MxMIndia

Tag: ABP

  • The theme: ‘The People’s Agenda’

    ABP Network’s ‘Ideas of India’ Summit 3.0

    The ABP Network’s flagship event ‘Ideas of India’ Summit 3.0 was last weekend (Feb 23 and 24) in Mumbai with much fanfare with the theme: ‘The People’s Agenda’.

    As many as 35 sessions with 60 speakers were held on subjects traversing a wide range of ideas and perspectives, diversity, and vision.

    Said Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP Network: “It is a year of cataclysmic changes, yet a season of hope, resilience, and re-imagination. At Ideas of India Summit 3.0, we are focused on people of this great nation and beyond, their hopes, fears, and aspirations. Artists, authors, scientists, politicians, and musicians will debate and discuss the issues of our time, quickening our pulses and taking us into the sunlight of introspection and imagination.”

    Added Atideb Sarkar, Chief Editor, ABP Network, in his keynote address: “Another Idea of India could combine economic and social progress, care for the environment, pluralism, and national security. It could restore the constitutional balance between national unity and the dignity of the individual. It would have to show how more jobs could be created more humanely and it would need to be articulated by a leader who embodies these values and with whom young voters identify. India must answer two questions: If not Ram Rajya, then what? If not Modi, then who? Only then we will have a real contest!”

  • Campaign culminates in a two-day Cadbury Mishti Mela

    ABP, Telegraph & Cadbury get together for Season 3 of Folk Music edition

    By Our Staff

     

    Cadbury Dairy Milk, in association with Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph is back with the third season of Cadbury Dairy Milk Gaane Mishti that highlights folk fusion songs sung by the leading artists of Bengal.

    Notes a communique: “In an initiative to recognise their efforts, the platform will be also seen appreciating the karigars (creators) of the mishtis under the coinage – Humans of Mishti. Working with passion for years, these karigars and their family members have been instrumental in the process of creation of a variety of mishtis. Humans of Mishti will recognise their contribution to the trade and award them with a token of appreciation. The six-week  programme will culminate with a two-day Mishti Mela (Carnival) around the first weekend of April where the artists associated with the campaign will perform live for the audiences on both days. Along with the performances, the consumers would also get a chance to indulge in savouring mishtis from the participating brands.”

     

  • To sensitise people to exercising the power of their finger they can choose the right government

    Dentsu Impact & Ozone launch campaign for digital voting

    By Our Staff

     

    Dentsu Impact, in association with Ozone Electronics and Digital Solutions has launched the ‘Ab Chalegi Finger Key’ campaign. The campaign metaphorically demonstrates the connection between Ozone’s digital lock and electronic voting wherein one can open a lock using one finger and simultaneously vote for a better future.

     

    Conceptualised and executed by Dentsu Impact, the 360-degree campaign includes print, radio, digital & OOH. Further, the brand has also launched an IP (Intellectual Property) in association with the prominent news channels – NDTV and ABP. The multi-episode program on the news channels nudges the voters to make the right choice for themselves and the society at large. It also includes an exclusive anthem to help attract mass appeal and celebrity endorsements along with on-ground interviews with audiences and debates. With this campaign, the brand has interestingly used the Indian elections as a platform and transformed it into one of the hottest debating arenas.

     

    Added Abhishek Aggarwal, President, Ozone Overseas: “At Ozone, our prime focus is to provide solutions that are high-tech, safe and hassle-free for the consumer. Through this campaign, we aim to sensitize people that by exercising the power of their finger they can choose the right government for better security and progress just like with a swipe of their fingers they can secure their valuables.”

     

    Said Ujjwal Anand, Executive Vice President, Dentsu Impact: “Elections give that one chance to the voters to exercise their rights for a safe, secure and brighter future. By using the power of the voting finger, they can make changes that really matter. ‘Is baar kiski chalegi’, ‘is baar kaun ayega’, ‘satta kisko milegi’ are all turn of phrases that we get to hear particularly around the election frenzy. We decided to give a spin to these phrases and hinge our campaign articulation around the verbiage. And so ‘Ab Chalegi Finger Key’!”

