By Shailesh Kapoor
On all counts, 2016 has been a predictable year for Indian television so far. News coverage remained as shrill as ever, half a dozen channels claimed they were the most-watched on the Union Budget day, GECs continued to respect the idea of status quo and the awards season played out its annual routine.
The only odd element disrupting this feeling of déjà vu has been T20 Cricket. India’s performance this year has been consistently strong, winning 10 of the 11 games played since the start of the year. India enters the T20 World Cup on home soil as firm favorites (not always a good thing).
Within a week of the World Cup final on April 3, the IPL will kick-off. We are, by now, used to a long, never-ending season that becomes a part of the background noise for some, snack-in television for many others, and addicted viewing for a handful few. This year will be no different. IPL ends on May 29. By the time that happens, we will be five months down in 2016.
Ratings from the India games in the Asia Cup have been very encouraging, setting new records in the short BARC India history. India’s strong performance and TV-friendly match schedules help. But cricket ratings have been, and will be, equally helped by lack of action and excitement in the rest of the television space.
With the exception of Naagin, no Hindi programme launched since January 2015 has been a runaway success. There have been a few flash-in-the-pan performances, but nothing has sustained beyond 3-4 months. In such a scenario, viewers are left looking for ‘television events’, such as a big awards show, a big movie premiere or an India cricket match of some importance. This lack of excitement in mainstream television is also bound to help this year’s IPL, especially if it comes on the back of an India win in the T20 World Cup.
Even as cricket prospers, news coverage of cricket suffers from the same shrillness and status quo as the rest of the news genre. Witty and entertaining cricket programming would be much in demand, but instead, all we get are talking heads, mostly cricketers from the days when cricketers were not paid enough to not need a day job, debating it out before and after every game.
One’s earliest, and strongest, memories of television are from one’s teen days. I sometimes wonder what television memories those born in India in the new millennium will grow up with. And if they shun television for online content as they grow up, technology alone won’t explain why they did so.
But that’s a thing of the future. For now, let the cricket take over from the sameness of things. For the next three weeks at least.