No News here ..
News as I remember began as a half hour of power packed no-nonsense coverage on national television. Later on with the advent of cable television, independent 24*7 news channels came into being.
The face of the Indian News channels has since undergone many make-overs. It began with the war between channels to bring the latest news first, followed by providing distinct personalities as news analysts and then came the war of sensationalising. The objective was not about providing the true picture and real breaking news, it was about bringing in viewership…the capsule of daily news steadily replaced by a mix of news-entertainment.
I increasingly see comedy routines, videos available on the net and bollywood trivia seeping through the news segments. There is nothing on the news channels that is not available faster or with greater covergae either on the internet or on print. Very few channels can today boast of exclusivity , be it the news or the insight with which it is covered.
In an attempt to be everything to everybody the news channels seem to be losing out on the loyalty of a valuable section of the market.
This choice that the channels seem to have willingly made is cause for concern. Great channel, great people, existing loyal viewers … and yet following that path that others take. What if you stuck to the original concept of providing truly exclusive first hand information.
What have you been great at? What if you continued to excel? What if you stopped being just another channel?
Chaitanya Reddy @ July 16, 2008