     

  • The launch is close on the heels of its foray in the Tamil Nadu market with the launch of 'ABP Nadu'

    ABP Network launches ‘ABP Desam’ in Telugu

    By Our Staff

     

    ABP Network has announced its entry into the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market with the launch of new digital platform, ‘ABP Desam’.  The launch is close on the heels of its foray in the Tamil Nadu market with the launch of ‘ABP Nadu’

     

    The tagline of the channel is ‘Mana vartalu, mana oori bhashalo!’ which translates to ‘Our news, in our town’s language!’

     

    Said Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP Network on the launch: “Regional language is a very crucial growth driver for digital news platforms. Recently, we had launched a digital platform for Tamil audiences and now we are further strengthening our digital portfolio with ABP Desam. I’m confident that this Telugu news platform will provide access to high calibre, diverse digital news content to the people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and also bring a bevy of growth opportunities to our network.”

     

  • Either editors don't listen to what reporters tell them or reporters doctor their reports to fit newsroom ideas, rues Ranjona Banerji

    Time to show the door to Exit Polls?

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Uttar Pradesh

    Exit Polls

    Today’s Chanakya: BJP+ 285, SP Congress 88, BSP 27

    Times Now-VMR: BJP+ 190-210, SP-Congress 110-130, BSP 57-74

    India News-MRC: BJP+ 185, SP-Congress 120, BSP 90

    India Today-Axis: BJP+ 251-279, SP-Congress 88-112, BSP 28-42

    India TV-CVoter: BJP+ 155-167, SP-Congress 135-147, BSP 81-93

    ABP-Lokniti CSDS: BJP+ 164-176, SP-Congress 155-169, BSP 60-72

    Voters: BJP+ 325, SP-Congress 54, BSP 19

     

    Punjab

    Exit polls

    Today’s Chanakya: AAP 54, Congress 54, SAD-BJP 9

    India Today-Axis: AAP 42-51, Congress 62-71, SAD-BJP 4-7

    ABP-Lokniti CSDS: AAP 36-46, Congress 46-56, SAD-BJP 19-27

    India TV-CVoter: AAP 59-67, Congress 41-49, SAD-BJP 5-13

    Voters: AAP 22, Congress 77, SAD-BJP 18

     

    Uttarakhand

    Exit Polls

    Today’s Chanakya BJP 53, Congress 15

    India TV-CVoter BJP 29-35, Congress 29-35

    India Today-Axis BJP 46-53, Congress 12-21

    Voters: BJP 57, Congress 11

     

    Manipur

    Exit Polls

    India TV-CVoter: BJP 25-31, Congress 17-23

    NewsX-MRC: BJP 16-32, Congress 30-36

    Voters: BJP 21, Congress 28

     

    Goa

    Exit Polls

    India TV-CVoter: BJP 15-21, Congress 12-18, AAP 4

    NewsX-MRC BJP 15, Congress 10, AAP 7

    Voters: Congress 18, BJP 14, AAP 0

     

    Should one start by being kind? Scour through the exit polls to see who got it nearly right? Take UP. Everyone suggested that there was a surge for the BJP, especially from Phase 4 of voting onwards. In that sense, all the exit polls were correct. The BJP was the winner. But if one wanted a general idea of who was winning, why would you do an exit poll? The best that the exit polls gave the BJP in Uttar Pradesh was 285, from Today’s Chanakya. The Samajwadi Party and Congress alliance was not doing so badly according to the pollsters and apart from Today’s Chanakya, everyone else thought Mayawati and the BSP might come up with some decent numbers.

     

    The voters had other ideas altogether. In fact, the voters’ ideas were so different from the pollsters’ ideas that it is unfair to even say that Today’s Chanakya is the winner because it got it so wrong. Unless my arithmetic is very faulty, the BJP’s final tally beat Today’s Chanakya’s forecast by 40 seats. Mayawati and the BSP managed a pretty dismal tally of 19 seats and the Samajwadi Party and Congress could not do better than 54. That is, even Today’s Chanakya gave the BSP eight seats more than it would get and every exit poll gave the SP-Congress combine much more than the voters did. The lowest was Today’s Chanakya with 88 and minus 54 from that and you get it wrong by 34 seats.

     

    Don’t want to do it statewise because it’s so tedious? Take the AamAadmi Party’s seat-gathering ability then. According to our crystal ballgazers, Arvind Kejriwal’s push for a middle class, corruption-free India would win between 71 (CVoter, Punjab plus Goa) and 36 (ABP-Lokinit CSDS only Punjab) seats in two states. What did AAP win? A total of 22 seats in Punjab and zero in Goa.

