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 On
a visit to India, Cramer is touching base with various constituents
of the broadcast and cable industry, including CNN’s partner,
Global Broadcast Network (GBN), which runs the CNN IBN news channel.
Pointing out that CNN IBN has shaped up extremely well, Cramer said,
“After seeing the news channels here, one can say that they
are world class products offering consumers a variety of choice.”
Along with some new local level and India-wide news channel launching
over the last six months to add to the over 25 existing such products,
India, probably, is the only country in the world where so many
news channel have mushroomed and have managed to survive in a market
that is estimated to be wroth slightly over Rs. 5 billion.
Though a hint of uncertainty did creep in with Jagran TV-promoted
Channel7 selling management control to Television Eighteen-led GBN
and talks of India TV in early stages of negotiations with another
media company in the air, Cramer refused to hazard a prediction
on the consolidation phase . “I have no predictions on consolidation
as I am not very well acquainted with the ground situation and other
details. But this is a very energetic market,” he said.
Cramer is responsible for the CNN International directorate, which
is comprised of the five flagship CNN International services in
English, CNN en Espa’Pol and CNNj (Japan), together with joint
ventures such as CNN IBN, CNN+ and CNN Turk, in addition to the
international newsgathering operation outside of the US.
Though Cramer has ruled out any immediate introduction of a Hindi
language version of CNN, he did admit that as a policy the company
is always on the look out for opportunities to extend the CNN brand
in as many market segments as possible.
“The CNN IBN deal is part of CNN’s strategy to look for
opportunities in the English language segment and vernacular languages
with or without local partners. But if you are asking me whether
we have any definite plans for Hindi, there’s nothing in the
horizon,” Cramer said.
According to him, for a CNN IBN type of deal to be replicated in
other Indian languages, it is a matter of exploring the market to
find the “right deal.”
CNN International’s English language service, which completed
20 last year, continues to be the No. 1 product in most market places
without getting complacent about its leadership position.
“We continue to reinvent ourselves as we have done recently
with a new look and feel in a crowded (global) news market place.
We found that increasingly the business of consuming news was becoming
difficult. So we have de-cluttered the screen (for the viewer),”
Cramer said, giving a glimpse of the thinking that goes on in CNN
International, a Time Warner company.
India is one of the rare instances where CNN lags behind BBC because
of “legacy issues” involving the Mark Tully effect. Tully
had been the head of BBC radio operations in India for many decades
and helped in spread awareness about brand BBC.
“CNN reaches out to about 10 million (C&S) homes in India,
compared to BBC’s 14 million, “Cramer said, adding, “But
I am comfortable with the loyalty of the audience here.”
Even though CNN’s new service CNN Pipeline broadband service
has received “overwhelming and enthusiastic response in the
US,” Cramer feels such a service will take some time to take
off in India.
Pointing out that the company has been profitable every year since
1989 in the expensive business of news dissemination, Cramer said
global advertising revenue has been “pretty good” last
year too.
Globally CNN International has three broad revenue steams: advertising,
subscription and content sale.. While advertising and subscription
contribute 45 per cent each, the remaining 10 per cent comes from
selling content.
Cramer is based in CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta and is a
member of the CNN executive committee. He also sits on the board
of directors for the German news channel n-tv and the Spanish network
CNN +.
Before taking on the role of overseeing international newsgathering
and becoming managing director of CNN International, he was previously
president of CNN International Networks. He was CNN International's
executive vice president from August 1997 to January 1998, and senior
vice president and managing editor from February 1996 to July 1997.
Since joining CNN International, Cramer has led the introduction
of 80 hours of new programming each week and, in September 1997,
launched "regionalisation," an initiative that led to
the creation of five separately scheduled English language international
CNN channels that serve Europe/Middle East/Africa, Asia Pacific,
South Asia, Latin America and North America.
Picture
by SANJAY SHARMA/Indiapix Network
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