TRAI must help the TV industry
Mediapersons like me, who criticized the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for bringing in the 10+2 ad cap even before the digitization process was completed in the whole country, stand vindicated with I&B minister Manish Tewari himself realizing that the move would be unjust for the TV industry, which is already facing a financial crunch. The aim behind digitization, the brainchild of former I&B minister Ambika Soni, was to cut the channels’ carriage cost so that they could spend more money on improving the quality of content. But even before this happened, TRAI came up with the 10+2 ad cap in May, which would force TV channels to spend more money to increase the duration of content to fill in for the reduced ad space. It was a double jeopardy for channels, as earning subscription revenue was more than a year away and they were to spend more money on content. It was even feared that several smaller TV news channels might vanish from the scene, hurting the plurality of political views. But as per the saying ‘der aye durust aye’, Tewari now has asked for a deferment of the deadline to implement the ad cap for broadcasters from October 2013 to December 2014. The minister says that the rule be enforced only after the full digitization of cable television throughout the country. Tewari told eporters: “Representatives of the news channels met me and understand that they are under considerable financial stress. I have suggested to TRAI that the implementation of the 12-minute cap be put off till December 2014. The full impact of digitization will kick in by then. News channels have assured us that they are willing to implement the ad cap but it is difficult before subscriber revenues start coming in.” There is no doubt that the country’s TV industry is under intense financial stress. The reason is simple. There are too many TV channels to share the ad pie. On some channels, they only have three or four advertisers on certain shows, and they keep repeating those ads. Sometimes, one ad is repeated three times during a single ad break. The stress on the TV industry also became apparent last week when the Network18 Group handed pink slips to more than 300 low-level employees, mostly anchors, reporters, camerapersons and technicians, but not any fat salaried editors. According to Business Standard, “Reliance Industries has indirect control in the TV18 network by virtue of an investment of Rs 4,800 crore it made in Network18 through the Independent Media Trust. Sources say the restructuring is taking place due to pressure for cutting employee cost as a percentage of the total cost.” According to the Financial Express, Network18 had announced last month that it was setting up an integrated newsroom comprising its broadcast and digital news outlets. The paper said, “Network18 had a market cap of Rs 3,145 crore as on August 16. At the end of FY’13, the company has recorded a net loss of Rs 29.9 crore on total revenue of Rs 345.5 crore.” Experts say if this kind of financial crunch continues, it is but natural for the big corporate investors in TV channels to tighten the reins. But the bigger problem, they say, can be a subtle increase in corporate interference in the day-to-day working of the channels. They note that the role of editors of some of these channels has already been redefined and they are acting as the ‘front’ for the promoter in order to provide a semblance of both credibility and acceptability. And in some cases, the promoter’s political preferences are being reflected in the ‘editorial line’. This situation, says telecom expert Nikhil Sinha, can result more and more in centralization of news-gathering operations. “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,” Sinha says. There is a serious lack of news coverage, to begin with, because it is expensive. This can be more damaging than the slant. If you want to know what happened in the country on a given day, it will be hard to find it on any of the private TV channels. Instead, you get shouting matches in the studio, often with the same set of familiar faces. Gathering a bunch of talking heads is much easier and cheaper than sending a news crew to cover and report news. In this scenario, TRAI should take every step to ease the financial crunch faced by TV channels and save them from damaging corporate control in their dayto-day operations. The two state-owned TV channels, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV, have very interesting content to offer and their talk shows are not just shouting matches. If private channel owners want to attract and retain viewers and hence advertisers, they will have to spend more money to improve their content. And TRAI should make sure that the private channels can make more money through subscriptions and ad revenues. (Author/news analyst Ravi M. Khanna is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He was formerly with VOA in Washington) Feedback: ravimohankhanna@gmail.com
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