Notes

Booming: Television News Channels in India
News programmes have suddenly become hot property and are vying for attention with other popular programmes telecast in different channels. All major television broadcasters are including a minumum of one news channel with their bouquet. The largest headache 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, the emerging electronic channels have always made an effort to cover all of the incidents regardless of position, location and time. These channels not merely revolutionized the idea 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 headlines programs right into a dowdy exercise. Now the private channels made the news an important commodity like food, cloth and shelter. The strong point of all today?s news bulletins is their topicality, objectivity, glossy editing and high-quality visuals. News has traveled quite a distance 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. On this page, we have covered some significant changes in news broadcasting in India before and following the Gulf War.

Indian Television - Flash Back

Television in India is undergoing significant changes in the current liberalized environment. To understand these changes, one will need some brief idea of the road included in the television channels up to now. 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, education and traffic sense etc. As far as news is concerned, it had been launched exactly six years following the inception of television broadcasting. Daily one-hour program with a news bulletin was served to the Indian viewers. But one major drawback of television was you could not benefit from the original colour of the objects because of black and white transmission. First multi-color programme was the Prime Minister?s address to the country from Red Fort in Delhi on India?s 35th Independence Day. In the same day, DD National channel premiered. The aim of launching the National channel is nurturing national integration, and inculcating a feeling 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 different occasions lend a big hand behind the infiltration of television signals to the nook and corners of the subcontinent. Indian Government had taken all possible steps to expand the tv screen broadcasting demographically and geographically. In 1983 television signals were open to just 28% of the populace, this had doubled by the end of 1985 and by 1990 over 90% of the population had usage of television signals. In 1984, DD Metro channel was put into provide an exclusive entertainment for the urban viewers. In the beginning, this channel was confined to metropolitan cities.
As a public broadcaster, Doordarshan presented the news in naturalized manner. All controversial issues were pushed under the carpet. The ruling government had a solid hold on the television broadcasting. Doordarshan news bulletins were not able to supply 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 headlines was liberated from the confines of the DD newsroom and gained in objectivity and credibility when New Delhi Television (NDTV) produced ?THE PLANET This Week? in 1988. Individuals were waiting for the Friday night to view ?The World This Week?. This was the only India-based programme, which looked out at all of those other world. THE PLANET This Week was the best current affairs programme on the international scenario and carried nutrients of news, that your regular DD news was didn't carry out. The program is ranked as one of the country?s finest & most popular tv shows. In 1989, NDTV produces India?s first live televised coverage of the united states?s general elections. The critical and commercial success of the coverage sets a fresh standard for Indian television. Following the Gulf War the media panorama has changed forever.

