MxMIndia

Tag: Times Now

  • It is evident from the report that the high timespent of Republic is a sore point for Times Now

    BCCL fires fresh salvo against Republic. ET report raises doubts on timespent in BARC data

    By A Correspondent

    Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, the owner of The Times of India, Economic Times, Times Now and a slew of topselling media brands, has fired a fresh salvo against former Times Now editor-in-chief and President News’s entrepreneurial venture, Republic TV.

    The clip of the report on Page 8 of The Economic Times Mumbai dated June 12, 2017

    Since the data for the first week of Republic TV’s launch, Times Now, which was the highest rated amongst English news channels, found itself ousted from the top spot by Goswami’s channel. Consequently, the channel along with a few others, prevailed upon the News Broadcasters Association to act on the usage of dual LCNs and advise that they remove the watermarking on their channels thereby opting out of the BARC measurement.

    Other than NBA, many channels are also part of the Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF). Interestingly, IBF in turn is 60 per cent owner of BARC India, which is a joint industry body.

    The channels came back to the BARC fold after they felt assured when Republic TV is said to have told the Court that is not taking multiple LCNs. Interestingly, India Today TV also filed a complaint with TRAI about Times Now using the dual LCN route to boost ratings.

    Last Thursday, BARC released date for Week 22 which marked the return of all English news channels to watermark-led measurement.

    While there is a sentiment that even this data is boosted by channels employing landing pages, an Economic Times report has cautioned media buyers and advertisers that all isn’t well with BARC viewership data. It is evident from the report that the high timespent of Republic is a sore point and Times Now hasn’t gone up in terms of timespent.

    There are questions that need to be addressed now:

    01.Will BARC probe the charges in the ET report?

    02.What does BARC think about the ET report? While ET is not indicting BARC in any direct way, the fact that the timespent data has been questioned, it impacts the reputation and credibility of the joint industry measurement body. What do BARC and owners IBF, ISA and AAAI have to say on this?

    03.Is this a misuse of sibling media by Times Now? If it was such a grave issue, how come other business dailies haven’t taken it up?

     

    It’s perhaps time for NBA and/or IBF to bring order in the house. It should bring together the four or five top English news channels and get them to stop throwing muck at each other and more importantly conduct their business in a fair manner.

     

  • … over the last few weeks, writes Pradyuman Maheshwari

    10 Reasons why English News Channels have been generating a Frown…

     

     

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    If you’ve been subjecting yourself to the developments of the last few weeks, you would possibly be left wondering whether the same news media that sermonises on what’s wrong and what’s right in India has embarked on a path that’s very uncool. Uncool is perhaps too soft a word. As the road sign says: Danger lies ahead.

    Let’s start with the beginning:

    01. Shout as if there’s no tomorrow: I was among the first commentators to applaud Arnab Goswami in 2008 for asking the tough questions. But is it right to forever keep raising your voice – with 6 to 8 talking heads screaming and shouting? Perhaps not. And even on nationalistic issues, if Pakistan is Enemy #1, why call people from there? How about some neutral, global commentators? And look at what’s happened when Goswami left Times Now? Another bunch of noise-makers!

     

    02. There’s no really neutral English news TV channel. Sadly, there is no clearly neutral English television channel. NDTV 24×7: Appears neutral only because it doesn’t gush about the government, but clearly left liberal. CNN-IBN is mostly neutral and isn’t obviously pro-Modi even though it’s Mukesh Ambani-owned, but given its ownership, it can’t obviously be neutral. Must say that it hasn’t been tested on this score yet. India Today: Rajdeep Sardesai is exceedingly neutral, but Gaurav Sawant? And why did they need to cover Yogi Adityanath live for nearly two days. And Times Now: unlike the paper, the channel is pro-BJP, and in my mind, it’s to the extreme. Sorry, I don’t watch enough or any of NewsX and WION to comment on them, but from what I remember of it, NewsX isn’t exactly neutral and WION is as of today too insignificant to matter

     

    03. Legit, but unfair distribution marketing: Using multiple frequencies to promote themselves on different genres is wrong as per the rules, but almost every channel has been reported to have indulged in it – in the distant and recent past. At one level, it’s an unfair practice. But why should the government or TRAI bother. An activity likes this costs top $$$s (in fact $$$$$$$$$$s), and a channel can’t do it forever, unless it cares a damn about its bottomline. Crying to the quasi-government TRAI and the ministry too often can backfire bigtime!

     

    04. Pulling out from the BARC ratings is incorrect. The joint industry body was set up by the ecosystem – broadcasters, agencies and advertisers. And the setting up was accelerated because of a news network’s angst against the earlier measurement firm (TAM). The likelihood of relative errors is a reality, and needs to be factored in at all times. Does this mean one must pull out of the measurement system. What the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has done doesn’t augur too well for the entire ecosystem. In fact it was Regressive. Let’s capitalise that: REGRESSIVE!

     

    05. While television channels can be aggrieved, industry associations should be above interests of individual channels. The NBA erred on that. NBA President Ashish Bagga, is also CEO of TV Today Network, which runs the India Today channel and the decision to advise member English news channels to pull out was taken under his leadership. From what I hear, NBA may not be a divided house on this decision, but it’s clearly not united on it. There are some who believe that the episode could’ve been handled better. Meanwhile, I believe constituents of the ecosystem mustn’t handle them with kid gloves, as I think they have been.

     

    06. The secretariat of the two key industry associations could do with some attention. The reason why NASSCOM or the much larger FICCI and CII are so successful is not because of the Chairman or Presidents, but because of the Secretary Generals or whatever the head of the secretariat is designated. The IBF, which is 60 per cent owner of BARC, chose to stay mum on the issue. And the NBA secretary-general chair perhaps needs a new occupant. The issue could’ve been handled better had there been a more dynamic head of both these bodies

     

    07. Times Now has been making optimum use of its siblings The Times of India and Economic Times for promotion. What it doesn’t realise is that its readers see through the negative propaganda and every printed report actually gives more publicity to Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV. While it’s got India’s most celebrated journalist as a mascot, Republic got a major shot in the arm with all the publicity in the #1 paper of the country. Earned media or whatever it’s called! PS: the page slug on the ET page that carries the report today says: Pure Politics.

     

    08. Cross-ownership issues have sprung up again with the Times of India and Economic Times offer prime space for negative stories on Republic TV. The stories make for good fodder for a trade site, but for a broadbased general news or a business daily? Had it been any other country, there would’ve been complaints on cross-media ownership. In India, no such luck. Governments are just too scared of the print mediawallahs

     

    09. BARC guidelines not followed on advertising: This is something that Republic TV is going to get nailed on. By promoting viewership numbers for just one or two weeks, one is going against the guideline of advertising viewership numbers. The problem is that the reprimand, if any, happens when the damage is done. And the only way in which this malaise can be corrected if an industry association issues a diktat and imposes penal action.

     

    10. The NBA and all the English news channels must realise that while the wars may have resulted in greater viewership attracting undue attention can be counter to their overall interests. For instance, the repeated statements by various people that the English news channels audiences don’t really matter. Etc, Etc. In the longer run, the perception sticks while making advertising decisions. And all of it is very bad for the genre as a whole.

     

    Pradyuman Maheshwari is Editor-in-Chief, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own

     

     

  • What this standoff has done is to expose the weaknesses of the system, the better to be exploited by those better placed to do so, writes Chintamani Rao (Republished with permissions from The Hoot)

    Chintamani Rao: NBA vs Republic TV – Pot calling the kettle…?

    Apart from being a former Chairman of BARC, Chintamani Rao has been a veteran mediaperson – working in advertising for many, many years (37!) and later in the news broadcasting (six years) as also a stint at RK Swamy Media after which he based himself in Delhi NCR as strategy and media consultant. This article first appeared in The Hoot, and we are republishing it with permissions as part of our continuing coverage of English news channels boycott of BARC ratings. Read on

    It was inevitable. It was only a question of who would be first to pull the trigger, and when.

    Two years ago, almost to the day, I raised the red flag – even before BARC started publishing data. Asked in a Q&A with The Hoot about the watermarking technology to be deployed by BARC, I had said (in part) the problem with it is that the broadcaster controls the switch. If you’re disgruntled and don’t want your channel to be measured you can simply stop watermarking, and the system will not be able to read your channel. That will distort the picture, and a major network doing that could hold the whole system to ransom.

    Last week it happened. All English news channels turned off watermarking, and with that BARC’s ability to measure and report their viewership. All except Republic, that is, which was the cause of the action. The other English news broadcasters want BARC, or someone, to take action against Republic for multiple placement of the channel on distribution networks – having multiple LCNs, as it is termed.

