Republic Vs. The Rest: The war hots up

(By arrangement with http://bestmediainfo.com/)

With Arnab Goswami launching his Republic TV channel, the war not only for TRPs but over news coverage seems to have intensified.

First, Times group protested against Arnab Goswami and Prema Sridevi walking away with tapes relating to Sunanda Pushkar murder case and launched a police case.

Bennett, Coleman and Company (BCCL) has lodged a police complaint against its former employees Arnab Goswami and Prema Sridevi for “commission of offences of theft, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of property and infringement of IPR of BCCL” by using tapes allegedly procured when they were with Times Now, on Republic TV on May 6 and 8, 2017.

Goswami called the complainant nervous and unconfident. He said, "Interesting to see them so nervous, if the Times Network has lost viewership, they must evaluate their content and show some grace even in defeat. I am sitting and working in a newsroom and the TOI owners are sitting at the police stations. This shows nervousness and they must show greater poise and realise that new age journalists will not be cowed down by these silly stunts."

For details: 

http://bestmediainfo.com/2017/05/times-now-accuses-arnab-goswami-prema-sridevi-of-theft-and-breach-of-trust/

Then came this:

Amid allegations of using multiple frequencies, Republic TV has debuted with a record opening on the barometers. As per BARC India’s data for Week 19 (May 6 – 12), sourced from one of the subscribers, the channel has grabbed about half of the relative share in most of the target audience groups.

Among NCCS AB Male 22+, Republic TV has captured the relative share of 49.2 per cent in the all-India market. The channel’s relative share in top six mega cities stood at 52.1 per cent.

http://bestmediainfo.com/2017/05/arnab-goswami-s-republic-tv-debuts-with-record-viewership/

And this is the latest:

All the English news channels barring Republic TV have pulled out of the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) and have also removed the watermarking from their feeds.

This is in reaction to BARC releasing the viewership data for the newly launched Republic TV despite NBA urging the council to not to go public with the numbers as the TRAI investigation on the matter was underway. NBA had earlier alleged that Republic TV was trying to garner more viewership through distribution malpractices.

http://bestmediainfo.com/2017/05/english-news-channels-pull-out-of-barc/

TRP War Heats Up as Arnab is Back

In Sakal Times, Today!

I never sell The News - Arnab Goswami @ Republic: On air in a week

(By a special arrangement with www.mxmindia.com)

Months after Arnab Goswami proclaimed independence for news, the nation still wants to know as to when his new channel Republic will be launched. While the billboards are all across the country say 'With You Soon', let’s us hear from the man himself, Arnab, about his plans, his views. Excerpts from a chat Pradyuman Maheshwari, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of MXM India, has with Arnab:

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.

For the full version of the free-wheeling chat, please check: http://www.mxmindia.com/2017/04/up-close-with-arnab-goswami/ 

Press Club awards for Prannoy, Arnab

The Press Club-Mumbai will felicitate NDTV’s Dr Prannoy Roy and Srinivasan Jain and Times Now’s Arnab Goswami along with 25 other journalists at its annjual Red Ink awards on Thursday.

Dr Prannoy Roy, Executive Co-Chairman of NDTV Group, has been awarded the 2015 RedInk Award for Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Journalism for his consistent and pioneering contribution to news television in India, a statement by The Press Club said today.

Dr Roy will be honoured for his service to journalism at a glittering ceremony on Thursday, 30th April in Mumbai at the Jamshed Bhaba Auditorium, NCPA.

Dr Roy along with his wife and journalist Radhika Roy in 1988, were the first to set up a television news production company called New Delhi Television, now called NDTV. In later years, Dr Roy made a mark for his incisive and pioneering coverage of election news and changed the way people consumed TV news with his ground-breaking programmes such as ‘The News Tonight’ and ‘The World This Week’.

After years of producing the news for Star News, Dr Roy launched his own broadcasting network with NDTV 24X7, NDTV India and other channels in 2003. NDTV, one of the largest news networks in the country today, has set up benchmarks for good, ethical and no-frills news coverage.

The RedInk Award for ‘Journalist of the Year’, instituted for the first time, has gone to Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV for his consistent investigative work epitomized in his series ‘Truth versus Hype’ and other programmes. Arnab Goswami,

Editor-in-chief of Times Now, was selected as the ‘Impact Editor’ of the Year for his ability to capture eyeballs and expand audience reach with his ‘News Hour’ show. Scroll.in will be awarded the ‘News Start-up of the Year’ for scaling up its influence rapidly as an alternative source of news and features.

Judging for the RedInk Awards, which includes as many as 10 categories have just been completed, and as many as 24 journalists who have produced outstanding and impactful stories in calendar 2014 will also receive awards along with Dr Prannoy Roy, Sreenivasan Jain, Arnab Goswami and Scoll.in on 30 April at the NCPA.

The judging process proved to be a herculean task with over 800 entries in the print/online category and nearly 250 stories from television journalists. Each of the categories – politics, crime, environment, sports, human rights, etc – had a dedicated jury of senior persons with domain knowledge assigned to judge the entries. A special curator was also assigned to sift the large number of entries in each section and guide the judges. 

The judging process brought in well known names such as Harsh Mariwala, chairman & MD of Marico, for the Business category, Dr Kiran Shaw Mazumdar, head of Biocon, for the Health & Wellness category, former Mumbai Police Commissioner M.N.Singh & Justice Kode for the crime category and Sudanshu Vats, CEO of Viacom18, for the ‘Entertainment & Lifestyle’ stories.

