Category: DAS KA DUM

It’s true. Compare the headlines of the nightlies with what you have in the papers the morning after. So we asked Dr Bhaskar Das this question. And here’s what he had to say in the Feb 9 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. The headlines on news channels is in sharp variance to the headlines in the papers the next morning. Surely the medium couldn’t be dictating the content mix so much. Your view?

A. TV is a here and now medium. It breaks stories. It updates. Newspapers by nature upgrade and hence follow a pattern of featurising current topics through analyses or breaking into stories. So, both the medium play their role as complementing readers’ hierarchy of needs and wants. Any comparison would be an exercise in futility. Besides, TV is an active medium with passive audience (in digital age need not be) , whereas print is passive medium with active audience. The expectations of audiences are very different.

It’s a fact. Low cover price is killing the industry. Though protecting the leader. We asked Dr Bhaskar Das for his view. And here’s what he had to say in the Feb 10 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. Can increasing of the cover price of English newspapers help uplift the industry?

A. The initiative would certainly improve the revenue mix of the business model and reduce over dependence on monetisation through advertising only. However, it can’t be executed just like that. The readers must perceive an upgradation in the value delivery vis-a-vis other options available to them. It can’t be business as usual kind-of decision-making.

Hmm. We know we are treading into sensitive territory, but it’s just a question. Let’s read what Dr Bhaskar Das has to say in the Feb 11 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. It’s the season for adspend reports and forecasts. There is a charge that some of them paint a rosy picture just to boost spends. How much can one trust them?

A. I don’t think marketers are so naive as to base their optimism by a survey report only. And I am not sceptical about any such reports. Any adspend/ forecast report is an estimation only on the basis of a decoded pattern and at best directional and can’t be treated as exhaustive. So I beg to differ with your postulation.

We asked this with no context whatsoever or whosoever. Ah, well, there is  a reason. We’ve been hearing a lot about karma coming back to bite her or him. Let’s read what Dr Bhaskar Das has to say in the Feb 12 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. It’s said that bad karma gets back to you. Do you really believe this to be true?

A. This is a complex question and no answer would be conclusive. In fact, there are so many questions to address first. Example: what is karma? Or what is good karma or bad karma? Is it subjective? I can share what I follow. You needn’t agree. Let me quote what Lord  Buddha says. In the teachings of Buddha, the law of karma is explained as: “For every event that occurs, it will be followed by another event, whose existence was caused by the first action, and the second event that occurs, will be good or bad according to whether it has been harmful or beneficial, to oneself and to others”. I find this philosophy a relevant answer for your question. It works for me.

Not the best of questions to kick off the week, but we thought he could get provoked to give a controversial answer. But, then, it’s BD, and that word doesn’t find a place in his dictionary. Let’s read what Dr Bhaskar Das has to say in the Feb 15 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. GroupM and Madison will declare their adspend forecasts this week. Would you like to hazard a guess on what it could be in percentage terms for CY 2021?

A. In either case, I expect (read pray) for an upward movement in the adspend forecasts for the M&E industry. Going by the current greenshoots in various businesses, albeit at different pace, the optimism is kosher.

Important question given the news of Pune Mirror being sold to a non-media player. Let’s read what Dr Bhaskar Das has to say on the issue in the Feb 16 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. There is news that Pune Mirror has been bought over by an organisation which isn’t into publishing. Would you say non-media players find it tough to run newspapers given that news stories could impact their other interests?

A. My observation is as speculative as yours. A meta reality is that such a generalisation can’t be made as there are enough exceptions to your postulation. If an investment is seen through the prism of an enterprise management, the ownership doesn’t matter. The principles of running a business would always be true and market should be an arbiter to decide its success or failure. Premeditated assumption is a sure recipe for bias. By that logic, any unrelated diversification by any entrepreneur could also be interpreted as an irrational exuberance of optimism and expansion of clout. A spirit of enterprise to create wealth needs to be encouraged without abjuring the path of stakeholder capitalism (not crony capitalism or unbridled trampling of compassionate capitalism).

Correlation doesn’t mean causation. We love this line, and it was appropriate that Wizard with Words used it in his response to our question today. Without any further ado, here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the Feb 17 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. Is it true that post-Lockdown, a lot of advertisers have deserted the news media because of reduced exposure?