    Let’s rewind a bit.

     

    “He that is without sin among you…”

    As Republic was gearing up for launch the word went round in the business that it had acquired multiple LCNs on several distribution networks. Perturbed, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), of which Republic is not a member, wrote to BARC not to report its data. NBA also complained to TRAI.

    Republic went on air on Saturday, 6th May. (Saturday is a good day to launch, because BARC’s reporting week is Saturday-Friday and you get a full week of data from your very first week. Data for the week are published on the following Thursday.) Accordingly, data for Week 19 (6th to 12th May) were published on 18th May – and all hell broke loose.

    Republic was reported to have had, in its very first week, a 51% share of viewership of English news channels. Unthinkable, and unacceptable.

    Times Now, long the undisputed leader in English news, had been widely expected to crash when Arnab Goswami quit. Everyone watched keenly but  week after week it remained no. 1, to the utter surprise and frustration of its competition. Then Goswami came back on air, now as the face of Republic, and – lo! – promptly that channel appeared on top while Times Now slid to second place. Worse, the viewership of Republic was 80% higher than that of Times Now, and twice that of the next three combined. No ifs and buts: Republic was it.

     

    “Yes, the same India Today which had done the same thing two years ago, when Healines Today was rebranded and relaunched as India Today.”

    Meanwhile India Today TV also complained, to both BARC and TRAI, about Times Now too engaging in the same practice, of multiple LCNs. Yes, the same India Today which had done the same thing two years ago, when Headlines Today was rebranded and relaunched as India Today. According to a Chrome Data Analytics report at the time India Today TV was on dual frequencies on each of 70 cable networks, giving it an additional 22% reach. At a cost, of course: by some estimates, 50%  over its normal carriage fee.
    Nor were they shy about what they had done. Ashsih Bagga, CEO of India Today Group, was quoted commenting on it, and expressing his delight with the outcome in viewership and market share. Alas, the glory was shorlived: the channel was no. 1 for one week, before dropping back to its usual place in the pecking order. An expensive, if happy, week.

    Times Now did not deny India Today’s charge, only justified it as a “defensive manouvre”.

     

    “BARC chose to do nothing about either complaint – NBA’s against Republic or India Today’s against Times Now – and for very good reason.”

    BARC chose to do nothing about either complaint – NBA’s against Republic or India Today’s against Times Now – and for very good reason. They said they were aware of broadcasters engaging in this practice in the past too, and took the position that they “… measure viewership of channels basis their unique Watermark ID, irrespective of the platform the channel is available on or the number of instances within the platform.” And, quite rightly, that “BARC India is not the regulatory body for resolving issues concerning multiplicity of LCNs for a channel.” Unexceptionable, on both counts.
    In fact BARC’s policy already states that, “Regulatory issues pertaining to this, if any, would lie within the domain of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) and/or Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).”

    Reacting to what they saw as BARC’s inaction against Republic, all other English news channels stopped watermarking, thus effectively pulling out of the BARC system and rendering it unable to measure and report English news viewership at all.

    Now it is reported that TRAI will conduct an enquiry. Into what and to what end remains to be seen.

     

    Heads, they win; tails, we lose

    Matters are now rather interestingly poised. For all the sound and fury the anchors display on their nightly shows, English news is a very tiny genre in the overall context of Indian TV: less than 0.1% of total TV viewership. Even within the news category itself all of English news is only about 8% of the leading Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak – which itslelf is only about 9% of the leading Hindi GEC, Star Plus.

    So what does that imply for the current impasse?

    The most important reason for audience measurment is for advertisers  to know where to put their money. If the channel or the genre is important enough they manage without data because they cannot afford to miss the audience it delivers. That is what they did during the painful period of transition from TAM to BARC: they bought on the basis of old data.

    In this case, though, it’s not just the absence of current data: the whole category has been disrupted. Data up to Week 18 does not feature Republic, while data with Republic is available only for Week 19 and cannot be comapared with earlier weeks. So there is, in effect, no data at all.

    Nor is English news is central to any advertiser’s plans: it is just too tiny. There is probably not a single media plan in the country which would be disrupted in its absence. That is not to say that advertising on English news is useless: just that it’s not essential. And what it adds to a media plan – frequency, impact and delivering a focused audience – it does at a relatively high cost, getting as it does 22-25% of what advertisers spend on news channels for delivering a tiny fraction of the news audience.

    The affected broadcasters are caught in a cleft stick. Unless a knight in shining armour – the government, TRAI or the courts – charges in to their rescue, they have two choices: make some face-saving gesture, get back in, and risk having the Week 19 kind of data again; or stay out and risk advertisers pulling out in the absence of data. While they have acted as a subset of the NBA all of them are also members of the IBF, the biggest shareholder in BARC, and a couple of them are on its board. What they do have going for them is of course the clout of the news media, which can often induce matters to take an unpredictable turn.

    BARC, on the other hand, is not immediately affected. The largest part of its revenue comes from broadcasters, and of about 900 TV channels in India only 6 are in English news. Their broadcasters cannot afford to pull out of BARC fully because all of them have other channels, for whcih they need the data.

    BARC’s other source of revenue is media agencies, on behalf of advertisers, who can afford not to buy English news. This means the absence of data on English news will not materially affect the value and usefulness of BARC data to its subscribers, and therefore will not affect BARC.

    If TRAI does uphold the complaint against Republic and orders it to operate on a single LCN, it is highly unlikely that the broadcaster will snap to attention and comply: they are bound to fight any adverse ruling through all the appelate processes available to them. In other words, whatever Republic is doing or has done is not going to change in a hurry.

    For the present, then, BARC is safe, advertisers are unaffected, and it is the English news channels which have something to think about: they got themselves into this situation and they have to dig themselves out of it.

     

    But that is only for the present

    What this standoff has done is to expose the weaknesses of the system, the better to be exploited by those better placed to do so.

    First, that BARC can be held to ransom. This time it has been challenged by a small genre that does not materially affect it or its other stakeholders, but what’s been done once can be done again: next time by a single broadcaster or a group of them whose absence is keenly felt and forces BARC to the negotiating table.

    Second, the practice of multiple LCNs is out in the open. It’s not financially viable on an ongoing basis but is a useful way to get a temporary blip in ratings for the launch of a new show, for example. It distorts the data but BARC will – even if rightly – do nothing about it. So, unless there a law or a court ruling to prevent it, it’s here to stay.

    The advantage of a system run by a vendor – like TAM – is that the vendor has no role in the business except to provide data. They are answerable to the industry  and the survival of the system depends on their being able to keep the stakeholders satisfied.

    On the other hand, the problem with an industry-owned and –driven system like BARC is that the players have interdependent relationships outside of the measurment system and have conflicting stakes in the business. Worse, in the case of BARC the ones being measured not only control the system, but also individually have the power to opt out of it at will. That cannot be a sustainable situation.

    BARC as an entity is not responsible for the shenanigans of broadcasters, but those very broadcasters own (60 per cent of it) and drive it. They are the plaintiff, judge and jury. Unless it finds a solution outside the judicial system in which affected parties – which would most often be the constituents of its own shareholders – can approach an objective, independent body of third-party experts, the audience measurment ecosystem can look forward to the proverbial interesting times.

     

    Chinatamani Rao is a Strategic Marketing and Media Consultant living in New Delhi NCR. He is a former Chairman of BARC and has served on the IBF and NBA Boards.  He has headed Times Global Broadcasting and India TV as also RK Swamy Media Group, MAA Bozell, McCann after spending nearly 11 years at Ogilvy as Executive Director and earlier as Associate Director at Lintas for six years. He is a PGDBM from XLRI and graduated from St Stephen’s College, Delhi

     

    This article first appeared in The Hoot at http://www.thehoot.org/media-watch/media-business/nba-vs-republic-tv-pot-calling-the-kettle-10106. Republished with permission form the publisher and the writer. 

  • India Today has even urged BARC, to stop publishing data for Times Now with immediate effect

    And now, India Today complains to TRAI & BARC on Times Now using multiple LCNs; Times Now says it did it in self-defence

    By A Correspondent [updated]

     

    Even as English news channels got together on Republic’s ratings, India Today has complained to TRAI and BARC on Times Now also choosing to be piped out via multiple LCNs.

    According to documents in the possession of MxMIndia, India Today has been very scathing in its complaint on Times Now. It has in fact even urged BARC, to stop publishing data for Times Now with immediate effect.