Star India is the Presenting Partner for the Mumbai Press Club RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2015. Other Award Partners include Aditya Birla Group, Indiabulls Housing, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Zee Entertainment, Eros International, SevenHills Hospitals, Lunkad Investment and JSW Steel.

Media and communication partners for the RedInk Awards include exchange4media.com, MxM India, Adfactors, MSL Group India, Integral PR and Concept PR.

The RedInk Awards, now in their 5th year, has grown in stature over the years attracting entries from all over the country. The Awards have been set up as peer and professional recognition for path-breaking stories; and to encourage good, ethical journalism that impacts people and society.

Spoof! Newstainment with a Twist!

Have the news channels become entertainment channels?.

I am not the only person to ask that.

 In fact, TV News anchor Rajdeep Sardesai himself told us at our Mumbai conclave in February 2014 that one could turn to News Channels for entertainment!

 The news channels seem to be losing their seriousness. In fact, BJP boycotted NDTV during the poll campaign on the pretext that the channel was not fair to them. Today, we hear some spokespersons threatening Times Now that they will not come to the channel as they are not allowed to speak.

 Even a student of mass communication feels that the news channels are not doing the right thing.

 My daughter, then doing her masters in mass communication, had this experience during a guest talk by Rajdeep. At the end of the talk and the Q & A, she musters enough courage and ask Rajdeep: Sir, why do some of you anchors do not allow your panelists to respond.

Rajdeep passes this question to Sagarika.

My daughter says: She is even worse!

Let me narrate another anecdote.

We had this interesting debate during the Press Club Mumbai’s Red Ink Awards for excellence in journalism last year.

Arnab, Rajdeep, Kumar Ketkar were the panelists and Piyush Pande, Chairman of Ogilvy, and Uday Shankar, Star TV CEO, were the moderators or anchors.

Uday began by saying: Arnab, Rajdeep and Kumar. The rules of this debate are: I will ask you a question. I will not allow you to answer and I will ask you more questions.

Arnab: Uday, you have begun it well. But you forgot one more rule of the game. You will ask a question. Answer it yourself. And ask more questions….

The topic was: ‘Elections 2014: Were We Fair, Or Did We Stoke the NaMo Wave?’

While Arnab and Rajdeep went about discussing the media’s role on propelling the wave, Piyush interrupted ….you may remember that it was Piyush’s Ogilvy that coined the catch phrase: Achhay Din Aanay Walay Hain.

Piyush said: Arnab and Rajdeep, please don’t credit yourselves for the wave. None of us created or stoked it. WE JUST RODE THE WAVE!

So much for credit snatchers and those who claim the highest TRPs.

It was interesting to see that all channels were claiming the Number 1 viewership position after the election results.

It is equally interesting to watch anchors like Rajdeep Sardesai attacking the race for TRPs among news channels?

We have called them the noise channels long ago.

Here is how it will look if we have a debate among news anchors and political party spokespersons.

Let me present an imaginary debate and let me start with a disclaimer: This debate that I am going to narrate is purely imaginary and fictitious and not to be taken seriously at all.

Don’t blame me if you find it real!

Now, the debate begins something like this.

Rajdeep: My son does not watch news channels.

Arnab Goswami: The nation wants to know why!

Barkha Dutt: It is quite sad. Don’t you feel terrible about it? It must be really disturbing.

Rajdeep: In this race for TRPs, we seem to be losing out. We are losing sense in sensationalizing the news.

Print journalist Kumar Ketkar: For you, everything is breaking news.

Rajdeep: Yes, Arvind Kejriwal leaves home…breaking news….Kejriwal reaches Jantar Mantar….breaking news

Arnab: I will not take this. You cannot pass judgement against me on my channel. My viewers know me well.

Barkha: We have different standards. But we can’t live in isolation.

Rajdeep: Breaking news is breaking down.

Karan Thapar: It is particularly disturbing to see all kinds of nonsense. You must explain.

Prannoy Roy: We have spent 25 years in reporting the news…they say the dot makes all the difference….Now let me ask my young friends on what they think of the news.

Rajdeep: My so does not watch news channels.

Arnab: Never ever. Never. Ever. Never Ever. Say such things. My viewers know me well. Now, let me open up this debate and….let me take this call from Chikamagalur.

Manish Tewari: With regards to your call, how many people watch English news channels? My information is that people in places like Eluru or Chakimagalur or Jumri Talayya do not even get to see English or Hindi news channels.

Rajdeep: Yes, regional media is exploding. But does this TRP race is spreading among them as well.

Barkha: I was in Kashmir. I could freely speak in English.

Arnab: Everyone on my channel speaks English. My Hindi isn’t all that good.

Mayank Gandhi (of AAP): The nation need not know this.

Karan Thapar (tightening his teeth): But, but….dont you think it is highly irresponsible on part of some viewers not to watch TV channels?

Arnab: This is undemocratic. The nation wants to know why this selective black out is happening.

Prannoy (holding his chin with his right palm): Let them have the freedom to chose what they want.

Rajdeep: Only in my newsroom, do we watch 20 news channels. And we have some 483 channels airing the news 24x7.

Subramaniam Swamy: Don’t say it so loud. Some parties will give multiple TV sets as freebies during the poll campaign.

Raghav Behl: That will be good for the economy. The FMCG industry may see growth. Dalal Street will look up.

Arnab, Barkha, Karan and Rajdeep try to say something and all that we could hear is noise. Swamy, Tewari and Gandhi just smile away.

-BNK