Arup Ghosh, Head-National Channel, Sahara Samay
Why is that only bad news is news for media? Why does the news channels believe that only bad news will sell? If one attempts to package some good, positive news in a decent manner, people will watch it and like it.
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Published: Sep 14, 2003 12:00 AM | 10 min read
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Why is that only bad news is news for media? Why does the news channels believe that only bad news will sell? If one attempts to package some good, positive news in a decent manner, people will watch it and like it.Arup Ghosh is heading the national channel of Sahara. He has been a journalist for over sixteen years and has served in leading national newspapers and television channels. He joined NDTV in 1995 as a journalist cum presenter. He quit NDTV along with his colleagues to form a TV production company. During the same period he was also presenting 'Prime Time'-Zee News most watched daily current affairs programme. He has been with Sahara since February 2002 and is one of the key persons behind the planning and launch of Sahara Samay.
With investments close to Rs 700 Crores in the media business, Sahara India Pariwar has made its entry in the 24-hours news channel segment with One national and 6 regional news channels.
In a frank talk, Arup Ghosh, Head-National Channel, Sahara Samay speaks to Ashish Sinha of exchange4media about the channels plan of action, its programming strategy and its reach.
Q. On advertising opportunities on Sahara Samay Well the channel has created a buzz in the market and Satish Menon is the right person to address those issues. But I can share the fact that a lot of branding exercise is on at the moment and there are a number of offers from advertisers to brand our segments.
Q. On programming mix available on Regional channels The regional format is pretty different. But whatever will be of interest to a particular region will get aired on the Regional channels and whatever important happens regionally which would be of interest to the national viewers will get aired on Sahara Samay. We have a common server and we can easily shift between regional and national. If there is an interesting story from a remote place in UP, we would pick that up and show it on the national channel, but for our competitors, it would be pretty difficult to match our potentials in terms of our regional coverage. We have a good amount of regional reporters and stringers. We are also much ahead in terms of having VSAT connectivity, OB Vans, Fly Aways and helicopters.
Q. On its Target Audience Our Target audiences are the masses. There again our Chairman was very clear that we would not be the elitist in our approach and that we would not be catering to a particular segment of the society. We are a channel that believes in certain positive nationalism. Its a channel which believes that a lot of people in this country do not have a voice and that voice should be mirrored. And that is an aim towards which our channel is working.
Q. On the 'Breaking News' concept in News channels In terms of Breaking News on a day-to-day basis, we are much ahead of our rivals. At the same time we are not shouting that we are 'Sabse Tez' or Sabse Pehle'. We are Sabse tez, but we are not bothered about it as we are the people's channels and somewhere down the line if peoples channel is Sabse Tez then its fantastic for the viewers.
Q. On the USP of Sahara Samay The USP of the channel is that Sahara Samay is what we call the peoples channel. Here we do not indulge in quantification, or push our views on the viewer. It is a channel, which presents news in a very credible and crisp way and backed by some top of the line technology that has never been used in India. It is the first time that such a combination has been assembled and it has all been done with the vision from Saharashree. It is his vision that Sahara has come out with a bouquet of news channels. No other media company in this country has ever attempted a bouquet of news channel. We are going to have seven channels between now and July. The national and UP channel are already on air. So there will be one national channel and six regional channels. With it will come the city streaming. Wherever the regional channels are present, the viewers will get a lot of city specific news. For example if you are in Varanasi, you will receive the national channel, the UP channel and within the UP channel you will receive a lot of city specific streaming of news. This is the kind of format, which no one has ever attempted. Huge amount of resources have been pumped in. Its a mammoth effort with over a thousand journalists will be part of the process. The point where Sahara will score is in its regional coverage. No body has the kind of reach in the regional area like we have. There were a lot of talk about the NDTV and the Star news and we were not that much in the news. We kept ourselves on a low profile because we believe that our work should do the talking. And now that the channel is on air, there is a tremendous buzz about it. Its being talked about in media, its been appreciated by politicians, academicians and general viewers across the country, and the major compliment is that our rivals are taking us seriously. So Sahara Samay is here to stay.