Golf War ? The Catalyst

Post-1990 satellite television on pc in India is becoming transnational in nature. It coincided with the entry of multinational companies in the Indian markets under the Government policy 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 initial satellite channel beamed the signal to Indian subcontinent. Subhash Chandra?s Zee TV appeared in October 1992. It really is India?s first privately owned Hindi channel to cater the interest of Indian viewers. This ignition followed by Sony and a little later by domestic channels such as for example Eenadu, Asianet and Sun TV. Entertainment programs had begun to occupy center stage in the business?s programming strategies and advertising had become main source of funding. Doordarshan?s earlier mandate to aid in the process of social and economic development had clearly been diluted. Doordarshan had faced a stiff competition in news and public affairs programming with international channels like BBC and CNN. Doordarshan planned to market some slots for news programme under sponsored category. In February 1995, NDTV becomes the united states?s first private producer of the national news ?News Tonight?, which aired on the country?s government-owned Doordarshan set a new landmark for Indian television due to its on-the-spot reporting with pertinent visuals. In exactly the same year, TV Today Network occupied a 20 minutes slot in DD Metro channel and aired a Hindi and current affairs programme ?Aaj Tak?. This programme became popular for its comprehensive 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 numbers of viewers across India have been watching Aaj Tak as a daily habit due to its innovative design of news presentation. Besides that Nalini Singh?s five-minute overly busy, 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 actually the period 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 private television channels infiltrated in to the Indian boundaries and entertain the viewers as much as possible. Initially of 1990s, the private channels offered only entertainment programmes. The entertainment programs include family drama, comedy serials, children programmes, cartoons, movies, talk shows, recipe shows, musical concerts, non-fiction programmes etc. Private entertainment channels added some infortainment programmes to their Fixed Point Charts (FPC). Keeping the demand of infotainment programmes at heart, the media houses started to produce news magazines, entertainment magazines and news programmes for different channels. India?s premier business and consumer news broadcaster and a leading media content provider, Television Eighteen India Limited (TV18) started India?s first ever entertainment magazine ?The India Show? on Star Plus in 1993. This emerging media powerhouse provided prime time television content to almost all leading satellite channels in India including BBC, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee, MTV and Discovery. FOLLOWING THE India Show, TV18 produced a weekly business news program India Business Report for BBC World. Indian viewers had not a lot of options (like public 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 supply more news, more info rmation, 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 sent to the viewers. Since its inception Zee News has endeavoured to function as fastest to provide news, working towards an individual goal of Sabse Pahle (Always First). Another round-the-clock news channel, the Murdoch-owned Star TV beamed its exclusively 24-hour news channels, Star News in 1998. Star made a contract of five year with Prannoy Roy-owned NDTV (New Delhi Television Company) to supply news content because of this news channel.
The untiring exhaustive coverage of the Kargil war between 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. During the Kargil war, common 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 produce 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 number of viewers but Kargil war attracts private broadcasters to invest more money in the broadcasting business by launching a news channel. In November 1999, TV18 entered right into a 49:51 jv with CNBC Asia to launch CNBC India. TV18 is the sole program provider to CNBC India, and produces 12 hours of local content each day with 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 plenty of local flavour. Within 11 months of its launch, Aaj Tak emerged as India?s number 1 news channel and was awarded Best News Channel award from Indian Television Academy Awards. Some mega events aside from regular interesting items (such as Kandhahar hijack, September 11 attacks, Afghanistan war, attack on Parliament, Iraq war, Godhra carnage and riots) have driven up the viewership. As time passed, NDTV?s five years contract with Star group for outsourcing of news and related 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 different channels. Any unusual happening can be caught by the television camera anywhere form Rastrapati Bhawan to bedroom. The power of TV journalism was are more visible by the major sting operations like Operation West End and Shakti Kapoor Case. This form of investigative journalism has taken about a change in the manner we look at news, amidst new notions of editorial freedom. The planet?s largest family ?Sahara India Parivar? launched a 24-hour national Hindi news channel, Sahara Samay, in March 28, 2003. It's the first ever city-centric satellite news channels covering 31 cities in India with their own city news bulletins. Keeping the demand of news in mind, the Union cabinet approved the proposal to convert the DD Metro to DD news in a gathering held on 3 October 2003. Consequent to these decisions, DD-News channel premiered on 3 November 2003. You may have noticed that the news channels are language specific. But DD?s news channel contains the round the clock news bulletins in Hindi/ English may also be telecast twice each day on the National Network of DD National.
?Aap Ki Adalat? fame Rajat Sharma, Sohaib Ilyasi, the man behind the highly successful ?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 out of this channel. The much-awaited news channel hopes to create itself in addition to the existing ones by setting new benchmarks of responsible journalism. Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Rajat Sharma, chairman, India TV, said, ?We aim to change the way broadcast news reporting is being conducted in the united kingdom. India TV will set new benchmarks by maintaining international standards of responsible and credible news reporting. We shall avoid graphic depictions of violence and sensationalism of news. We shall uphold the viewer's to correct information and their right to truth and verity. India TV is not only a news channel, this can be a movement.? NDTV as a pioneer in Indian television news, set to create 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 because 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 are more topicality with international standard. Whenever we are talking about topicality, CNBC TV18, the only real business channel, is still the medium of preference for India?s decision makers, affluent audiences in the united states since 1999. It has set the pace for the growth in number 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, saving and spending. All the programmes are catering to consumers across different walks of life, which included personal finance; variety of markets including commodity, stocks, savings etc.; small businesses; education & 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 create to cater to the vast Hindi-speaking audiences, already being targeted by way of a slew of news channels. Channel 7 developed every programme with a bid to cater to all sorts of audiences and not just pre-dominantly male audiences who get attracted towards news channels.

Regional Leaders

To cater the interest on the list of Indians, Doordarshan televises programmes in Hindi and associate Official languages. It has launched several 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 hawaii and extra 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 concerning the private regional channels, they will have followed the path of the Big brother (i.e Doordarshan). They are neither completely entertainment channel nor exclusively news channel. They are following a middle path and claiming themselves an infotainment channels. The private channels televise through hawaii dominant languages. Rising advertising revenues and increasing numbers of viewers have provided the impetus for most big players to enter the business. Some regional media leaders like ETV, Sun TV, Asianet have a solid grip on the regional market. Some major players tried their luck in different states. Zee television has three regional channels; Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi and Zee Bangla. Star Network entered into Tamilnadu by launching Star Vijay, the most popular entertainment channels in India broadcasting in Tamil. Besides that ETV Network is really a portion of the well-established Ramoji Group, has created 12 dedicated infotainment regional channels. ETV network may be the source of rich entertainment of eight different 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 own distinct socio-political character. Why don't we take into account the south Indian language Telugu, there are around twelve satellite channels are roaming around the sky with different taste and different flavour. These channels include three news channels, one song-based channels and rest are infotainment channels. Whenever 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 because 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 were able to gain a loyal audience in India by way of a bouquet of National & Regional News Channels since its launch. These channels are youthful and vibrant channels targeting students and women, besides that hardcore news stuff. The regional news channels covers the entire spectrum of genre with specific programs on lifestyle, fashion, food, shopping, health and fitness, sports, education, career and city issues, besides giving user-friendly information on traffic updates, city events, train and air timings, etc. Now national news channels cannot confine its boundary to national level. They can not ignore the regional news as a result of stiff competition form the regional cannels. Regional news channels are getting into the competition with a solid will power and in addition with an try to portrait regional issues in national and international level.

Conclusion

Now the television industry becomes more specific. In this competitive market, channels are targeting specific viewers. News channels attract more viewers beyond their target by producing interactive and interesting programmes. Every channel needs to do an extensive research on different concepts and different themes to attract more viewers and in once more advertisers. In the end, advertisements are the bread and butter for the channels. With increased consumer preference for news programmes, television news channels have become faster than other niche channels. News channels are booming just like sky because the limit. Those days aren't far away, whenever we are certain to get satellite news channel for each major city in India. Residing in abroad, we are able to update 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 are able to reach in the conclusion that anything, which is strange or disgusting, is news. You can find no rigid rules, which defines news.

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The author is a media researcher in Journalism Department of ICFAI University. He's got five years experience in electronic media in the field of PR and Media Relations. His qualifications add a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, had special paper Advertising and PR.
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