     

    To say that there is a serious need for the media and for exit pollsters to relook at their methodology is a gross understatement. It may be better to admit that you have no idea what is going on that to get it so wrong. Many journalists one spoke to privately admitted just as much. In the end, even ground reports did not suggest the sort of victory that the BJP got in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. And while everyone was sure that the SAD-BJP alliance was going to lose Punjab, everyone also expected a bigger chunk of Punjab going to AAP.

     

    It is interesting, as an aside, to see how much our national media cares about India’s smaller states. Only two exit polls each were conducted for Manipur and Goa and it is as ever significant that both polls did not get it right.

     

    Today, after the results are out, hindsight has made us all wiser and some of us, illogically but egotistically, prescient. In fact, all that is rubbish. There is something going on in the Indian voters’ mind which is not being picked up by the media. You can choose between love for NarendraModi (UP and Uttarakhand but not Punjab, Goa and Manipur), joy over demonetisation, no joy over demonetisation, Hindu consolidation, the end of caste, the end of the Muslim vote, shoddy electronic voting machines and the arrival of new voters from Mars.

     

    Either editors in newsrooms do not listen to what their reporters tell them or reporters doctor their reports to fit in with newsroom ideas. Or, even worse and even more likely, few national newsrooms have enough people on the ground thanks to cost-cutting and the low value given to newsgathering by managements. That is why so many newsrooms houses rely so strongly on exit polls to do the work that they can no longer do. One cannot be certain that it is working. In fact, one can be perfectly sure that it is not.

    No?

     

  • OneIndia, available by invitation to select display advertisers only, offers the unique benefit of a single-platform reach comparable and incremental to television

    HT, Hindu & ABP groups get together to offer single-platform reach to advertisers

    By A Correspondent

     

    Six leading publications of the country – Hindustan Times, Hindustan, The Hindu, The Hindu Tamil, The Telegraph and Ananda Bazar Patrika have come together and formed the OneIndia group as a platform to facilitate reach to the largest print audience with a single advertisement.

     

    OneIndia, available by invitation to select display advertisers only, offers the unique benefit of a single-platform reach comparable and incremental to television, along with the many clear benefits of print, such as immediacy, impact, comprehension, credibility, and a clutter-free environment, to name a few.

     

    Talking about the key idea behind this alliance, Benoy Roychowdhury, Executive Director, HT Media Ltd., said, “The idea behind OneIndia is to provide an unduplicated reach like never before, along with a single-window service, in order to invite non-print and infrequent print advertisers to experience and profit from the significant benefits of print advertising.”

     

    Apart from the fact that print media readership is significantly more upmarket than television, several research studies globally have also demonstrated that print plus TV has driven more than 20 per cent incremental push-through in brand equity compared to TV alone. Further, some recent media multiplier research studies by leading international research agencies have demonstrated that print advertising in Asia-Pacific indexes three times more than TV on RoI, and five times more on brand impact.

     

     

  • Each week, guests will question, argue, give his opinion and probe host MJ Akbar on a topic of national significance

    NewsX kicks off show where guests will grill host MJ Akbar

    By A Correspondent

    He would anchor news-based shows on Doordarshan in the ’80s when he was with the Ananda Bazar Patrika group and later his appearances were at best sporadic. Until he joined the India Today group as editorial director when he was on nightly news more often.

    You can expect veteran editor M J Akbar to always come up (and carry off) concepts with a twist. On Sunday, news channel NewsX launched ‘Decode India with MJ Akbar’ where the guest leads the questions and discussions. The guest will question, argue, give his opinion and probe MJ Akbar on a topic of national significance. The inaugural episode of the 30-minute show featured controversial lawyer and politician Ram Jethmalani who discussed if there should be a referendum in Kashmir on the Indian Army.

    Mr Akbar is currently Editorial Director of The Sunday Guardian, which is part of the same media group that owns NewsX and a slew of other media titles.

     

  • Jaldi 5 with Vasant Gokhale on the ABP Group's recent digital offerings for non-resident Bengalis.