    The development has got some industry seniors to wonder why the two channels – India Today and Times Now – who have joined hands to fight Republic are now fighting each other. Or at least India Today is fighting Times Now.

    When asked to comment on the India Today complaint, this is what a Times Now spokesperson told us (via mail): “Times Now did a defensive manoeuvre. We have never been an advocate of multiple LCNs and have NOT run our channel that way till last week. In fact we have been an affected party more than once and raised this issue at various levels. It was only after a desperate and aggressive move was made by Republic TV on the ground that we upped the ante in self – defence. As part of NBA, and as a responsible brand, we endorse strict action against such destructive and diversionary tactics. Times Now is NOT playing on multiple LCNs anywhere in the country as of now. The impressions of week 19, including our own are tainted and not dependable due to this reason and we had joined the NBA in raising it to BARC earlier this week.”

    However, according to unverified information received by MxMIndia, Times Now is reported  to have taken up dual LCNs… around the time of the launch of India Today channel and also the UP elections.

  • I am not sure how legally tenable the complaint is, but in my limited view, it was unethical, writes Pradyuman Maheshwari

    Mediaah!: Is BCCL right in registering a copyright infringement complaint against Arnab Goswami?

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    Is Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL) right in registering a copyright infringement complaint against Arnab Goswami? Yes, it is. I am not sure how legally tenable the complaint is, but in my limited view, it was unethical. When the story was first aired on Republic TV on May 8, one couldn’t help sitting up and take notice. But then along with the various questions that Goswami raised in his ‘super exclusive’, there were some questions that I had.

     

    The Economic Times report (Page 3, May 17, Mumbai edition)

    See report in Economic Times on the complaint: link

    In fact, I tweeted about it (see link).

    The fact that it was only retweeted twice indicates that copyright and editorial ethics aren’t considered very critical and holy to many (or most?) in India. Copyright, it’s often joked, is the right to copy!

    But this isn’t about copyright. That’s something for Times Network owners to take up with the Courts.

    It’s an issue of ethics.

    The recordings of the conversation between Prema Sridevi, the reporter and Shashi Tharoor or Sunanda Pushkar’s Man Friday was done when the reporter reportedly worked with Times Now. Unless her terms expressly stated it, or she was just a freelancer with the channel, the recordings belong to work done when the reporter was an employee.I am not sure what is the legal view on it, but it’s not ethical.

    I am not even raising issues of why Goswami and Sridevi, now Editor-News at Repulic,  didn’t air the recording when they were in Times Now, but that’s not really my concern though it’s a question that must be answered.

    The Nation wants to know…

     

    **

     

    All eyes are now on the BARC India numbers that will be out tomorrow (Thursday, May 18). Given all the promotions and distribution via multiple frequencies, it’s quite likely that Republic will be #1, but the question is that it’s not a play over one week. Republic can’t be spending so much monies on distribution as it’s today, so the real story will emerge after a few weeks when it opts of taking multiple frequencies.

    To Goswami’s credit, his equity with viewers is huger than all the other anchors. The MxMIndia-MRSSINDIA poll earlier this week indicated that Rajdeep Sardesai is a close second and not a distant one in the trust factor, but it’s for India Today to use this to their advantage. Possibly promote Sardesai a little more.

    We’re going to see some interesting times over the next few weeks or months. And we aren’t complaining

     

    Pradyuman Maheshwari is Editor-in-Chief and founder, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own.

     

  • For TV anchors, practising better journalism is perhaps a good way to fight Republic TV, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: In a high decibel world, anyone for better journalism?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Times Now anchor: Don’t you think, Mr Salve, that the Pakistan lawyer’s speech was all rhetoric?

    Mr Salve: I would not like to comment on another lawyer’s speech.

    Times Now anchor: But don’t you think Mr Salve…

     

    At this point, I put my earplugs back in because I can take high decibel screeching only for short intervals after which my ears need a break.

    The issue being discussed was of course the death sentence against Indian national KulbhushanJadhav by a military court in Pakistan on charges of spying, and the subsequent case being fought at the International Court of Justice between India and Pakistan.

    What I understood from Times Now is that its top anchors Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar had listened to the arguments at The Hague and come to certain conclusions. They then tried to get their guests to corroborate or sanctify those conclusions. Times Now constant Maroof Raza knows how to play the TV news game and agrees with the anchors and then adds his own ideas. Other panellists sometimes fall victim to the absurd idea that the anchors are interested in their personal opinions and up go the decibel levels. Mr Salve, by refusing to play the game, somewhat befuddled our anchors, who constantly interrupted him but did not have the required chutzpah to argue with him. A #BigFail for entire law degrees acquired in one’s own mind, would you say?

    A far better discussion happened on NDTV and NidhiRazdan’s Left Right and Centre. Diplomat KC Singh, lawyer Dushyant Dave, journalist Jyoti Malhotra, party spokespersons SambitPatra and Manish Tiwari and the gentleman from Pakistan all had diverse views and ideas which gave the viewer something to chew on. Razdan did not allow too much hysteria and managed to check the gentleman from Pakistan and Patra from getting into a major battle. There was disagreement but it was civil. What a disappointment for viewers who are used to manufactured hysteria!

     

    **

     

    Speaking of which, it was fascinating to try and understand the results of MxMIndia’s poll with MRSS on English language news channels. Republic TV, headed by the inimitable ArnabGoswami, seems to winning hearts and minds, with 41 % of urban Indians giving it a “better than the rest”. What does that say about other news channels and the hopes and expectations of urban Indians?

    The “success” of Republic TV – too early to comment on success is my personal opinion and hence the inverted commas – continues to upset Rahul Kanwal of India Today TV. His latest flurry of tweets is about news reports alleging shady practices by the channel. Apparently it is available on secondary spots on the various platforms, according to a complaint made by the News Broadcasters Association of India to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Obviously unethical trade practices must be reported. But for TV anchors, are there better ways to fight Republic TV, one wonders. By practising better journalism, perhaps? I know. That was a joke.

     

    **

     

    On the subject of better journalism, interesting that after all the anger we spent in December 2012 over the brutal gangrape and murder of Jyoti Pandey, now called “Nirbhaya” forever, more recent horrific crimes against women fly completely under the radar. It is TV journalism which sparks and encourages public outrage very often at times like this and strangely, the gruesome details of the latest case in Rohtak, Haryana, do not seem to have created any collective froth amongst our intrepid TV anchors. One understands they are ready to go to war with Pakistan, bullet-proof vests and all, but surely the women of India deserve some attention.

    But perhaps, not when they are from Rohtak and not when Rohtak is in Haryana which is ruled by a BJP government…

     

    **

     

    Meanwhile, a week back in this wonderful nation of ours and our village newspaperwallah has not responded to messages that we have returned. Therefore, newspaper journalism will be under the scanner only whenever his scooter arrives at top speed with high-decibel beeps.

     

  • Even as the numbers from BARC are awaited, our study throws up some interesting findings… read on

    The MxMIndia-MRSSINDIA Poll on English News Channels

     

    By  A Correspondent

     

    India has seen launches of several media entities. But in recent years, the launch of Republic TV has been the most high profile. This could be possibly because of the entities involved: Arnab Goswami, decidedly the most well-known journalists across genres, and Times Now, which is part of one of India’s largest, richest and most powerful media conglomerates.

     

    While Republic TV launched on May 6, and there have been some numbers from OTT platform Hotstar and digital media that have come in, the numbers of consequence – from BARC India – will be out only on Thursday, May 18.

     

    MxMIndia commissioned leading marketing and opinion research firm MRSS India (www.mrssindia.com) to conduct a small study to find the mood of the masses, especially in urban India.

     

    Here’s the summary of the findings:

    :: Majority of English news channel viewers mentioned they are aware of ‘Republic TV’ English news channel and most of them (41%) perceive it to be ‘Better than Others’.

    :: Centre wise, Mumbai (41%) perceive it as ‘More Credible’, Delhi (39%) find it ‘Old Wine …’, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad English news channel viewers find Republic TV ‘Better than others’.

    :: Aggressive approach is found more appropriate for Debates, Breaking news and Analysis & interpretations. whereas, softer approach is found more appropriate for News deliver, soft news, sports and business news.

    :: Most viewers look at News channels to be opinionated but there is also a strong sense of believe that news channels should also play a vital role in bringing about political or social changes.

    :: Overall, print is a more trusted source (51%), closely followed by News channels, currently online (websites) are not considered a trust worthy source. News paper is more trusted by viewers in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai. News Channels are considered better trusted source by viewers in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

    :: When it is need to verify news, the first source is News Television (54%). This is more in Chennai (54%), Kolkata (68%) and Ahmedabad (67%).

