Anurag Batra analyses the reasons for the stagnant growth of the television news viewership universe

 Anurag Batra, the journalist and serial entrepreneur analyses the reasons for the television news viewership universe not growing. According to the editor in chief of BW Businessworld, if the stagnation or the shrink is indeed true, rather than blaming everyone else and the business media that reports it honestly, the television news promoters and CEOs and editors have to introspect the matter. The first 12 months of the pandemic in 2020 created a winner for news channels and a loser for cinema halls — and by that extension — Hindi and Bollywood cinema.

According to the expert, “In the first one year of Covid-19, people, citizens, and viewers were glued onto television news channels for information on Covid, to understand what was happening around them and to get updates and solutions. The pandemic was a huge event that had audiences glued to television news, eager to know what was in store for them. To the credit of news channels, they rose to the occasion, news reporters, cameramen, and TV broadcast newsroom professionals worked overtime to make sure that they were sharing news in real-time and in the public interest”.

Anurag Batra

Contrary to this, cinema halls were shut down because of the Covid restrictions and audiences were not able to access them, irrespective of whether they were multiplexes or single theatres. Over-the-top (OTT) became the mainstay of entertainment. It made viewers discover content on all the platforms and got them accustomed to OTT in the safe confines of their homes. As the face-to-face or physical economy returned, thanks to the vaccination drive by the Indian government and because of Covid subsiding, the experiential economy came roaring back.

In Anurag Batra’s view, “Weddings, hotels, restaurants, airlines, malls, parties, schools, and offices — all reopened with a vengeance — but cinema halls in north India did not seem to conform to this trend. There seemed to be a dearth of movie-goers thronging the theatres for Hindi movies and Bollywood content. However, in contrast, South Indian cinema continued to offer one hit after another and South Indian blockbusters became bigger and bigger, thanks to their record collection at the box office and drew in record footfalls at the cinema halls”.

This has made Anurag Batra wonder at what was going on and what the reasons were for the differential performance of Bollywood vis-à-vis south Indian cinema. In fact, in mid-February 2021, when the coronavirus wave subsided and restrictions were relaxed for a while, he went to a multiplex in south Delhi to watch a movie and only saw six other viewers apart from him in the hall. It made him think about it. Anurag Batra also acknowledges that at the same time, news channels continued to do well and their revenues continued to be steady. In fact, it grew in the first 21 months of the Covid pandemic.

What has been worrying him was the fact that the viewership of news channels and television viewership as per ratings research, is not growing. In Anurag Batra’s view, the reasons that the TV news audience is not growing and the reason that Bollywood is not being able to pull audiences into the cinemas are:

· Sticking to old formulas of doing content, no freshness, no reinvention and not investing in content that is deep. Re-invention needs to happen for both Bollywood and television news fast and at a scale.

· New challengers are chipping at the existing Players. New talent ideas have to be given more credence and experiments with content and boldness of content have to be showcased and if it works, be expanded on.

· Need younger leaders, both in the television news domain in all functions, especially editorial and in Bollywood.

· Both have to stop taking shortcuts.

· Viewers are consuming video content online from news startups that are not linear but only Digital and bold and honest. In n Bollywood, where newer directors are experimenting with bold themes and scripts and taking up taboo issues that are real and appeal to audiences.

“The scale has to be multiple times where it is now and the content and delivery have to be scaled up. In news channels, Indian news broadcasters have to learn from my favourite TV news channel CNN, how they invest in their people, how they cover an event and how the anchors are brands that are nurtured. They are not dependent on one face for pulling in audiences. South cinema can inspire Bollywood by its sheer scale, quality of production, investments and marketing blitzkrieg”, Anurag Batra says. He concludes by advising the media industry to not fall prey to the people who benefit from this, the people who want to game the news channel ecosystem.