Booming: Television News Channels in India

News programmes have suddenly become hot property and are vying for attention with other popular programmes telecast in separate channels. All major television broadcasters are along with at least one news channel to their bouquet. The biggest ill for launching a satellite channel is programme software for round the clock. In this juncture, newsgathering is a major task for the 24-hour news channels. To cater this task, the emerging electronic channels have always made an attempt to cover all the incidents irrespective of position, location and time. These channels not only revolutionized the opinion of news on Indian television but also changed the news formats. Before 1990s, Doordarshan had monopolized newscast on Indian television and also turned the news programs into a dowdy exercise. Now the secret channels made the news an significant commodity like food, cloth and shelter. The strong point of all today’s news bulletins is their topicality, objectivity, slick editing and high-quality visuals. News has traveled a long way from the Dd era. From Local events to International events, breaking news to news analysis, television soap to page3 news, every happening comes under purview of news. In this article, we have covered some significant changes in news broadcasting in India before and after the Gulf War.

Indian Television - Flash Back

News From Afghanistan

Television in India is undergoing significant changes in the current liberalized environment. To understand these changes, one needs to have some brief idea of the road covered by the television channels so far. The journey started as an experimental basis with a financial grant from Unesco in 15th September 1959. The makeshift studio at Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi was chosen for location of the experiment. The experiment started with one-hour program, broadcast twice a week, on community health, citizen rights, study and traffic sense etc. As far as news is concerned, it was launched exactly six years after the inception of television broadcasting. Daily one-hour schedule with a news bulletin was served to the Indian viewers. But one major drawback of television was that you could not enjoy the customary colour of the objects because of black and white transmission. First multi-color programme was the Prime Minister’s address to the nation from Red Fort in Delhi on India’s 35th Independence Day. In the same day, Dd National channel was launched. The aim of launching the National channel is nurturing national integration, and inculcating a sense of pride in Indians. Indian viewers also enjoyed the colored version of the Asian Games hosted by New Delhi in their drawing room. The coverage of major events and separate occasions lend a big hand behind the infiltration of television signals to the nook and corners of the subcontinent. Indian Government had taken all potential steps to enlarge the television broadcasting demographically and geographically. In 1983 television signals were available to just 28% of the population, this had doubled by the end of 1985 and by 1990 over 90% of the citizen had way to television signals. In 1984, Dd Metro channel was added to furnish an exclusive entertainment for the urban viewers. In the beginning, this channel was confined to metropolitan cities.
As a communal broadcaster, Doordarshan presented the news in naturalized manner. All controversial issues were pushed under the carpet. The ruling government had a strong hold on the television broadcasting. Doordarshan news bulletins were unable to furnish the international news to the national viewers. Objectivity had been the first casualty as news was invariably slanted to suit the party in power. The news was liberated from the confines of the Dd newsroom and gained in objectivity and credibility when New Delhi Television (Ndtv) produced ‘The World This Week’ in 1988. Everybody was waiting for the Friday night to watch ‘The World This Week’. This was the only India-based programme, which looked out at the rest of the world. The World This Week was the best current affairs programme on the international scenario and carried good stuff of news, which the regular Dd news was failed to carry out. This schedule is ranked as one of the country’s finest and most popular television shows. In 1989, Ndtv produces India’s first live televised coverage of the country’s general elections. The significant and commercial success of the coverage sets a new appropriate for Indian television. After the Gulf War the media panorama has changed forever.

