Now, NewsX says it is the ‘No.1 English channel’

If our TV stations cannot even put out numbers of their viewership which have a faint whiff of credibility, can they real put out news and views that news consumers can trust and believe?

NewsX, the news channel which has already seen three sets of owners since its launch, is running crawlers on its screens and advertisements on websites, claiming that it was the “most watched English channel” on May 8, when the Karnataka election results came out.

By splicing and dicing TAM data, NewsX manages to show that Times Now was the least watched of the five major English news channel.

On the other hand, Times Now too is running print advertisements of its viewership on results day. Not surprisingly, this shows that Times Now was the most watched, with NewsX not even in the frame.

Also read: The most-watched TV news show at 9 pm is…

Lots of people watch Lok Sabha TV. Surprised?

Headlines Today claims it has overtaken Times Now

India’s most-watched TV news show at 9 pm is…

India’s most-watched TV news show at 9 pm is, pinch yourself, DD News!

Hindustan Times reports in its gossip columns that News Night:

“the primetime news show [on DD News] between 9 pm and 10 pm topped the TAM ratings last week with 66% market share, four times the channel which comes next.”

Interesting, if true.

And if true, the numbers below, which also use TAM ratings, become interesting.

Also read: Lots of people watch Lok Sabha TV. Surprised?

Sharp, sensitive, substantive (conditions apply)

The poll straws. They are a-blowing at DD News

How promoters killed the TV news reporter

Sandeep Bhushan, a former reporter with NDTV and Headlines Today and now a journalism educator at the Jamia Milia, on the implications of the growing intervention of owners/promoters in determining news content in TV broadcast news networks, in The Hindu:

“The most far-reaching is the redefinition of the role of the editor. Increasingly his/her profile not merely entails leading the pack in the TRP race, but crucially acting as the “front” for the promoter in order to provide an appearance of both credibility and acceptability within the industry.

“The promoter’s line — his whims and fancies, idiosyncrasies and perhaps, most damagingly his political “preferences” — is increasingly the editorial line. It is not my case that this state of affairs uniformly prevails in all TV broadcast networks. But any “insider” will confirm that this is pretty much the picture by and large.

“This has resulted in growing centralisation of newsgathering operations. Editorial monitoring is closest with regard to “political” reportage because it is here that the government of the day can be really hit hard.

“In my experience of reporting “political” stories it was virtually impossible to generate a story in the field and hope that it got aired unless it coincided with the editorial “line.” “Political” stories invariably emerged from the “top.” Often a reporter may not even have a say in the particular “angle” of a story to which only he or she has privileged access. This has virtually taken the (political) reporter out of the scheme of things in broadcast journalism.”

Read the full article: The death of the reporter

Lots of people watch Lok Sabha TV. Surprised?

It doesn’t look pretty when a free-to-air public service broadcaster gets into the TRP race.

Lok Sabha TV, the channel of the lower house of Parliament, has issued newspaper advertisements through the audio-visual publicity department (DAVP) of the government, of the viewership commanded by it in Delhi during the first week of March—when the results for the assembly elections to five States came out—and except for Times Now*, the news isn’t too good for the rest.

* Disclosures apply

Also read: Every channel is a winner in great poll race

Anna Hazare: 17 TV interviews over 11 hours

Exclusive interview with Barkha Dutt on NDTV 24×7. Exclusive interview with Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN. Exclusive interview with Rahul Kanwal on Headlines Today.

“Live” exclusive interview with Arnab Goswami at “8.23 pm” on Times Now….

It was all in a day’s work for anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare on Tuesday, 13 September, as he rolled out the charpoy for Delhi TV wallahs in his “model” village, Ralegan Siddhi, and went on a PR overdrive.

Now, DNA reports that 74-year-old Hazare, who sat on a 12-day fast in Delhi last month, gave 17 interviews during the day and spoke for 11 hours.

“It was decided to give time slots to 17 TV channels yesterday. Though tired, Anna kept his word and obliged all channels talking continuously since early morning to night in a marathon interview session lasting about 11 hours,” said one of his close aides.

The interview sessions also witnessed “skirmishes” between TV crew as they could not agree to sequence and timing of the interaction, leading to heated exchanges when the embargo decided upon were jumped by some channels.

Read the full story: Anna Hazare gives 17 interviews over 11 hours

Also read: How The Times of India pumped up Team Anna

The ex-Zee News journalist behind Anna Hazare show

Ex-Star News, ToI journos behind ‘Arnab Spring’

Is the media manufacturing middle-class dissent?

Should media corruption come under Lok Pal?

Should ‘media corruption’ come under Lokpal?

The more-than-just-a-neutral-observer position taken by sections of the media on the Anna Hazare agitation has clearly begun to rile politicians, and at least two of them cutting across party lines have argued in the last couple of days that the media too must be brought under the purview of the proposed anti-corruption legislation.

Exhibit A: Union minister for law and social justice, Salman Khurshid.