    :: Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai are considered the most trusted news anchor by close to 1/3rd of the viewers. Barkha Dutt comes at third place. While Goswami leads comfortably in Bengaluru and Kolkata. Sardesai has higher trust value in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Dutt is relatively strong in Ahmedabad and Chennai.

    :: Among the English news channels visited in last 1 week, Republic TV was 41%, Times Now is 35%, followed by NDTV 24×7 is 32%.

  • A freewheeling chat Pradyuman Maheshwari had with the founder and chief promoter of Republic TV

    Up, close with Arnab Goswami

     [updated, some typos removed and edited for clarity- Ed]

    It’s not easy to do a soft interview with Arnab Goswami. And the problem is that if you do a hard interview, ask him some probing questions including a few on others in the media, it’s possible you’lol be served a legal notice. Which is also fine… if you’re in the kitchen, you must be ready to face the heat. So after some back-and-forth, this interview was fixed for Monday, April 24. It was 10am, we reached a few minutes late, and were called to the editorial conference room. There was much action in the newsroom, some screaming and shouting and laughing and, no, no howling, but it was nice to see a busy newsroom on a Monday morning. Arnab came in within a few minutes, we apologised for the delay and he did the same, and said he’ll come back as his laptop was missing.

    There were some five people in his office who checked his bag, and we thought we had a nice story on our hands: Arnab’s laptop lost. Now could it be that someone from a competitor may have done that. After all its not unusual for confidential data and info leaking out. The first para of a news report was already in our heads. So were the words for a 120-character tweet. The laptop had all his plans, the Excel sheets, the numbers, the projections… everything. After five minutes, Arnab walked in. Smiling. The laptop was found. It was in a bag inside a big. A few minutes later, the laptop came. Steel grey Macbook Air.

    Arnab in person is dramatically different from what you see him on television. Very gentle, very softspoken. And, most importantly, he listens to you. All ears. He doesn’t interject. He doesn’t shake his head while you are taking. Body language isn’t combative. He is like the Raymond’s man. Complete. Well, so are some big-name anchors, but it’s always a delight to meet Arnab, even if you disagree with his brand of journalism. Though there is no questioning his love for the country. And his commitment to credible journalism. He is one of the few journalists in the country who doesn’t mind asking the tough questions, on camera.

    This is one of the reasons why it will be interesting to see if he can do it all over again with Republic TV. What’s also going to be worth tracking is how his channel fares vis-à-vis competition. And whether competition allows him to prosper. But more about that in another story, on another day.

    Excerpts from a freewheeling 35-minute conversation MxMIndia editor-in-chief Pradyuman Maheshwari had with Republic TV founder and chief promoter Arnab Goswami. Enjoy.

     

    Arnab Goswami: First of all, thanks for doing this.

    Pradyuman Maheshwari: I’m very worried about this interview because one shouldn’t be taken to court. For, even though your answers in some interviews have been politically correct, the questions did name organisations and individuals…

    If it carries on like this then all journalists of India will be marching to court all day instead of newsrooms(laughs).

    So the question which, let me ask with a non-trademarked statement: India wants to know when is the launch?

    Very soon, it’s a matter of days now. You’ve seen my newsroom, it’s buzzing with energy, I’m trying to get the product as close to being perfect as possible. There’s nothing like an absolutely perfect launch though. But having said that, we’re trying to sort of stitch things together… bring all parts of the piece together, get the team to integrate, believe in themselves, believe in the product, believe in the news they putout… get very, very familiar with the technology they are using because some of the technology you’re using here is…

    Different?

    Completely, completely new age. And so I want that familiarisation process to carry on so I’m not setting a hard date for launch yet, though if you ask me can I launch? I can launch right now.

    So no Akshay Trittiya launch, April 28th?

    No, no-no.

    May 1, Maharashtra Day, Gujarat Day…

    No, I don’t believe in these any commemorative events or dates. I believe every day is good for news… we should just have a good run, go with the flow.

    But surely you need to inform the distribution folks?

    The distribution guys are more or less informed. I think most of the people are aware of our channel being launched. In fact, we’re getting a push from the distribution guys to launch early. Some places have already started putting up promos on air in anticipation of our launch; our media campaign should be starting soon. So we are almost there.

    The question is that, the last mile, 4-5 days here or there should be a discretion of the producers of the channel. So whenever the producer of the channel says we’re okay to go, I’ll go.

    So, plus or minus the 4-5 days, May 10, May 1?

    Yes. I would say, yes, pretty much around that.

    May 1 and 10 are too far apart?

    Yes that’s what, I don’t know, I frankly don’t know because that’s not a decision I have. I have a very delegated organisation. So when the editor and the editors and the producers come together and say we’re good to go I’ll go. That’s what we’ve told them. That you keep practising till you’re good to go but I’ve also told that  there’s nothing like getting things perfect.

    Right.

    No, you don’t get things perfect even after running a channel for 10 years and I would come back to my previous channel and find things completely messed up every morning… it was like starting every day as if you’re launching a new channel. So it’s not as if 10 years of familiarisation of running a workfloor makes it perfect, because eventually people are people. But we’ll try and get it as good as possible. I’m very confident of our product and I’m supremely confident about our look-and-feel, our stories, our journalism…

    You mentioned that you’re a well-delegated organisation but surely it’s an Arnab Goswami operation.

    Well, I mean, it, it is not, because  we have delegated responsibility to the youngest and most empowered bunch of editors in any channel. We have empowered our production team to a point where the president of the content of the channel is our Chief Executive Producer. They take decisions completely independently, graphics producers, non-linear editing producers, even news editors don’t ask me. My interaction is with the journalists on the stories. That’s my limited interaction. I can’t stop doing that because that’s my bread-and-butter but beyond that I feel that we have created a system where everybody fits in very well into each other like a jigsaw puzzle which comes together every morning and that’s actually what I enjoy doing. The reason I launched Republic is to make sure that people who are 10 to 15 years younger than me are able to do the news faster than I would have. And it’s a joy to see them working together. What I have done is put together my digital output, input, production, graphics and elite teams, all together in one gigantic newsroom which you are seeing here. You wouldn’t see a newsroom like this where everybody is working together and talking and familiarising and there’s no email conversation, generally people are sort of shouting instructions at each other, so its very well-delegated in that sense…

    And what about you?

    They don’t need me to come in.

    You are now more than just a journalist, you are an entrepreneur. You need to look at how the channel will make the monies. How will you ensure that the great work you are doing on Day 1 also happens on Day 365?

    Yes, yes

    How much of that do you think is going to influence your journalism?

    I think you set the basics right and then you say that these are the five things that we’ve got to do. I bring things down to basics, so I say let’s get the basics right. Let’s do these five things right today and then let’s find a way that these five things will be right regardless of who is sitting on the hot seat, so it’s fine. As far as making money is concerned, see, if you’re popular and you’re watched, and you have impact, people advertise on news channels. And then,  I don’t run an extra-lavish operation, neither is it a barebones operation. But if you are watched and have impact, and you have popularity and you have credibility most of all, then people advertise on English news channels. And I’m 100% confident that with the kind of response I’ve already got from the market, before launch, people believe in our product. I mean the best of the advertisers have lined up and are advertising with us from Day 1.

    And the reason they are doing this is because they believe in the product that people put out, eventually it’s about the content. Eventually it is not about anything that you may do, eventually you may have all the money in the world tomorrow, to hire the most expensive lawyers and threaten to sue every competitor, but you will still lose if your content is not up to the mark… that’s it!

    Distribution is also critical, right? You may have the best of content, but if you don’t spend the money on carriage fees and ensure that various DTH operators carry it, you lose viewership. And that’s a lot of money, it’s a guzzler.

    Ah, well, I’m not negative about it.The fact is that we are already quite disruptive in that model. We are India’s first non-encrypted free-to-air English news channel. There’s no other channel in that space. People love us. Wherever I have gone and travelled across the country from Chennai to Kolkata, people have opened their arms.

    You’ll hence not earn revenues from subscription.

    Doesn’t matter. This is a labour of love. I want to make sure that this channel is watched everywhere in India.

    And let me share something very personal with you. I’ve been to people, I’ve met distributors who come and say that one nervous competitor comes and tells them here is six months of money, extra upfront, can you block ‘Republic’ for two weeks? And yet those people say no. Because they know that when ‘Republic’ launches, everybody will want to watch it. People will want to watch my debate. Those attempts have now become what I call antediluvian.

    Hmmm.