    Jaldi 5 with Vasant Gokhale, Head, Mobile Services, ABP

    Vasant Gokhale

    The Ananda Bazar Patrika Group recently announced its digital offerings for non-resident Bengalis. Though three months old, the platform is already gaining traction. MxM India caught up with Vasant Gokhale, Head, Mobile Services, ABP Pvt Ltd to know more.

     01. The digital offering is targeted at non-resident Bengalis. Is Indian market not ready for such platforms?

    We have plans to eventually reach to that point. The back-end plans are already at work. Also, we have our digital websites that are live currently in India. So, we have enough content here online for the resident Bengalis. We will launch the digital offering on same scale in India within this financial year.

    2. What are your subscription models?

    We have two subscription models. One is, standard that is offered for $5 per month and then we have exclusive premium content.

    03. How has been the response from advertisers?

    We do not have advertising options on the My Anandabazar Mobile App on iOS. Current focus is to increase paid subscriptions for overseas market. We already have over 1000 active subscribers MoM without spending a dime on marketing, and once we reach the critical numbers, advertising options can be looked at.

    04. What will be the marketing strategy?

    We will launch a robust marketing plan shortly. We have acquired the current subscriber base all on hearsay, and without spending a penny.

    5. When do you plan to break-even with the digital property?

    All I would like to say is that we are on track as far as investment and other targets are concerned.

     

    As told to Ananya Saha 

     

  • Disposing of a petition filed by ABP Private Limited, the Calcutta High Court has held that the arbitration clause embedded in software of the Indian Readership Survey, which is part of the terms and conditions a user must accept before accessing data, is binding. The dispute has been referred to arbitration

    IRS arbitration clause is binding: Court

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Calcutta High Court has held that the arbitration clause embedded in software of the Indian Readership Survey, which is part of the terms and conditions a user must accept before accessing data, is binding. Disposing of a petition filed by ABP Private Limited and vacating an injunction earlier granted by the Court, Justice Nadira Patherya referred the dispute relating to IRS 2008 to arbitration, in a judgment delivered on September 25.

     

    Responding to ABP’s petition challenging IRS findings, MRUC had contended that the dispute had to be referred to arbitration, as this clause was a part of the terms accepted by users. This was contested by ABP.

     

    The court held, “The issue sought to be raised by the plaintiff in C.S. No.242 of 2008 is covered by the arbitration agreement as the same has been couched in the widest terms and encompasses the issue raised, and the same be referred to arbitration”.

     

    A statement from MRUC said that it is a body constituted of media research users by media research users for media research users. It succeeds only when it advances the interests of its diverse stakeholders in the communications industries. MRUC recognizes that there will be situations in which users may disagree with some aspect of the conduct of various researches that it conducts. It is precisely to handle such disputes in a spirit of collaborative resolution that MRUC places so much emphasis on arbitration, the statement added.

     

  • Supriyo Sinha of ABP is upbeat about Ebela, the group's recently-launched tabloid, which he says readers as well as advertisers are finding refreshing and exciting.

    Jaldi 5 with Supriyo Sinha, VP – Bengali Dailies, ABP

    Supriyo Sinha

    Ebela, the tabloid from Anandabazar Patrika Group, recently launched in Kolkata and Howrah, priced at Rs 2. Supriyo Sinha is positively hopeful about its success. Jaldi 5 with him reveals more about the Bengal market.

     

    1. Since ABP is the undisputed Bengali daily in the market, why was there a need to launch another Bengali daily?

    ABP is the most iconic group in Eastern part of India. The group has been in the market for almost a century. ABP is, by far, the leading newspaper. A Bengali tabloid is a historic milestone for us. We launched Ebela to address the certain need gap that arose from communicating with Bengali youth, and the Bengali young-at-heart.

     

    2. Why has the launch been restricted to only in Kolkata and Howrah? How is ABP marketing Ebela?

    We launched in these markets based on market research. The research estimated that the appetite for a tabloid is higher in Kolkata and neighboring regions. The other markets are still traditional when it comes to news consumption and believe in broadsheet.to market the product, we are using a four-pronged approach. We are out-of-home media in a big way to spread awareness. Then there is web promotion to capture the youth on Facebook and Youtube, Television and radio commercials created by Ogilvy, and on-ground events. We are also driving subscription promotions.