A. This is classic example of convergence insufficiency. When AdEx in 2020-21 has shown a negative  growth, it must have happened due to the unprecedented pandemic-led deceleration of business and consumption sentiments in the market. Hence your wonderment or curiosity to enquire is like saying that people have stopped travelling or BTL has lost its efficacy. Please note that correlation doesn’t mean causation.

Things are hotting up in West Bengal, so we asked Dr Bhaskar Das this question in the Feb 18 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. Given that the Bangla news scenario is hotting up, what way would you say has the West Bengal market changed since the time you serviced it?

A. There is always a natural way market expansion, though there are exceptions too. The natural way is through entry of new consumers, organic expansion of advertisers who use news media for amplifying their messages and sustained interest in the category of news and information etc. Interest in news consumption is relatively higher in the Bengal market and entry of players ultimately benefits viewers as their choice set expands. It is needless to say that all the markets that I have worked in the past (in fact, I should mention that as markets where I have been working) have evolved. It is natural and can be discerned from the expansion of AdEx over the years. The only palpable change in every market is the consumer is at the centre now and consumer activism compels organisations to tango in sync with them.

The socio-geo-political environment has never been so fertile for news channels, even though the space is pretty crowded. So we asked Dr Bhaskar Das this question in the Feb 1 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. If you were to start an all-new news channel what would the editorial stance you would recommend it to have – pro or anti-BJP government?

A. I think I am missing the drift of your question. Assume an entrepreneur wants to start a news channel in Chennai or Nagaland, would the question remain the same? The business assumptions of yours for starting a news channel, to my mind, are fallacious. One can’t start a news channel on such considerations. Governments would come and go, depending on the preference of voters, but a business has to survive on the rationale of consumer preferences and market forces. What is juicy at cocktail circuits should not be applied to business prudence.

We couldn’t have not asked this question. So we did. And here’s how Dr Bhaskar Das responded in the Feb 22 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. Madison said 26%, GroupM estimates 23.2% growth in adspends this year? In the light of some more restrictions on movements, do you see issues in these estimates being achieved?

A. AdEx is a projection on the basis of certain trends as estimated by the concerned organisation. If one takes into account the fourth quarter performance of India Inc, or if one takes into account the proposals in the central budget, or if you take account the arrival of Covid vaccine etc, there is legit reason to be optimistic. I agree that the shape of growth curved would differ by sector. However, there is some palpable signs of revival. I am sure that at the point of making the projections, the aforesaid factors must have been taken into account. Assumptions might change anytime as Covid has highlighted the fragility of such predictions. To my mind, instead of trying to be sceptical about the percentage of growth, a collective resolve and resilience to achieve the number would be a better pursuit .

Okay, so we are referring to the comments by former Star/Disney India+APAC boss Uday Shankar’s comments on the sidelines of the Pitch Madison Advertising Outlook presentation last week. So we asked Dr Bhaskar Das this question in the Feb 23 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. At an industry event last week, there were some significant comments made on the functioning of BARC for TV audience measurement? Would you agree that BARC hasn’t achieved what was desired…? in terms of efficiency of measuring TV audiences?

A. I am no expert on commenting on any organisation’s efficiency and effectiveness. I presume the said organisation have had served the purposes of the Industry. Now with changing imperatives of the ecosystem and of stakeholders, might have prompted such observations, as mentioned by you, but I can’t comment without access to all facts. As they say that a little knowledge is dangerous and omniscience is not one of my strengths.

One more question following the comments by former Star/Disney India+APAC boss Uday Shankar’s comments on the sidelines of the Pitch Madison Advertising Outlook presentation last week. Here’s how Dr Bhaskar Das responded to our question in the Feb 24 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. Why is it that everyone likes to damn media measurement?

A. I don’t agree with your sweeping statement. I wonder if there is such a generalised fulmination against media measurements, per se. I agree that some febrile sentiments surround the activities around measurements but in the age of data as the new oil, such a perception about measurements would be self-defeating. The insane pace of technological development and atomisation of media have made the task of developing appropriate tools and techniques complex. We have to give it time to stabilise and perfect it. Truth would emerge out of multiple perspectives. But blaming measurements in general for this would be a proverbial exercise of throwing the baby out with the bath water.