    Right, it’s as antediluvian as a crocodile’s skin. You cannot go ahead anymore and say that I will pay you extra money, almost like ransom money, to try and ensure that another competitor doesn’t enter the market.

    But dirty tricks is a common thing in many businesses. A ’90s cola ad screamed “ye cola hai ya gulab jamun’ when a competing brand launched. It happens with various domains… they ensure shopshelves don’t stock the new product.

    Media is different. In media who is the original, who is the copy, is well-known to people, Also,  you’re actually bringing down whatever is left of the quality of your brand by resorting to  desperate dirty tricks measures… because the moment you do it, behind your back people are laughing at you. Behind the backs of people who are trying to pay six months extra upfront money and say don’t meet Arnab, don’t put out ‘Republic’ for two weeks. They’re even desperately saying if you can block ‘Republic’ for 10 days at the launch, we’ll be happy. Behind the backs of these people everybody laughs at them, so they become the laughing stock of the industry. What am I doing? I’m saying to people, I’m a free non-encrypted channel, I will promise you good journalism, I have good reporters, I have good producers, I’ll present a good product. And the entire distribution fraternity has welcomed me with love and open arms.

    You’ve got someone like Sameer Manchanda of Den on your board, you’ve got Asianet which is a huge plus because we do know that English channels are very widely watched in the South. So you have all the big brains backing you…

    Sameer is actually not on the Board, that’s mistaken, Sameer has invested in my holding company along with 13-14 other people. I never mortgage my personal friendships for business convenience.  I have a very professional equation with Den, and will continue to have a professional equation with Den, having Sameer as one of my investors does not influence at all my relationships with them.

    Two charges have raised against you by an industry which is fairly positive towards you. One is about Rajeev Chandrasekhar being one of your primary investors…

    Yes

    That he has strong links to the NDA… That that given Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s association, will ‘Republic’ really be independent as Arnab claims it will be?

    I’m very proud of the investment from Asianet Online Private Limited and why shouldn’t I be? It is the oldest media entity in India. As Asianet was started way back before any news channel including NDTV started. So there’s a history to the organisation, it has another couple of channels with it and I’m very happy to be associated with Asianet. And I hope that I will also be able to contribute to Asianet in my personal and professional capacity in the future, to its growth. And as far as Rajeev is concerned, he has been a media investor for over a decade now, and he’s invested in several other organisations as well and I am very glad that he through Asianet Online Private Limited has an investment here. I’m very proud of the association. Eventually, everyone who is an investor in this company is also a believer in my journalism.

    Hypothetically, and given the way you do your journalism, if you get belligerent on something that could impact Rajeev’s investments.

    It’s a completely hypothetical and ridiculous question. I’ll tell you why. You should check out: Asianet is the most critical of the BJP in Kerala as well. So when all of us who are in the media business, we work on the news that we carry, I don’t need lectures in balance from the Lutyens’ media, who have sold their souls for the longest time; these are the people who left me to dry when I did CWG, when I did Lalit Gate, these same Lutyens’ media was quiet about it, nervously sitting in one corner, not sure how to respond to it when I was taking on the BJP. I was boycotted by the BJP for a month-and-a-half. People who therefore are invested in me know my journalism. I’ll take on everyone and anyone. I’m only going to be on the side of the people.

    Ah!

    So, these are little straws in the wind. These arguments didn’t even fly.

    The other charge…

    And, and, and, and the point is, who is making these charges. Some person, some individual, who after remaining in India, working in India as a journalist for the longest time, still clings on to his American passport and then questions why people like me are nationalistic? I’m very clear about one thing: each one of the investors in ‘Republic’ believes in nationalism.

    And it is time for people in India to come together and put their straight thoughts on how this country can be made great once again. That’s our common belief. That’s not a right wing belief, it’s a nationalistic belief.

    The reason for my question was what we’ve seen in the case of Raghav Bahl and Network18. The channels were doing well but he had to sell out as went through a bad patch. In politics too we’ve had cases parties puling out of backing a minority government because of a fall-out. Is that a possible worry… just in case something goes wrong?

    I don’t worry about anything because I’m so sure of my product. I don’t worry about anything, I’m a content creator. The only thing I worry about is my TV channel. How is the TV channel going to look? What kind of stories am I going to do? What pictures will run? What the graphics will be? I have never looked ahead at all or looked behind. I look at the next thing to do. The next thing to do at this stage of my professional career is to launch an English news channel called ‘Republic’. Then the next thing to do is to expand my digital presence, through Republic World. I will have a next thing to do after that within three or four months. You know me, I’ll keep shifting my goalpost in terms of my next target, every three to six months, but I’ll move wherever the news can go. See I have respect for Raghav, for Prannoy [Roy], for Karan Thapar, for Rajdeep Sardesai, all these people who are much older to me, they have a right to do things their way, they’ve done things their way, why should I comment on them? But this is 2017. I’m doing things my way.

    It’s interesting that you say you have respect for Rajdeep, I thought you’ll were at loggerheads…

    No, I, why should I be at loggerheads? See, Rajdeep comes from a generation of seniors who have done their bit at that particular point of time and it’s good for him. I wish him luck in whatever he does.

    Tell me, how is Republic going to be different from what you did before, is there going to be…

    I don’t even feel the need for it to be different. I was away from TV for a while and I’m back, and what I do now will be watched for what people like it for. I don’t want to try and do anything in life with this forced pressure on me to be different. I don’t want to be different. I just want to be myself and I think that’s good enough if I can break the news that I like in the way that I want to, good shows that I like and integrate good technology. But one thing is there: that if in the process of doing so, I can marry technology with the intellectual prowess of people who are in their 20s and early 30sand  really understand how to funnel TV and digital together, that’ll be some, small contribution I can make…

    This is also the most fickle generation. As in the loyalty doesn’t exist to any specific show… is that a worry?

    No I’m not worried because while it’s a fickle generation I think today you can create new brands very quickly.

    True.

    With good content. I am actually very happy about the fact that today the media is fragmentable and fragmented. It keeps us on our toes. We are not here to build organisations that say that nobody will compete with us and we will try and build moats around ourselves to ensure that our dominance is forever. I can’t do it. Tomorrow somebody can launch another organisation and challenge me. I would be very willing and open to that challenge. It’s fine. No problem.

    In the past, we seen ratings drop whenever you would go on leave.

    Yes

    And, there there was no second line. A few people who could have been second in line moved out. Now that you are doing a business and you are responsible for people’s jobs and people’s livelihood. Will there be a second line?

    Yes, there is a second line

    On Day 1?

    There is going to be a second line on Day 1. Both in terms of anchors and editorial talent, so what I’ve done is that along with our executive editors and editors, there are about seven people in the second line editorially. And there are at least about six people in the second line in terms of anchoring talent. Besides which I have a very very strong and independent production team, which is now being made completely independent, which runs the entire organisation. I have bequeathed the responsibility of running the organisation on editorial on a day-to-day basis to this group, and they are able to manage it.

    You have done that?

    Yes, I have already done that…

    Seriously?

    While I’m managing it of course, I’ve got to be looking at everything in terms of quality control. But if you ask me in terms of day-to-day, minute-to-minute operations, I intend to create a system where the wheels of the organisation run even without me for a few days.

    And this is very important for me to do because then I can strategically look at other ways in which I can improve the quality of the news, improve the quality of the shows which I do. It will give me more time to think and plan. Having said that, even in my previous organisation, I’d already done it. Now what has happened that after I’ve gone, I’m not responsible for, but while I was there, I had run that kind of a system.

    But…

    Since I’m anchoring a critical slot which is doing well, it gives a perception that everything centres around this individual. The viewer associates the organisation with me. But as an organisation, I’ll take you around our studios and our PCR  and you’ll feel it’s not really [a one-person show].

    But you deserve a holiday, you may get busy with other things. So on those days, ratings shouldn’t fall, right?

    No ratings will not fall, don’t worry. We’re going to be up there on the ratings charts.

    Yes, but there should be a clear second line.

    There is a very strong second line. We have Sheetal Rajput who is India’s original war correspondent, she’s is with us as a senior news editor and anchor. Parikshit Luthra, who would do 9pm on CNN-IBN, has joined us. He’s the news editor in Delhi. We have Hariharan who is a very famous anchor from Tamil Nadu, from Thanthi TV. He has also joined us, he’s a fantastic anchor. Niranjan Narayanswamy, who used to be anchoring on Times Now, is also editor and is anchoring on the channel… I have a very, very strong base of anchors on the channel.

    So just in case you’re not on air on a day, who’ll be the anchor?