     

    3. Is the advertiser profile for ABP and Ebela the same?

    Yes and no. National brands who wish to target the young-at-heart and local brands with youth as TG have been approaching Ebela. The ad rates for both the products is different.

     

    4. TOI is entering the market with Eyi Shomoy. Would it imply any strategy shifts for ABP?

    No. There is a core market reason for us to be doing this. TOI has been changing its own marketing and communication strategy in this market because of our strong presence.

     

    5. What are your expectations from Ebela?

    I dare not speak for the market but I am hoping for a positive response. From the initial print of three lakh copies, we only wish to grow. The readers, and advertisers, are calling it a refreshing and exciting product.

     

  • MxM India commissioned leading media analysis firm Ormax Media to survey Hindi TV news viewers to find out how they have adapted to the change in name from Star News to ABP News.

    Viewers’ thumbs up to ABP News: MxMIndia – Ormax Media survey of News TV viewers

    By A Correspondent

     

    It’s been a week since Hindi, Bengali and Marathi news channels, Star News, Star Ananda and Star Majha were rechristened ABP News, ABP Ananda and ABP Majha respectively. MxM India commissioned Ormax Media, leading consumer insights and consulting firm, to conduct a survey on news television viewers to elicit their response to the rechristening.

     

    And the findings are overwhelmingly in favour of ABP News: that people are aware of the change, 85 percent feel that the name change is inconsequential and 10 percent even find the new channel better than before! And most importantly viewers seem to be echoing the Star News line with 92 percent of those survey saying other than the name, nothing had changed in the channel.

     

    Clearly, the findings of the survey conducted by Ormax Media indicate that viewers in the chosen target group have adopted considerably well to the rebranding of Star News as ABP News. Commenting on the results, Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media said, “The high awareness for the brand name change is a significant achievement for ABP. They have managed to make a smooth transition. The results tell us that the consumers have taken the name change in their stride comfortably.”

     

    In an interview with MxM India when the name change was announced, MCCS CEO Mr Ashok Venkatramani had remarked that out of the three 24-hour channels set to be rebranded, the Marathi and Bengali channels, Majha and Ananda as suffixes are unique and have grown in popularity and acceptance but the same is not true for the Hindi channel where the suffix is ‘News’ which is a generic term.

     

    Ormax Media conducted the survey on a target audience of males in the age group, 24-44 years in SEC ABC, who are regular Hindi news viewers. With a sample size of 200 respondents, the survey was conducted in 14 markets: Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Kolhapur, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Indore, Gwalior, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly and Allahabad.

     

    The findings of the survey, categorized under ‘awareness’, ‘impact of name change’ and ‘any other changes’, are as below:

     

    AWARENESS

    As far as awareness of the change in name is concerned, of the 200 respondents, 83 percent viewers were aware that Star News had become ABP News

     

    IMPACT OF NAME CHANGE

    • When asked what the name change from Star to ABP means to them, for 85 percent of the respondents, the name change was inconsequential to their watching the channel
    • 10 percent of the respondents claimed that they will watch the channel more after the name change stating better logo and better presentation as primary reasons for the preference.

    Some responses from these 10 percent viewers are:

    • “Naya look achcha laga channel ka”
    • “Pehle se zyaada fresh lag raha hai”
    • “Mujhe channel ka naya logo bahut pasand aaya”
    • “Presentation ka tareeka kuchch alag sa laga mujhe achcha laga”
    • “Display achcha ho gaya hai”

     

    And just 5 percent of the respondents said that they will watch the channel less after the name change citing lack of credibility due to absence of the Star brand name as the main reason.

     

    Some responses from this group of 5 percent viewers are listed below:

    • “Star News bada naam hai, ABP kabhi suna nahin”
    • “Pehle ka naam achha lagta tha, abhi ka naam ajeeb sa hai”
    • “ABP mein woh attraction nahin hai jo Star mein tha”
    • “Jab Star News tha toh wahan news sabse pehle aati thi, ab pata nahin kya hoga”
    • “Pehle Star company ka channel tha, abhi lagta hai kisi politician ne le liya hai”


    ANY OTHER CHANGES?

    • When asked if the viewers had noticed any other change in the channel apart from the change in name, 92 percent of the respondents said that nothing else had changed in the channel besides the name.
    • Only 8 percent of the respondents believed that apart from the channel name, brand logo and presentation style had also changed.

