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Advertisers have woken up to TV news as an untapped and cost effective
way to sell your product; certainly compared to the price of sticking
your toilet cleaner between two halves of an expensive drama. And so,
to come full circle, where the money goes the TV execs follow hence the
five new TV operations heading our way next year. The question is how
much is too much.
All these TV channels are essentially competing for the same audience
i.e the great middle class. The audience is large and it will grow larger
but not as quickly as the number of TV channels trying to serve it. Some
media analysts suggest that only three of the new channels will survive.
But even for those that do, it'll be an expensive and painful experience
which may leave even some of the already established Indian channels feeling
more than a little bruised.
And what of the other players in the market like BBC World and the other
international news channels? CNN already appears to have abandoned its
South Asia coverage to fight a rearguard action in the United States with
FOX who, for the first time this year, have edged ahead in the ratings
war. The sight of CNN's correspondent reporting on the count in Gujarat
from a telephone line in Delhi shows that Atlanta has its eyes and its
resources elsewhere.
So in India that's meant CNBC has taken over the second slot from CNN.
BBC World is still no 1 in India and by far the most watched international
news channel taking up 33 of the top fifty slots in a recent survey on
audience viewing habits but even so, we've still had to have a re-think,
and react not only to the changing conditions in South Asia but from across
the world. New markets are constantly opening up to the organisation,
like the fact that in the last few years, BBC World has gone from practically
zero to now being in 86% of American homes.
So this month the BBC created a new global news division to bring BBC
World TV, World Service Radio and the BBC News On-line service under one
Boss to fight a united international campaign. My appointment too as the
first BBC South Asia Bureau Editor responsible for our entire news operation
from Kabul to Colombo (via Delhi!) is an acknowledgment that the organisation
cannot manage and adapt to the new environment in South Asia with a long
arm from London.
But for the time being, the international channels are the last thing
the Indian companies are worrying about. Their big priorities at the moment
are how to catch and keep the local talent. TV news is still a young industry
here and the pool of reserves are quite small.
So everyone is trying to poach from everyone else, pushing up wages and
expectations. And the canny players, like Prannoy Roy know the importance
of the talent. He has built up and seems likely to keep, with some hefty
pay rises and attractive packages, his very good people. The likes of
Rajdeep are tried and trusted by ordinary Indians. No one, least of all
Mr Roy, under estimates the importance to the brand of a familiar face.
That's why anchors in the US are paid tens of millions of dollars a year
to essentially read an auto cue for half an hour a day. But the crunch
will come when all the channels suddenly come up against a big costly
running story hitting the headlines. Wars and conflicts are expensive.
Both for the participants and the people trying to cover them. If you
want to be a big player you have to make a serious financial commitment,
if you don't the audience will turn over to those that do. And the first
big story in the brave new world of Indian 24 hour news will probably
not be in South Asia at all but in Iraq. The programme makers will have
to decide whether they want to ride the backs of their international partners
(if they have them) or dip deep into their pockets to put the likes of
Barkha on a tank in the Iraqi desert to show they really mean business.
A serious conflict between Pakistan and India would be even more expensive.
So what will the scene look like two years from now. Journalists are lousy
at predictions but that never seems to stop us (the Gujarat poll is proof
of that) so here goes. Firstly I'd be surprised, like everyone else, if
one or two Chief execs don't end up watching their new cars being towed
out the drive as the bills come rolling in and the advertising tapers
off. The stars will stay stars though and their salaries will stay with
them but the middle rung correspondents and producers, cashing in now
on their new found market value, should enjoy it while it lasts. If someone
crashes so will their big pay rises.
That at least was what happened in Europe during the swings and roundabouts
of the media there. But the industry as a whole will emerge stronger and
fitter and a new generation of talent will be created. That, in the long
run, can only be good for the Indian viewer.
(The author is BBC South Asia Bureau Editor. His e-mail is paul.danahar@bbc.co.uk)
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