    We’ll be firing all cylinders, don’t worry. It’s unlikely that I won’t be there because I have this habit of anchoring from all remote locations at any point of time, I carry a camera with me and nowadays, technology is so brilliant, I can anchor with a phone. I have got a software which if I put it on my Samsung phone or any phone, I mic myself up, and I can broadcast from any place in the world. So I’ve got that technology and I’m working a lot on mobile devices for uplinking, and have been experimenting with stuff that is not been done before for uplinking.

    Two other charges… one of which has been also used by other channels that your brand of journalism is more noise and less of news.

    Yes.

    Are you going to be the same and are happy with that charge?

    I mean I’m thankful to all those people who have carried these campaigns.They can keep carrying the campaigns and I am grateful to them. In fact I would request all of them to carry a few more negative campaigns. They help me. In the year before last, India Today did an entire campaign around this ‘more news, more noise’ kind of thing. Even now NDTV did this whole campaign on more news… why don’t they care about what’s going on in their own organisations rather than talk about me? Let them all fend for themselves, I’ll fend for myself. I have a clear philosophy: in this country, you have to shout to be heard. When we say shout, we mean it in a metaphorical way. You have to assert yourself. You have to raise the right issue. And also sometimes raise it to the right amplitude for it to get attention. You cannot be coy about things and expect the world to change.

    What about the charge that in the latter half of your stint in your previous channel, the orientation was more towards the right. Nationalism got translated often to you being pro-BJP, pro the philosophy of BJP and the philosophy of RSS.You were soft towards Narendra Modi…

    It’s a ridiculous charge. We did LalitGate, was it pro-BJP? For a month-and-a-half we did LalitGate…  We got boycotted by the BJP, was it because we were pro-BJP? We got boycotted by the Aam Aadmi Party, was it because we were pro-AAP? We got boycotted by the Congress, was it because we were pro-Congress? Name one organisation which was boycotted by all three major political parties for stories it did. It was us, and I’m so proud about it! See, some people are touchy for long, some people are touchy for shorter period of time. It doesn’t really matter. As far as my views on the country are concerned, they’ve been consistent even during the Congress government. Tou would remember that after 26/11, I hammered the foreign policy of the Congress government. I questioned it. Anand Sharma and Pranab Mukherjee were incharge at that point of time in South Block, I took on both of them. I questioned them, so my stance on issues of corruption and nationalism has been consistent through the Congress period and the BJP.

    Just because the BJP is in power right now and my position on issues of the nation and nationalism seems to be closer to their perspective, doesn’t make me pro-BJP at all. I disagreed with the Aman ki Asha… why should I agree with the Aman ki Asha approach? This candyfloss daffodil diplomacy that is being encouraged by some media groups is their business. They should introspect. If you see me, while I was in The Times of India, I didn’t ever follow the Aman ki Asha approach. I refused to because I don’t agree with it. Editorially, conceptually, as an Indian, I don’t agree with it and I will not do.

    So suppose…

    So, so the Congress was in power at that time, was I tuning what I did on air to suit a Salman Khurshid’s line on foreign policy? I didn’t. My line is my line and it comes from the heart and my team believes in it and even if they don’t.

    Supposing someone from your team does an Arnab Goswami to you… that he or she may have his own line of thinking which may not agree with yours. What happens then?

    It’s good, it’s okay. We won’t send them a legal notice.

    But you or your associates sent a legal notice to the Wire?

    Who?

    The Wire was sent a legal notice.

    I don’t want to comment on insignificant groups like the Wire. They should really introspect on what journalism they do. If they need me to sell their digital site, I’m sorry for them. It seems to me that they are obsessed with me because there’s no other way they are going to get a few hits. I hope they got a few hits as a result of whatever they put. I spoke to that reporter only because I know him for a long time in NDTV. And I told him when I was speaking to him that I know you are going to do a hit job on me but I’m still speaking to you out of our old association. And he he was laughing away and he knew that I had seen through his game. Sometimes I respect old friendships, so I spoke to him. As far as the Wire is concerned I really hope that they get a few hits because from what I’m seeing from the statistics, nobody seems to be following them.

    You would have Siddharth Varadarajan on your panel, in fact after the Rahul Gandhi interview, you had review the interview.

    Siddharth should introspect on what he’s doing. He is another older generation person. I don’t quarrel with people who are older to me, he should generally introspect now. Think about whether it is time for him to do some journalism rather than commentary.

    Let’s move on…

    No, no, no, let me tell you that.

    Yes?

    It’s very important for people who are doing these digital sites to stop pontificating about others in the media all the time and start doing some stories of their own. It would be really nice. Let them actually roll up their sleeves, go out there, do a few interviews, meet a few people, get out of their Lutyens’ zones, transport themselves outside the ephemeral reality of their air-conditioned chambers in Lutyens’ Delhi, see the real country, watch what’s happening out there, and stop becoming preachy. People in this country are tired of preachers in journalism.

    Hmmm.

    So, therefore, not just to Siddharth, but to a lot of people I would say: start doing some news rather than commenting on the people who are doing news. But I really hope that the Wire gets a few hits because I think they need a few. (Laughs)

    You’ve spoken about Lutyens’ Delhi etc in the past and you’ve been in Mumbai for a while. Didn’t you think of having your headquarters elsewhere…  say, in Bengaluru?

    No, headquarters can be anywhere. It can be in Bengaluru, it can be in Kerala, it can be in Guwahati, it can be in Kolkata, it can be in Srinagar also, but it should not be in Delhi.

    You’re not worried about the film stars who lobby stuff in Mumbai?

    Doesn’t matter so much.

    Or the business guys.

    Film stars and business guys never influence me, I’ve taken on a lot of them whenever I did 2G, CWG, Aircel, Maxus, I’ve seen them through and through at that point of time. As far as film stars are concerned I’m not running award shows where I need film stars to jump around.  So I don’t need to oblige them.

    You will never ever do award shows as part of Republic?

    I’m running a news channel, I don’t have time to organise award shows.

    Person of the Year etc?

    I don’t know, right now I’m only focused on the news.

    So tell me once again

    No, you asked me about film stars, award shows, my answer to you was I don’t need film stars to jump around in award shows that I’m doing. So I’m not necessarily in a position where any film director or film stars need to be on good terms with me and even if they don’t choose to be, it’s fine with me. Some people may need that. Some people might need film stars to oblige them to be photographed with them.

    I’m going to get a legal notice now (laughs).

    No, no, I’m making a general observation that there may be some people who constantly need to be photographed with film stars, directors, to dance around, be photographed with, to feel good about. I don’t need that kind of gratification because I’m a journalist.

    Tell me something: we are 10 days away from launch. In fact, we at MxM wrote that some people feel that you are overdoing your promotion. Your ‘love letters’ and the way you reacted to the legal notice which was a standard statutory notice… Do you think you’re overdoing it?

    I didn’t respond to the legal notice, in fact I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve under-responded to the legal notice. Let them take me on. Let them take me on. I would request the group that has sent me a legal notice to publish in the front page of their newspaper whether they have a right to claim that they crafted the words ‘nation wants to know’ and the sole right to use it. I want the results of that poll to be published, across eight column on the front page of the same newspaper…

    So why did you want to trademark it?

    I’m doing a show. If I’m doing a show called ‘Nation wants to know’ I’ll put out a trademark application but have I said that I will arrest everybody who uses the name? I don’t. I walked down Palladium and I see T-shirts being sold with ‘Nation wants to know’. Now, am I going to arrest the person who sells the T-shirts with ‘Nation wants to know’.  And I think every Indian has a right to use that name, every Indian should use that name. And it is more an assertion, of the questioning spirit of the average Indian citizen. Nobody can appropriate it for themselves and, by the way, I also said in my letter that way. I said quite clearly. And this I’m making a general observation: if any media group makes it its central mission to harass journalists who quit, then it should reassess its own style of operations. If any media group says that if you quit, I will deny you our provident fund, your gratuity… I will hound you, I will send letters to you saying you’ll face untoward action, which are like open threats, right? It is certainly not the kind of practice which should be allowed in the media fraternity. I genuinely believe today if somebody quits my organisation, I’m not going to hound them. I’m not going to make life terrible for them. But I have also seen some young people in my organisation who have been hounded, who have been followed, who have been harassed, who have been denied their dues, denied their monthly payments, right? All of us have stood together for each other. This group of people you see working here (pointing to the newsroom) are people who’ve stood for each other and said we will not be cowed down.

    Are you….

    And therefore, as a general observation, I’m repeating once again my advice is to all media groups to stop using these tactics of legal intimidation versus each other because it doesn’t fetch any returns in the long term.