Golf War – The Catalyst

Post-1990 satellite television in India has become transnational in nature. It coincided with the entry of multinational companies in the Indian markets under the Government procedure of privatization. International satellite television was introduced in India by Cnn through its coverage of the Gulf War in 1991. In August 1991, Richard Li launched Star Plus, the first satellite channel beamed the signal to Indian subcontinent. Subhash Chandra’s Zee Tv appeared in October 1992. It is India’s first confidentially owned Hindi channel to cater the interest of Indian viewers. This ignition followed by Sony and a little later by domestic channels such as Eenadu, Asianet and Sun Tv. Entertainment programs had begun to occupy town stage in the organization’s programming strategies and advertising had come to be main source of funding. Doordarshan’s earlier mandate to aid in the process of communal and economic improvement had clearly been diluted. Doordarshan had faced a stiff competition in news and communal affairs programming with international channels like Bbc and Cnn. Doordarshan planned to sell some slots for news programme under sponsored category. In February 1995, Ndtv becomes the country’s first secret producer of the national news ‘News Tonight’, which aired on the country’s government-owned Doordarshan set a new landmark for Indian television because of its on-the-spot reporting with pertinent visuals. In the same year, Tv Today Network busy a 20 minutes slot in Dd Metro channel and aired a Hindi and current affairs programme ‘Aaj Tak’. This programme became popular for its widespread coverage and unique style presentation by Late S. P. Singh. Still we remembered the sign-up message “Ye Thi Khabar Aaj Tak, Intizar. Kijiye Kal Tak”. Large whole of viewers across India had been watching Aaj Tak as a daily habit because of its innovative style of news presentation. Besides that Nalini Singh’s five-minute fast paced, condensed daily news capsule Ankhon Dekhi, Tv Today Network’s business Aaj Tak and Newstrack was aired on the Metro channel of Doordarshan. This is the duration when satellite channels concentrated on entertainment programmes for their respective channels. Doordarshan was still ruled the most wanted area ‘news’.

