Overview

2008: Not the year that went by the oracle's advice
Anurag Batra
Chairman and Editor-in-Chief
exchange4media Group

A wise sage had said many centuries ago 'In everything the middle course is the best, all things in excess being trouble.'

The year 2008 clearly did not go by the oracle's advice. For our industry, 2008 was a year of extremes -- both positives and negatives and brought both exultations as well as frustrations.

We saw the extreme kind of media activism in 2008. In a sense, it was an awakening of the India media. A phenomenon of that kind would come with its pros and cons and that is really what has happened. The very obvious pros were self-awareness, a sense of astuteness in the way we dealt with our everyday business decisions and examples of success stories, carving a path of the kind of things that can be done. Competition and clutter are tough and increasing but when you have seen what everyone else has seen but thought what most others did not, you achieve what no one else can.

Three success stories for me in the year were the Indian Premier League, Times Now and Colors. I would call them the 'extreme' winners. The IPL went ahead despite all the criticism that it faced. While many wrote on how it emulated international models, by the time the IPL took off, it set an international benchmark... not to mention an unprecedented success format for the country.

Times Now, challenging the leader by doing just what you are supposed to do... Times Now really made it look simple. There were no hidden aces, no brilliant behind-the-scenes plot... there just was reporting as the people wanted to see and know. And to not just challenge the leader but also replace it, Times Now sure had something right going in the year.

Colors... need I say anything at all. I have not attended one meeting or media function where Colors and its impact on the Indian media scene were not discussed. The aces were in place and thrown at the right time; the plots were breakthrough and the commitment was unmatchable... extreme... there was no middle road for Colors. They invested in everything that they had to, as much as they had to, and probably more. The result - another extreme in the right direction!

The year saw the shift from analog rupees to digital pennies... Irrespective of how developed a market is, there still are pennies in the digital business. At least that was what was seen in the first half but the slowdown has changed quite a few things. Now people are talking even more on investing more on the digital media. There are cases where people are leveraging the medium, but when I look at the overall scene, there still is some way to go.

That said, sreenagers or Digital Natives were in demand as audiences, and I see this only growing further in 2009.

NewsX, Sony and 'Paanchvi Pass' were more like Paanchvi Fail... I don't think I need to explain this.

The other extreme move in the year was the government armtwisting the media on the back of credible steps from the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) in the wake of 26/11 TV news coverage.

Lalit Modi, Raghav Bahl and Arnab Goswami were extreme winners.

Losers... not worth naming...