op-eds, the works. The film has found such attention largely because of the stardom of its female lead. The same film with a lesser star would have only got as much notice as any of the more than 100 Hindi films that have released direct-to-OTT in India since early 2021.

     

    At an estimated audience (Ormax tracking) of 6.5 million on its first weekend in India, Gehraiyaan is by far the biggest Hindi film on Amazon Prime Video. In its first 10 days, the film has been watched (at least 30 minutes) by 13.6 million people in India alone. It may only amount to about 1% of India’s population, but it is a sizeable number from a streaming (paid) perspective.

     

    But here’s the thing: this number is less than the number of people who watch any of the Top 10 Hindi GEC shows everyday. Yet, there is no interest and conversation around the fiction content on Indian television anymore. There are fan clubs on social media alright, but outside of that, the general media chatter on GEC fiction is close to nothing.

     

    While Bollywood was always a media favourite because of the larger-than-life stardom it offers, there’s no such evident lure in the streaming category. Yet, even mid-range streaming shows, with no saleable faces, are being critiqued and discussed like mainstream content. But new GEC launches enjoy no such privileges. When did you last see a fiction GEC show trending on a social media platform?

     

    Conversations around the imminent demise of linear television continue. While these conversations borrow principles from the West, and have little grounding in India’s social reality, not getting any press at all is a genuine concern Indian television must deal with today. GECs still rely heavily on advertising revenues, and even as TV continues to deliver big viewership numbers, media trading conversations are shifting to digital with every passing quarter. TV channels cannot afford to be out of the news altogether. Even in the industry trade websites, much of TV conversations over the last couple of years have been about NTO and news ratings. Most such stories don’t have a positive ring to them.

     

    So, Indian television is not suffering from a viewership problem (at least not so far), but it definitely has a huge perception problem to deal with. Flaunting viewership numbers can help them circumvent this problem, but only till a certain point. It’s only human nature that brand managers and media planners like to associate with content and media they consume themselves, or see others around them consuming and talking about. The consumption had stopped many years ago, and now, even the conversation is dying.

     

    Can mass television come out of this hole? Or it must surrender to the ways of the digital age? The next few years will give us the answer.

     

  • Can our news channels innovate beyond the predictable tropes while covering them, asks Shailesh Kapoor

    Unpredictable Politics, Predictable Media

     

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorElection months (there are many of them in India) are money-spinners for the news business. Besides political advertising, which has been on the rise because of BJP’s aggressive marketing plans over the last decade, elections also generate advertiser interest, because of their ability to generate higher viewership and engagement.

     

    But there’s a hint of predictability seeping into India’s elections coverage of late. The ‘issues’ and the controversies raised during the campaign period don’t offer anything new. It’s the same old rhetoric around caste, religion and personal attacks on opposing leaders. On the counting day, if there’s a cliff-hanger state that goes down to the wire, like Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat a few years ago, you get extended on-air interest from the viewer. Otherwise, it can be all over by 10am, as was the case yesterday for UP and Punjab, among others.

     

    The younger viewer, in the 18-30 years age group, does not find much of this interesting. Consumption of elections coverage is driven by a segment of audience that’s both politically-informed and politically-engaged. These are men above the age of 35 years. And this cohort is only getting older with time, because younger people are not making a transition from being merely politically-informed to also being politically-engaged.

     

    This is ironic, given that India in the midst of a highly-charged political environment over the last decade, with a leader (Narendra Modi) who enjoys a certain cult following. That’s, perhaps, where the issue lies. Our politics may have become too single-person centric over this decade for it to have shades and layers that interest the youth at large. There are regional leaders, like Mamata Banerjee or Arvind Kejriwal, who bring some freshness. But that’s only an odd state every two-three years. The vacuum in the rest of the polity is making the discourse predictable at large.

     

    If we examine this from the media perspective, our news channels have not been able to cash in on the politically-charged vibe. By now, an equivalent of Presidential debates in the US should have been a reality in India. If not at a national level, then at least at a state level. But news channels are satisfied with a debates format Arnab Goswami started about 15 years ago. Many popular anchors and journalists will spend their entire career doing shows in just this one format.

     

    Instead of playing a role in creating political engagement, news channels have focused on frills, like animation and graphics. They are trying to make elections entertaining. While that offsets general election fatigue that the core political audience cohort may face, it does nothing to the youth, who have better forms of entertainment at their disposal.

     

    The larger question a news channel should be asking is: Am I losing a generation of audience altogether? If yes, where will my viewership come from in the next five-ten years? This question may not be news specific. Even movie channels will face this concern once streaming becomes a little more mainstream that it currently is. It’s a larger linear TV concern: the medium is getting ‘older’, and there will come a tipping point, perhaps a decade from now, when it may no longer be the first ‘family-viewing’ option, because a majority of family members are disengaged with the medium.

     

    But that’s some time away, and there are a few elections lined up over the next 2-3 years, leading upto the big one in 2024. Can our news channels innovate beyond the predictable tropes while covering them?