According to a report in The Hindu, Khurshid asked Headlines Today executive editor Rahul Kanwal as to why media corruption should not be investigated under the Team Anna version of the Lokpal bill.

“Do I need to go back to the Niira Radia tapes? Now you are asking why the government has not investigated. If we go ahead with the investigation, we would be accused of being insensitive. If we do, there would be a mass moment for the media.”

Exhibit B: Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Again, according to a report in The Hindu, Mulayam’s demand that the media also be brought under the Lokpal was met with thumping of desks by his colleagues.

“We [Samajwadi Party] suffered in the hands of media [during the polls],” he said during a debate on corruption. Even as a section of the treasury and opposition benche demanding that “media corruption” be also inquired into by Lokpal, Mulayam went on to state that it had become a practice for electronic channels to collect money during polls and air views in support of one party.

Also read: POLL: How has the media covered Anna movement?

Photograph: Television reporters deliver their piece to camera at the Ramlila grounds in New Delhi, against the backdrop of the stage on which Anna Hazare is fasting for the Lokpal bill

Ex-Star News, ToI journos behind ‘Arnab Spring’

In today’s Mail Today, Headlines Today executive editor Rahul Kanwal adds another name to the roster of journalists working with the Anna Hazare campaign against corruption: former Star News anchor Shazia Ilmi.

He also throws light on the media strategy adopted by the team to craft India’s “Arnab Spring”:

# Never start a press meet at 7.30pm. That’s when TV news channels run sports shows; they will not cut out cricket to show you.

# Avoid live briefings at 2.30pm, that’s when Hindi news channels run Saas- Bahu shows, which fetch very good ratings.

# Keep the message fresh: Supply ‘breaking news’, like letters to the prime minister or Sonia Gandhi, at regular intervals.

# Use symbols to get the message across, like Ana Hazare making a detour to Raj Ghat when few expected him to.

On last night’s NDTV,  Shivendra Singh Chauhan (a former journalist from the Hindi daily Navbharat Times of The Times of India group) and identified as currently being part of Times Internet Limited (again of ToI), popped up as the man behind the social media use of the Hazare campaign.

Image: courtesy Mail Today

Also read: The ex-Zee News journo on Anna Hazare team

To err is human, to eff up repeatedly is divine

If only they weren’t taken so seriously by TV news channels, election surveys and exit polls should be published on the comics pages, for the unbridled fun they offer—after the declaration of results.

Above is The Times of India‘s composite  infographic of all the surveys done by various TV stations and polling agencies for the five states that had elections to their legislative assemblies.

Most pollsters got Bengal bang on, CNN-IBN gets Kerala right, Assam is kinda tricky for all, and Tamil Nadu is, well, impossible for all, only C-Voter comes close.

Below are the leads at 1 pm.

West Bengal: Trinamul Congress 215, Left front 72

Tamil Nadu: AIADMK 195, DMK 37

Kerala: UDF 72, LDF 65

Assam: Congress 81, AGP 10, Others 35

Little wonder, CNN-IBN’s resident number-cruncher Yogendra Yadav of CSDS began proceedings this year by grandly denouncing the fact that each election was seen as a test of pollsters.

Infographic: courtesy The Times of India

We, the Peepli Live: 42 OB vans at Jantar Mantar

There were 42 outside broadcasting (OB) vans of various TV stations at Jantar Mantar, the venue of the campaign against corruption launched by Anna Hazare, in New Delhi yesterday. Headlines Today, the news channel owned by the India Today group, had even set up a walk-in studio.

Photograph: Pritam Sengupta

Radia effect on PM’s invitees for TV pow-wow?

Prime minister Manmohan Singh‘s much ballyhooed pow-wow with “editors” of television channels to clear the air over the scams dogging his government, was, as was to be expected, a typically tepid, bureaucratic affair.

Only the national English TV channels—Headlines Today (represented by Aroon Purie), CNN-IBN (Rajdeep Sardesai), NDTV 24×7 (Prannoy Roy), Times Now (Arnab Goswami)—were interested in asking questions (and suplementaries, much to media advisor Harish Khare‘s discomfiture) about corruption.

Most of the rest, be they from regional channels like Sun TV, Calcutta TV or Asianet, or “international channels” like BBC and Al-Jazeera, were content with asking questions relevant to their audiences and markets (Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Europe, Middle East).

Questions are already doing the rounds on why some sizeable channels like Star News, TV9, etc, went unrepresented. And rumours are already doing the rounds on why at least one sizeable editor was absent.

Radhika Ramaseshan reports in The Telegraph, Calcutta:

“The owner of an English channel had been requested to be present instead of deputing a colleague.

“The owner-editor of another Delhi-based channel was also told he would be welcome. Other channels were sent a general invite.

“The caution came against the backdrop of the Niira Radia tapes featuring conversations of some journalists.”

Also read: Did Niira Radia tapes have impact on Padma awards?