     

  • Come midnight, the 3 MCCS channels will switch the Star prefix to ABP. Nothing else will change, promises the ABP-Star jv CEO Ashok Venkatramani

    Only the logo will change: Venkatramani

     

    As the clock strikes 12 midnight, the logo on popular Hindi, Bengali and Marathi news channels Star News, Star Ananda and Star Majha will change. In fact as the communication from the channels has been emphasizing, save the brandname, nothing else will. Following the announcement of the discontinuation of the Star brand affiliation with MCCS (Media Content and Communications Pvt Ltd), the the Ananda Bazar Patrika and Star India jv, the three 24-hour channels will be rechristened. Star News to ABP News, Star Ananda to ABP Ananda and Star Majha to ABP Majha.

     

    MCCS unveiled its new logos for the three channels and kicked off its communication campaign around the rebranding on May 7. The creative communication campaign was developed by Lowe Mumbai and the media buying plan was formulated by Mindshare. The aggressive communication campaign based on the theme, “Our Stars don’t change, our News does not change, only our Name changes”, was launched across media, on TV, Print, Radio, Outdoor and Internet to familiarize viewers and stakeholders about the new name and logo.

     

    Just hours ahead of the rebranding, MxMIndia spoke to Mr Ashok Venkatramani, CEO, MCCS on the acceptability levels of the new name, measures being undertaken to retain viewership and the road ahead for MCCS.

     

    What time will the change happen?

    Tonight. 12 midnight.

     

    Since you spoke to us the day the announcement was made to now, what are the reports that your front-facing sales and editorial forces bring you – in terms of acceptability of the name… especially for Star News to ABP News?

    So far the feedback has been positive and encouraging. If I were to divide the stakeholders into three parts – the viewers, the newsmakers and the media buyers and the trade, for the first segment which comprises viewers, the change has not happened. It’s going to happen from tomorrow. But since the time we announced, there has been no change in our ratings. We report daily news, and as long as it is the same set of people doing the same set of news in the same manner, I don’t expect much change there. The second constituent which is the newsmaker, there is absolutely no issue there because ABP is a very strong name in the newspaper and magazine industry. It’s been there for long and ABP has very strong news credentials. The third segment which is the trade and media buyers, feedback has been positive… virtually no problem with the large houses. There again, ABP is not a new name, everyone buys print so they know. So it has been positive, and it’s best manifested in the sales that have happened in the last couple of months. I am fairly confident that we will be able to pull this through comfortably.

     

    But the biggest component is the viewer, which is untested yet and that’s where the ratings come in.

    Frankly, unlike the entertainment media where your ratings are linked to some big property and the fate of the channel is linked to that property, in a news channel, where even before the name change there is a fair degree of clutter and poor differentiation. Over a period of time, each channel has established rating levels based on consistency of its content. And that consistency is driven by the way we report, the speed of reporting, the honesty, the faces or the anchors who come on our channel, the kind of programmes we have. Now those things don’t change, the reporting and the people are the same. To my mind, just a logo change in the corner doesn’t dramatically change impact of the news channel. And if you take the two regional channels, Ananda and Majha, they are clear market leaders, and there again nothing changes- the anchors are the same, reporting is the same, and the position of the channel in the EPG is the same.

     

    Any attempts to retain viewership… like contests et al? And any specific measures to retain advertisers? And for the distribution trade?

    No, we are not resorting to any short-term activity to garner quick eyeballs because our genre doesn’t subscribe to that. What we can potentially do is break big stories but there is already so much action happening. What we are doing is engaging with our trade, media buyers and distributors. We are having a series of meetings with them, small personalized interactions where we can chat and exchange views with them. It’s more of a personalized engagement with the constituents rather than any on-air activity for the viewer.

     

    Given that there is a change, are there any specific areas that you are changing in the new channels?

    It would be exactly the same and deliberately so. We just want to do one measure at a time, so at this point there is no change other than the name change. But as we progress into the new name and once the new name gets fully established, people start recognizing it, and then we will look at other measures like relaunching the channel, changing the look and feel etc.

     

    When is that likely to happen?

    Too early to say.