     

  • None of the channels were technically lying in their claims of being numero uno, they were just looking at TG cuts that suited them, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    The Façade of Being #1

     

     

     

     

    Shailesh KapoorBy Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Last week, news channel ratings were released after a long hiatus. What followed was bizarre, to say the least. Within a few hours, multiple channels had staked their claim for the no. 1 position. Between Hindi and English news genres itself, I read mailers and trade stories from at least seven channels claiming to be #1.

     

    The communication was not restricted to the trade. Channels went on air with their claims. You may have already seen Arnab Goswami’s self-congratulatory video from the day, in which he takes digs at competition while he finishes his 10,000 steps for the day, addressing Living Media as “Tak waalon” repeatedly.

     

    That video is funny at one level, but sad at another. The return of news ratings should have been an industry moment. A positive step towards better times ahead, where advertisers can make more informed choices. Instead, it was reduced to a game of one-upmanship. Other channels were not as shrill as Goswami. But the ideas were similar, nonetheless.

     

    This is all perception play, of course. None of the channels were technically “lying”. They were just looking at TG cuts that suited them. You can play with gender, age, NCCS and markets, and there are at least 120+ possible ‘reasonable’ combinations to choose from. In English News, where the reach is limited, it is quite possible that almost every channel will find itself being ranked #1 in at least one of these combinations.

     

    I often wonder how these trade campaigns make any sense. Surely, the advertisers know better by now. They have access to the same data. The senior planners are seasoned enough to see through this trickery of numbers. And yet, the mailers, the stories and the on-air coverage only gets more visible each year. It’s perhaps a case of channels doing this just to build the morale of the editorial and the sales teams. It’s that Arnab-type brouhaha that they may be going for, inside their respective offices, even when the cameras are not recording.

     

    This time, so many trade publications carried press releases on news ratings as they were. In an emailer from one of the websites, there were three stories, next to each other, from three different channels, all claiming to be #1. I have a theory that if you send some incomprehensible gobbledygook in the form of a press release, some of our trade websites will still carry it.

     

    The onus, in this case, should lie with BARC India. I find their advisories on usage of ratings data for sales and marketing to be loose and non-committal. BARC India could, and perhaps rightly, argue that which TG a channel selects is not their business. But in a genre that has come out of a ratings blackout that went on for a year and a half, BARC India can surely play a more active role in maintaining sanity.

     

    Because, by now, we should know that our news channels couldn’t care less about sanity.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is Founder and CEO, Ormax Media. He writes on MxMIndia every Friday. His views here are personal

     

    Editor’s Note: As a policy, MxMIndia has not published any news around the rankings of any news channels since the day of release on March 17, 2022. We will wait for data release for at least four weeks before doing that. However, we do carry advertising mailers and banner ads of news channels. While we appreciate that as a responsible media platform, we are liable for ALL content we serve, all entities advertising with us are governed by the laws of the land and the advertising is subject to scrutiny by the Advertising Standards Council of India and the respective trade bodies. In the specific case of television ratings, the industry-owned body BARC also has a clear policy on how the data can be used in promotional communication.

     

  • The Indian Premier League broadcast rights auction in June will impact the landscape of Indian media, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    On the field and off it: The big IPL year

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe biggest sporting event in India is currently underway. With each passing year, IPL seems to only grow in stature and brand value. This time, there are two new franchises, and the spectators are back in the stands too, albeit with a cap of 25 per cent. More franchises mean more matches and more talent on display, all of which eventually leads to higher monetization and valuation of brand IPL.

     

    But the eyes this year are not just on the ongoing IPL but also on what’s to follow on the IPL front over the next few weeks. IPL broadcast rights are up for renewal, and we are set to see a fierce battle in the auctions scheduled for mid-year.

     

    IPL is a crown jewel for Disney (Star), not just in India, but even worldwide. Hotstar, on the back of IPL, contributes more than 30 per cent to Disney+’s global subscriber base. Needless to say, Star India will stretch itself beyond its limits to retain both television and streaming rights.

     

    But there’s the newly-merged entity that goes by the working title Zee-Sony, which is a serious contender. Sony has been down the IPL road before, being the first ones to put their money on it, when the league was only an experiment, not a proven success story. With the combined might of two big networks, Star India’s competition is tougher than it was five years ago.

     

    Add Reliance (Viacom) to the mix, and we have a three-way tussle for IPL rights on the cards. BCCI’s decision to not go for combined bids this year makes things even more interesting, because it puts streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video into the reckoning, along with Google and Facebook.

     

    No amount of speculation can prepare us what may eventually happen when the e-auction commences on June 12 this year. But whatever the outcome is, it will shape the landscape of the Indian media industry for the next few years, even the next decade.

     

    The television industry is India has been struggling for relevance, despite being the medium with the highest reach, and by some margin too. IPL (and cricket in general) is one of the few things that keeps television relevant to the times, as far as media planning and buying goes. Digital viewership may have gone up, but television remains the dominant medium of sports consumption. The entire television industry, and the advertisers’ group (brands and media agencies), will be keenly awaiting the outcome.

     

    Till then, there’s some real cricket on the grounds to keep us busy. For another seven weeks, the cricketing action will continue to enthrall millions across the nation. It will also act as a reminder for the potential bidders everyday, on how big the opportunity in front of them is.