    But you were part of large organisations too…

    I’m making a general observation. My general, unsolicited gratuitous advice to people who are doing that is they shouldn’t…

    Moving on, tell me, will you do paid content to earn revenues?

    I never sell news.

    AFPs etc.?

    I never sell news. Advertorials are different, but I never sell news and I would not allow it on Republic. It’s my clear and straightforward statement to you.

    Last question: To the person who’s not too much into the news business and not bothered about the battles in the media, what is Republic going to offer?

    Republic is independent, straightforward, hits at everybody equally. It covers the news life from all places, is far more funneled between digital and television, far more technologically savvy. And truly an organisation in which all reporters have the free spirit to go out and report on what they want. In that sense, it’s a revolution. It’s also classically a generational shift in the Indian media. It’s an assertion by content professionals that they can run large mainstream news organisations on their own. It is also a breakaway from unfortunate systems of dynasty which have pervaded in Indian media, where people have only inherited organisations and not built them. This organisation is built brick by brick. It is an assertion to all legacy media groups as a warning to those individuals that do not believe today, that you can, in today’s day of digital and television which continue to have monopolies. Monopolies are about to fall. All these actions that you are seeing, the nervous capers, the dirty tricks of all these people who are trying to  thwart the launch of Republic, are actually an acknowledgement that when Republic launches, their countdown will start from that moment. It is therefore a conflict between new media and legacy media. Republic is new media. I know I’m up against legacy media, I know I’m up against Lutyens’ media, I want legacy media and Lutyens’ media to come together and try and outthink me. Because I said it very clearly, this is a David versus Goliath fight. You’re a journalist, at the end of the day you do know, you will watch a channel, if you believe in the story.

    They have the marketing muscle… they will take away all the hoardings and all the space in the newspapers

    Let them take… let anybody take away all the hoardings, all the space in the newspapers, everything. Let them strip all their physical assets away and say we will deny Arnab all of it, it doesn’t matter.

    So, May 10?

    Somewhere around. It seems you also can’t wait (Laughs). Pradyuman, I have a question for you.

    Yes, ask.

    At the end of the day, will you watch Republic on air?

    Of course I will.

    That’s my straight question.

    Of course I will watch.

    I’m very happy for you.

     

  • It's a war out there between Times Now and Republic TV, and the real battle hasn't even begun yet

    Arnab Goswami ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai?

     

    By A Correspondent

    There’s tension in the air in news media vice-capital Lower Parel (assuming Delhi and Delhi NCR constitute the Capital). As you read this, the battleground is being charted at Times Now headquarters in Central Mumbai. Ever since editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami quit Times Now in November and announced his intent to start his own news channel, it’s been a war.

    At first, Goswami wasn’t allowed to say a formal goodbye to viewers, though his farewells at work has been well-youtubed. Which is fair as unless its pre-recorded and vetted, a channel wouldn’t want to be embarrassed on air by an outgoing captain, and so what if he was its face all these years.

    And then as it emerged Goswami was serious about his venture, there was a fear of the unknown. The channel may still be #1 in overall data, but the numbers started falling and advertisers were beginning to question the premium on ‘super primetime’.

    An all-out damage-control exercise started. Staff was motivated to stay back. A new chief editor was identified and hired, there was a clear second-in-command appointed and the content direction was further sharpened. The shrill quotient was upped.

    Except that it lacked the gravitas and finesse of an Arnab Goswami.

    There were rumours of another well-known editor being pulled in to join, but that didn’t happen.

    Meanwhile, along with attempts to fortify the house, a counter-offensive started. The Newshour was trademarked, and Times Now even went to file for trademarking Nation Wants to Know – the slogan and the logo. The following month Republic TV also filed for trademarking these. All the applications have been objected to.

    Meanwhile, both sides have been posturing to take on each other.

    At FICCI-Frames in March, Goswami spoke of it being a David v/s Goliath battle. And he did that without naming Times Now, but it was all very clear.

    Goswami has been on overdrive with his PR. He has hired Piyush Pandey’s Ogilvy & Mather for his advertising and Genesis Burson-Marsteller. His interviews are all over the media, to mainline newspapers, specialised magazines and even some YouTube shows. Some publications which carried offensive outbursts by Goswami have even been served legal notice.

    Perhaps rattled with the following that appears to have increased ever since he left Times Now, the channel was quick to send a legal notice on the ‘Nation Wants to Know Usage’. This may be standard practice, but not being the first notice he received from Times Network, Goswami viralled an audio response to the notice.

    At first Times Network sent us a statement even ahead of us asking for a comment. Here it was:

    “ARG Outliers had filed for trademark for these and similar phrases which were already filed for and extensively used for years by TIMES NOW. We have responded with a standard caution notice. He is just trying to gain soundbytes from it”

    We then asked Times Network on why it filed for a trademark when ‘Nation wants to know’ is, in a sense, a generic statement.

    And this is the response:

    “‘Nation Wants to Know’ is not a generic statement. It’s a phrase coined by the creative team of Times Now and made popular by repeated usage on our channel and is in essence a descriptor of the uncompromising tone of questioning that Times Now has been known for. The phrase like other similar unique phrases and words such as NewsHour, Action Begins Here etc., together create the News environment and experience that is embodied in the Brand Times Now. Protecting IPs and Brands is essential for the existence and survival of Businesses. Times Network is an upright and diligent corporate citizen and takes copyright issues very seriously. We are cautious not to wilfully violate and we are also alert in defending our IP. We filed for Trademark as we were expecting attempts to steal our IP.]

    And then we asked why was Arnab Goswami threatened with imprisonment as part of a “standard caution notice”?

    The response we received was this:

    “Standard Caution notices quote from the law of the land and remind addressees about penal provisions on infringement – in this case The Trademarks Act 1999 and IPC 1860, which could attract Fines and/ or imprisonment.”

    According to an Outlier insider, the filing of trademark for ‘Nation wants to know’ was for the name of a show. Perhaps. But not everyone believes that Arnab Goswami should go to town with his angst against Times Network.

    These are standard tactics deployed by all marketers, especially those leaders whose status could be checked thanks to the launch of a new brand. In fact, a senior mediaperson said if Goswami were to overdo it, he could earn negative goodwill. “The Arnab Goswami brand of television journalism has its takers, and no one has been able to match him months after his exit, so there is no need of paranoia.”

    And what about Times Now and the Times Network? Media observers believe that there is an urgent need to reinvent and rehaul. While the channel continues to top the ratings roster, its equity has reportedly dipped and consequently the revenues may be hit too.

    While media might and distribution muscle can help it continue to be top-of-mind, it won’t be too long before competition catches up if the content is not n place.

     

  • Meanwhile, Times Now scraps Magicbricks Now, unveils Mirror Now

    NewsWar2017 Round#1: ‘David’ Arnab Goswami takes on ‘Goliath’ Times Now, Newshour-ishtyle!

     

    By A Correspondent

    It was mixed set of emotions for the folks at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Ballroom 1 and 2 at the venue of the 18th edition of FICCI-Frames was packed to the aisles. There was some place to stand, but just about. As almost everyone gravitated towards this hall, the other venues weren’t as packed at sessions being held simultaneously or immediately after this one.

    Around four months after having exited primetime news on television in the country, ArnabGoswami is still a star. And as much of a crowdpuller as a Bollywood or sports biggie.

    And on Wednesday noon, Goswami thundered. Like he’s known for. Theatrics that the nation loves him for. Except this time around, he appeared to have a lot more people rooting for him. For, Goswami has turned entrepreneur.

    In a country which loves to champion the underdog, see a chaiwallah turn into Prime Minister, a modest investor outpace some of the biggest, the media and entertainment fraternity in attendance were happy to see Goswami evangelising his craft.

    Interestingly, it was also the day, when Goswami’s former employer, fired its first salvo in its #AttackArnab offensive. The hashtagging is our doing, in Newshour-ishtyle. So Magicbricks Now which seemed to be going nowhere in revenues and ratings, has been dumped and rechristened Metro Now. For a while, the real estate channel has been been airing metro-centric news, and talking heads-led nightly debates.

    So let’s get back to what Goswami said, around a month before unveiling his all-new news channel-led platform: Republic. By hiring former armyman Major Gaurav Arya, he has clearly indicated that he will continue his ‘My heart bleeds for India’ offensive every evening.

    Speaking at the FICCI-Frames 2017, Arnab thundered: “Those who will understand the hidden script – because I don’t mince my words- will understand what I am saying today: This is a David Vs Goliath fight,” he said. And then paused and smiled at the audience before continuing.

