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/