Major Players

Doordarshan’s monopoly was broken in 1992, when secret television channels infiltrated into the Indian boundaries and entertain the viewers as much as possible. In the beginning of 1990s, the secret channels offered only entertainment programmes. The entertainment programs contain house drama, comedy serials, children programmes, cartoons, movies, talk shows, formula shows, musical concerts, non-fiction programmes etc. secret entertainment channels added some infortainment programmes to their Fixed Point Charts (Fpc). Retention the examine of infotainment programmes in mind, the media houses started to yield news magazines, entertainment magazines and news programmes for separate channels. India’s premier business and consumer news broadcaster and a foremost media content provider, Television Eighteen India little (Tv18) started India’s first ever entertainment magazine ‘The India Show’ on Star Plus in 1993. This emerging media powerhouse in case,granted prime time television content to practically all foremost satellite channels in India along with Bbc, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee, Mtv and Discovery. After The India Show, Tv18 produced a weekly business news schedule India business record for Bbc World. Indian viewers had very little options (like communal service broadcaster Doordarshan, Bbc and Cnn) for watching the television news. For televised news, the viewers had to watch Dordarshan and some international news channels like Bbc or Cnn. In this race to furnish more news, more information, Zee Television jumped into the battlefield by launching the news channel Zee News in 1995. This News and current affairs channel revolutionized the way news was delivered to the viewers. Since its inception Zee News has endeavoured to be the fastest to furnish news, working towards a singular goal of Sabse Pahle (Always First). The other round-the-clock news channel, the Murdoch-owned Star Tv beamed its exclusively 24-hour news channels, Star News in 1998. Star made a covenant of five year with Prannoy Roy-owned Ndtv (New Delhi Television Company) to furnish news content for this news channel.
The untiring exhaustive coverage of the Kargil war in the middle of India and Pakistan gained more publicity and attracted more viewers towards the electronic channel. This televised conflict also sets a news benchmark for wartime journalism. While the Kargil war, coarse citizens witnessed how their brave Jawans fought despite in hostile conditions and watched the war front live by the exclusively news channels, Star-Tv and Zee-News. The live coverage of the battlefield helped to originate a euphoria of patriotism among the Indian masses, which later facilitated into collecting huge funds for the welfare of the families of Kargil martyrs. Every news programme draws the attention of large whole of viewers but Kargil war attracts secret broadcasters to invest more money in the broadcasting business by launching a news channel. In November 1999, Tv18 entered into a 49:51 joint speculation with Cnbc Asia to launch Cnbc India. Tv18 is the sole schedule provider to Cnbc India, and produces 12 hours of local content per day on this 24-hour satellite channel.
After the huge success of news programme ‘Aaj Tak’, Tv Today group launched a 24-hour Hindi news channel with the same name ‘Aaj Tak’, in December 2000, which covers India with insight, courage and fullness of local flavour. Within 11 months of its launch, Aaj Tak emerged as India’s whole one news channel and was awarded Best News Channel award from Indian Television Academy Awards. Some mega events apart from regular curious items (such as Kandhahar hijack, September 11 attacks, Afghanistan war, charge on Parliament, Iraq war, Godhra carnage and riots) have driven up the viewership. As time passed, Ndtv’s five years covenant with Star group for outsourcing of news and linked programming expired on March 2003. With the expiry Ndtv forayed into broadcasting business by simultaneously launching two 24-hour news channels; Ndtv 24X7 – English news channel and Ndtv India – Hindi news channel, which targets the Indian diaspora across the world. News crazy Indians received more news at faster speed from separate channels. Any unusual happening can be caught by the television camera anywhere form Rastrapati Bhawan to bedroom. The power of Tv journalism was become more illustrated by the major sting operations like carrying out West End and Shakti Kapoor Case. This style of investigative journalism has brought about a turn in the way we look at news, amidst new notions of editorial freedom. The world’s largest house ‘Sahara India Parivar’ launched a 24-hour national Hindi news channel, Sahara Samay, in March 28, 2003. It is the first ever city-centric satellite news channels exterior 31 cities in India with their own city news bulletins. Retention the examine of news in mind, the Union cabinet beloved the proposal to turn the Dd Metro to Dd news in a meeting held on 3 October 2003. Consequent to these decisions, Dd-News channel was launched on 3 November 2003. You might have noticed that the news channels are language specific. But Dd’s news channel contains the round the clock news bulletins in Hindi/ English are also telecast twice a day on the National Network of Dd National.
‘Aap Ki Adalat’ fame Rajat Sharma, Sohaib Ilyasi, the man behind the highly thriving ‘India's Most Wanted’ and Taun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka roped together and launched a free-to-air Hindi news and current affairs channel India Tv on May 20, 2004. Indian viewers had more expectations from this channel. The much-awaited news channel hopes to set itself apart from the existing ones by setting new benchmarks of responsible journalism. Speaking on the chance of the launch, Rajat Sharma, chairman, India Tv, said, “We aim to turn the way broadcast news reporting is being conducted in the country. India Tv will set new benchmarks by maintaining international standards of responsible and credible news reporting. We will stay away from illustrated depictions of violence and sensationalism of news. We will uphold the viewer's right to strict data and their right to truth and verity. India Tv is not just a news channel, it is a movement.” Ndtv as a pioneer in Indian television news, set to originate a fresh revolution in high-quality business news with the launch of Ndtv Profit. Ndtv launched this 24-hour business channel on January 17th, 2005.
There is no saturation point in launching of news channel, just booming like sky as the limit. Entertainment channel to infotainment channel, infotainment channel to news channel, news channels to business channel and business channel to lots more. Now the satellite channels become more topicality with international standard. When we are talking about topicality, Cnbc Tv18, the only business channel, continues to be the medium of option for India’s decision makers, affluent audiences across the country since 1999. It has set the pace for the growth in whole of television channels by launching a 24-hour consumer channel in Hindi called ‘ Awaaz’. This news channel focusses on empowering consumers on decision-making linked to investment, rescue and spending. All the programmes are catering to consumers across separate walks of life, which included personal finance; variety of markets along with commodity, stocks, savings etc.; small businesses; study & career guidance; and verticals like health, shopping etc.
Another news channel was finally launched into the already cluttered news space in Indian television. Jagran Tv Pvt Limited's news channel, Channel 7 up-linked to the air on 27 March 2005. The channel has been set up to cater to the vast Hindi-speaking audiences, already being targeted by a slew of news channels. Channel 7 advanced every programme with a bid to cater to all types of audiences and not just pre-dominantly male audiences who get attracted towards news channels.