     

    Our columnists Anil Thakraney had commented that this is possibly a good occasion for changing some of the typical things that are common on Hindi channels, like over-sensationalizing etc. Are you thinking of doing that now?

    No, actually if you watch the channel, we have done that for the last one-and-a-half years now. This is a common misconception most people have because they don’t see Hindi news channels on a regular basis. This is a genre problem where we have a lingering perception. For example, I have got out of astrology for a year now, I don’t have a single programme on the channel which talks about astrology. It’s been more than a year-and-a-half since we got out of religion. Now we have not gone out on the rooftops and shouted about it but all these things we’ve already done. We have only hard-hitting news on our channel from 5pm to 10pm. And we’ve done this because we felt this is the right thing to do for a genre not because our name is changing. To my mind, in a news channel, these changes take time to notice.

     

    A programme like ‘Asar’ with Aamir Khan would’ve obviously started on Star News because it was a Star Plus show. Will the preferred partner status continue to exist even after June 1?

    Yes, in fact they are still our shareholders. Secondly, all such deals are purely on a commercial basis but obviously relationships were strong. In fact not many people know that Satyamev Jayate used to be a programme on Star News started by Uday Shankar when he used to be here. And we didn’t have a problem in them doing Satyamev Jayate, so the relationship continues. They continue to be our distribution partners, they continue to distribute our channels internationally.

     

    There is this news that Star might also exit the JV because they say it is not really worth their while to have a stake when they don’t have any say. Is that something that you have factored in?

    Actually I don’t want to comment on it because it’s a JV issue which only the JV partners can address. And I think it is best addressed by Star and ABP. But I guess any commercial investment by any investor has to be based on commercial returns. Now how an investor evaluates investment in the news business depends entirely on the investor.

     

    Have you done any brand studies or surveys on the acceptability levels of the new names?

    Yes, we have done research. A name change always has to be a combination of some research and some amount of strategy. One can’t entirely depend on research, it’s like naming a baby, where you look at the ‘granth sahib’ and pick up the alphabet and choose your name. So I think for us, given the fact that ABP is a serious player in the news business and they have long-term ambitions to be in news, including broadcast news, it did make sense to have a master brand which can be built going forward. So it was a combination of strategy and research.

     

    How active will ABP be, or will it be the same with you running the enterprise and ABP being on the board level?

    Nothing changes even on that front. Even now both the shareholders, Star and ABP continue to be the parents allowing MCCS to do its own thing. They were always available to be tapped, whenever we needed inputs. Any dealing with them is also at commercial terms. I don’t see any change in that.

     

    The campaign of the name change kicked off rather early, from the time you made the announcement… was it part of the original design or was it something which changed later?

    Obviously we saw it coming and we had a headstart of a month or so. A couple of months were good enough for us to churn out a campaign, so that’s how it was.

     

    Will see a more robust online presence of the MCCS channels now, including an English news website?

    If you look at our entire strategy, not just online, it is driven by a simple definition of who we are and what we are. We believe that we are not a television news company, we are a news content company. If we are a news content company, we should be platform-agnostic and we should be available on all platforms where a viewer might like to consume news. So we developed all these websites and developed 3G platforms, mobile downloads etc. so that we are available in all platforms. For us the allied platforms were not like profit centres, we were happy to get the revenue but at the same time we wanted to be present in all the platforms. The problem is that the online rights of Star News were international, which is why we didn’t get .in at that point of time. So we had to go with another name. Now going forward, our strategy remains the same.

     

    Any new channels coming up in the immediate future?

    We are working on newer options… frankly, it’s a question of the right timing. It is not related to this name change or the JV, it is an independent aspect which we in MCCS have been exploring and continue to explore. I would probably wait and watch because next six months are going to be a huge turning point. For example, if the entire digitization process goes on well as planned, it has a big impact on news channels and also our own company in terms of how we project the next five years. If the digitization process gets postponed or deferred then I will be a little more cautious. We do have plans but whether I press the button or not, I’ll probably wait and watch.

     

    Will it be organic or inorganic or both?

    It could be both, it’s a question of a right opportunity.

     

    Say, for instance, if a NewsX is available, would that be an option?

    I wouldn’t rule out anything but I would evaluate everything for the value it brings and how much it costs. If it makes business sense, why not. But it’s not as if we would be chasing any particular company or a set of channels or anything like that.