    “And I stand here before you proudly to say Goliath has tried to crush me and already failed. Because you can’t crush a thought. David thought on his feet, Goliath did not. David had the speed and David out-thought Goliath. I want to tell Goliath today: Come, out-think me, if you can,” he added.

    “I have with me a bunch of Davids. Davids have emerged on their own. And they want to shackle the Davids. Because a bunch of Davids free is a threat to the Goliath. Our bunch of Davids will make old monopolies fall once again, as they have in the past,” he declared.

    “Republic will ensure that new ones will come and these new ones – these new guys will be the ones that show the world from right here in India that Content is King, not Money. Money will fail and people will watch the screens that they believe in and not the screens that sell to them,” he pledged and promised that “putting the focus back on each one of you is my only determination.”

    And then he asked: “Which side would you be on? With David or with Goliath?”

    It may be argued that the editor-anchor-and-now-entrepreneur could well be talking about Goliaths like the AroonPuriemanaged-owned India Today and MukeshAmbani/Reliance Industry-run CNN-IBN, but it’s evident that his angst is against Times Network. The Times of India group-owned television network is of course known to be fierce in the battlefield especially when it thinks a newbie could be an aggressor. It did that when the Ambanis launched a business paper to take on The Economic Times in 1990. In 2005, when Hindustan Times and DNA were getting set to enter its bastion Mumbai, it launched Mumbai Mirror and got very aggressive in its offers to advertisers. And now as stiff competition comes in from the man who built it, Times Network under the leadership of an old Times group warhorse MK Anand, has unveiled a manifold offensive.

    First, ensure that the attrition is under check. Some elevations have happened. Some more have been motivated to stay back.

    Second, get the content plan in order. Anand is reportedly active on the editorial front too, and is marked on key newsroom decisions and stories, a move that upset some

    Third, launching a ‘flanking product’. Hence Mirror Now

    Fourth, Times Now to also go into HD (which is to be announced soon)

    And fifth: fight Republic on the street… Revenues, Ratings, Regulators, MIB, ASCI… wherever necessary.

    When Goswami popped the ‘David v/s Goliath’ question, there was applause. Taaliyaan! He also took on the Delhi-centric channels saying that the national media is “content in Lutyens Delhi that you stop fighting for the people of the country”.

    Citing the example of the Kansas City killing of 32-year-old Srinivas Kuchibotla, he said: “The satiated Lutyens media was content in labelling it as quote unquote ‘hate crime’. And I ask you today: isn’t there a dent needed in the Indian media to shake it up…to fight for families like that of Kuchibotla. How can you be so satiated in Lutyens Delhi?”

    After taking on his seniors (and the mighty) in the capital, he moved on to talks about his style of journalism. “The focus is on India and the focus is on English but English done the Indian way. When I started off as a journalist…they said i should take pauses at the right places…..I won’t speak in the polished way..I will speak English the Indian way…I want to speak in the language that the 25-year-old in the Indian newsroom relates to”, he said. Regular watchers of his shows recall how he would often break into an ‘Arre Baba’ while speaking to guests. Defending his brand of journalism, which is in every possible way is being pursued by the existing dispensation at Times Now, he said: “..They’ll tell you facts are sacred and opinion is free. I say facts are available and opinion is sacred. Opinion in the media is especially sacred because it is a differentiator between a journalism that is confrontational and a journalism that is happy to be docile and subdued. Opinion in the media is especially sacred because it is a differentiator between a journalism that choses to takes the right side of the truth and one that prefers to be falsely neutral in order to perpetuate the status-quo… opinionated media that has the potential to be activist. It is opinionated media that has the potential to be a change agent to being merely a supplier of information. I refuse to be simply a supplier of information,” Arnab said, throwing the gauntlet again down- this time at the old traditional definition of journalism.

    We haven’t heard the last from Arnab Goswami’s Republic and Times Network’s MK Anand. Both are known to fight hard, and both are known to be happy losers. But who is?

     

  • Do we really need these polls with only a day-and-a-half for the results? Anything for a day’s viewership. And anything for some pre-election mood build-up, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Poll Of Polls: When Exit Polls become too many to handle

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    It’s the big election results day tomorrow (March 11), with counting and results in several states, including two that carry massive interest: UP and Punjab.

     

    Exit Poll predictions were released last evening across news channels. The last phase of UP elections ended on Wednesday, but since some bypolls were scheduled for Thursday, news channels had to wait that one extra day before releasing the Exit Poll findings.

     

    Exit Polls have become a bit of a mathematical maze in recent years. There are 8-10 different polls, co-branded with two entities – one a media house or a media brand, and second a research or psephology firm. The results can vary significantly at times, to the extent of comfortably changing the predicted winner. Some of these polls give a “range”, while others predict an exact number of seats (error margins may be documented, but no one cares about those details, as anyone in the forecasting business will tell you).

     

     

    The new entity in recent years that adds to the maze is one called the “Poll of Polls”. It’s a simple average of all available polls, taken to find a level that’s generally seen as acceptable, because it presumably reduces the overall error margin by leveling things up. That notion (that the error margin reduces via this method) may not exactly be true, but it’s a viewer-friendly thought nevertheless, riding on simplification a a central thought.

     

    About a decade ago, channels and newspapers fiercely protected their work, not wanting others to share their data, and not sharing theirs in return. But in recent times, this has changed, primarily because this multi-source approach hedges their bets. Some channels have had egg on their face in the past, because they stood by some numbers their Exit Poll predicted, only to be found way off the mark on the results day.

     

    So now, even if a channel has its own poll, they share that as one of the data sources. It may get considerable weightage and attention, because they will have better demographic cuts and detailing available inhouse. But the larger story is still projected based on the Poll of Polls. So, it’s routine to see names of competitive channels being spoken (and on the screen) on such days. Last evening, for example, ‘Times Now’ was very visible on NDTV 24X7.

     

    Some channels have stopped commissioning their own polls, well knowing that there will be enough and more available to bite into. In any case, the entire exercise, such as the one last evening, is laden with confusion. For example, while it is amply clear that BJP-SAD will struggle in Punjab, and may end up with single-digit seats, the polls just could not conclude who will win the state. And while most polls suggested BJP would be comfortably the single-largest party in UP, at least one gave a very different picture, putting SP in front.

     

    Politicians, of course, take a stance of acceptance or denial, depending on how the results suit them. Sometimes, they can take a stance of whole-hearted acceptance on one state and a stance of complete denial on another, within seconds of each other. Very few like Yogendra Yadav actually understand how it’s all done. “Expert” comments on Exit Polls are thus largely political rhetoric, devoid of any statistical or rational view on the data.

     

    Do we really need these polls with only a day-and-a-half for the results? Anything for a day’s viewership. And anything for some pre-election mood build-up.

     

    On a lighter note, I wonder what would happen if all channels decide to stop their own Exit Polls and rely on the Poll of Polls, which would then not exist to begin with?

     

  • He was CFO for the Times Network between 2005 and 2012

    Former Times Now CFO joins Republic

    By A Correspondent

     

    S Sundaram

    S Sundaram has joined Republic, Arnab Goswami’s media entity, as Group CFO for the TV and Digital venture.In a career spanning three decades, Sundaram has served as CFO for 15 years in different organizations – his footprint running across Finance, Legal Compliance & Business Development functions. He was CFO for the Times Network between 2005 and 2012. Sundaram now takes charge of the financial leadership at Republic.

     

    Commenting on S Sundaram joining his team, Arnab Goswami, Founder, Republic said “I have known Sundaram closely for 12 years now. We at Republic are privileged to have a professional of his caliber onboard. He’s easily one of the best CFOs in the business today. We are excited to have him with us”.

     

    Republic CEO Vikas Khanchandani added, “Mr Sundaram’s range of experience in financial leadership is unparalleled in the broadcast business. His successful stint in the Broadcast industry and three decades of experience will help Republic scale new financial benchmarks.”

     

    On joining Team Republic, Sundaram said “Having known Arnab as a colleague and friend for so long and seeing him rewrite the rules of television, I am excited to be with him at Republic and see him become India’s voice for the world.”

     

    Sundaram has been a part of a large bouquet of businesses: Consultancy (A.F.Ferguson& Co),  FMCG (PepsiCo India), Luxury Consumer Products & Services (Bausch & Lomb India & INOX Leisure), Internet (india.com),Television News Media (Times Global Broadcasting).

     

    Apart from being hands-on with Financial & compliance management, the depth of his start-up exposure has equipped Sundaram to be an active business participant -essential to build a robust business process within an efficient value chain from scratch.