Regional Leaders

To cater the interest among the Indians, Doordarshan televises programmes in Hindi and associate lawful languages. It has launched a whole of Regional Language Satellite Channels (Dd - 4 to Dd - 11 and Dd - 13) and telecast programmes in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Kashmiri, Oriya and Tamil. The Regional channels relayed by all terrestrial transmitters in the state and supplementary programmes in the Regional Language in prime time and non-prime time available only through cable operators. The Doordarshan regional satellite channels telecast major news programme with some entertainment programmes.
If you think about the secret regional channels, they have followed the path of the Big brother (i.e Doordarshan). They are neither thoroughly entertainment channel nor exclusively news channel. They are following the middle path and claiming themselves an infotainment channels. The secret channels televise through the state dominant languages. Rising advertising revenues and addition numbers of viewers have in case,granted the impetus for many big players to enter into the business. Some regional media leaders like Etv, Sun Tv, Asianet have a strong grip over the regional market. Some major players tried their luck in separate states. Zee television has three regional channels; Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi and Zee Bangla. Star Network entered into Tamilnadu by launching Star Vijay, one of the most popular entertainment channels in India broadcasting in Tamil. Besides that Etv Network is a part of the well-established Ramoji Group, has created 12 dedicated infotainment regional channels. Etv network is the source of rich entertainment of eight separate languages. Those are: Telugu, Bangla, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Gujarati, Urdu; and Hindi to viewers in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Every Etv Network channel focuses exclusively on its audience’s unique cultural identity, its aspirations and its distinct socio-political character. Let us think about the south Indian language Telugu, there are nearby twelve satellite channels are roaming nearby the sky with separate taste and separate flavour. These channels contain three news channels, one song-based channels and rest are infotainment channels. When we confine ourselves into news, three channels (Etv2, Tv 9 and Teja News) exclusively devoted to news programmes.
Sahara India Pariwar is proud to have five news channels as the bouquet of Sahara Samay. These channels are: Sahara Samay Ncr, Sahara Samay Mumbai, Sahara Samay Bihar & Jharkhand, Sahara Samay Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh, and Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh & Uttranchal. Sahara Samay has already managed to gain a loyal audience in India through a bouquet of National & Regional News Channels since its launch. These channels are teenage and vibrant channels targeting students and women, Besides that hardcore news stuff. The regional news channels covers the whole spectrum of genre with exact programs on lifestyle, fashion, food, shopping, condition and fitness, sports, education, career and city issues, Besides giving user-friendly data on traffic updates, city events, train and air timings, etc. Now national news channels cannot confine its boundary to national level. They cannot ignore the regional news because of the stiff competition form the regional cannels. Regional news channels are entering into the competition with a strong will power and also with an aim to portrait regional issues in national and international level.

Conclusion

Now the television manufactures becomes more specific. In this competing market, channels are targeting exact viewers. News channels attract more viewers beyond their target by producing interactive and curious programmes. Every channel needs to do an widespread research on separate concepts and separate themes to attract more viewers and in the same time more advertisers. After all, advertisements are the bread and butter for the channels. With increased consumer preference for news programmes, television news channels have grown faster than other niche channels. News channels are booming just like sky as the limit. Those days are not far away, when we will get satellite news channel for every major city in India. Staying in abroad, we can modernize ourselves about all the happening of our hometown. Now news is not restricted to political happenings. It will be extended its limit to every unwanted and hided corners of the society. At last we can reach in the end that anything, which is strange or disgusting, is news. There are no rigid rules, which defines news.

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Booming: Television News Channels in India

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