The divide between linear TV and digital (OTT/ streaming) in India is well established now. IPL perhaps is the easiest way to explain it. Both in terms of viewership and revenue, linear and digital are in the 40-60% share bracket. This near-equal split aptly tells the story of two media.
But in examples like the IPL, the story is primarily about audience size and monetisation, but never about the content. Because the content is essentially the same, barring some paraphernalia. This is also true for catch-up television, where digital may be generating 20-30% of audience size, but the content is again the same.
But there’s one category where the divide is fundamental in nature, and extends to content: News. It’s election season, and news is the genre of the season, apart from the IPL. Till a few weeks ago, this election was being called a no-contest. But no election is, even if many feel the result is a foregone conclusion. Things have heated up, and not always in a good way. We are still another five weeks away from the results, and we can expect more fireworks, to use a mild word.
If you watch news on TV channels (or their YouTube feeds/ channels), you will see a certain kind of coverage. But if you follow the elections in digital media, including YouTube, you will see something very different. It’s a tale of two Indias, so to speak.
Last week, PM Modi made a highly controversial speech in Rajasthan, where he specifically singled out a religious community, and quite uncharitably so. The way this story has shaped up in linear TV news channels and digital media is remarkably different. The digital coverage is more analytical and evidence-based in nature, while that on TV is more dramatic and confrontational. Of course, it also means very different political stances on the speech, in the two media.
And that’s true for all political news, in general, today. It’s not just the content, but even the tone, tenor, and treatment are poles apart. This segmentation of the news genre is compelling, but also tricky, because it means that the nature of the media is deciding the discourse!
Digital news is nowhere close to linear TV news on monetisation. Almost all of it is free, and YouTube monetisation is hard to come by, unless you have big numbers. Some digital news platforms do not take advertising to make the larger point about free media. Relying on subscriber support can be hard, especially in a category where there are too many options available. But it’s a fundamental stance these platforms have taken.
Hence, unlike the IPL, the share of viewership or monetisation is not in the 40-60% range, but closer to 20-80% or even 10-90%. If the content was the same, digital news would have been on the fringes, battling irrelevance. But because of the content contrast, it manages to breathe. At least for the moment.