Q. On Advertisers feedback You will be surprised to know that the feedback from the advertisers has been tremendous. In the past few days, we have received several queries from our regional advertisers because no one has seen regional channels in the past that have been brought out so well. The colors, the graphics, the looks and the production quality is of a very high standard. This country always lacked a blue-chipped Hindi News channel and I don't think either Zee News or Aaj Tak ever filled that slot. Sahara Samay can fill that slot. But when I say 'blue chip channel, I don't mean that we are snooty, or we quantificate or we have our nose up in the air. It is very close to the people. it has its roots with the people. But it brings certain brand value and certain brand equity it wants to create, which will be of a very high standard. And all that is possible because we will bring in certain amount of freshness to the table in terms of our programming.
Q. On programming on rival channels I don't want to comment on any rival channels because it will not be appropriate. I have seen a lot of comments being made by others who are heading the channels saying that our channel is not up to the mark, or making sarcastic remarks. I think we should treat everybody with certain amount of respect. Yes, I do feel that the existing news channels have certain flaws are we are very aware of it and we will always let our work do the talking. We don't want to enter into a war of words, let our rivals fear about our channel. Even before Sahara Samay was launched it was seen as-I don't want to use the term 'under-dog'-but a channel, which was not a serious contender to the rival or existing players. That perception is changing and will further change with time.
Q. On the issue of how 'different' the programming will be on Sahara Samay Our basic thrust always is that who so ever tunes into the channel gets the news first. The views can come later. So in that respect we are a hard-core news channel with back-to-back news. But where we have plans to be different is through segments. We will make it very interesting for the viewers throughout the day. We will keep bringing in different segments at different points of time. You will get segments on health, education, crime, legal, and entertainment. The staple segments will of course be Sports and Business. Our special segments have been planned and executed in such a way that they are interesting, informative and a value addition for the channel. That apart we will be converting our weekend band into a special property where we will have special shows. In every show we will try to involve the viewers so that there participation becomes crucial. Besides the guests in the studio, we will make it a point to go live to the place/people in news related to the show. A lot of channel had spoken about this concept but till date haven't done enough. Or wherever it has been done, it's more of a symbolic gesture. See now whatever you are seeing on air is a good channel. But we have deliberately held back a lot of cards up our sleeves because we further want to shock our rivals, which they will get within the next two weeks. There are a lot of stuffs, which are currently not used. At the moment we are present in straight format of hard news that is back-to-back and crisp. Of course we did some special shows on World Cup and the Iraq war, which were appreciated, but there is much more to come. Very soon we will reach a stage where the number of news items that we give out in a day will go up significantly and this element of rehashing and churning the same news will be minimal on our channel. But if you look at other news channel, there is a lot of churning and rehashing of news is taking place, which irritates people. Also, we will be running far more hours of live coverage of news on our channel then any other channel.
Q. On the definition of 'News' for Sahara Samay We will cover everything and we are not here to give the political news a push. All segments are important for us—be it political, entertainment, sports or any other field. We want to give every segment its due. But the organization has got fantastic reach, be it in the field of entertainment or sports. We have the advantage of accessibility and we won't have to hunt for newsmakers like some of the other channels have to do. So as far as setting the agenda for news goes we would take it on a priority basis. If there is a world cup cricket happening, it will be top priority, if something happens in entertainment, it will get the top priority, similarly if there is an election, then politics and election coverage will get top priority. We are not here to promote any political culture through our reporting... We have also devoted a special section on 'Positive News', which no other channel does. When any natural calamities happen then media breaks the news and exclusives are put. We have created a section called 'Manchahi' which is channels own creation and its a reporting on positive news. If some one does a good job somewhere in the country then we would report it in this section. We have a separate team working only on this segment on positive news. Why is that only bad news is news for media? Why does the news channels believe that only bad news will sell? If one attempts to package some good, positive news in a decent manner, people will watch it and like it. 'Manchahi' is an attempt in that direction. It's a small step that will make an impact on the viewers.
Q. On programming mix available on Regional channels The regional format is pretty different. But whatever will be of interest to a particular region will get aired on the Regional channels and whatever important happens regionally which would be of interest to the national viewers will get aired on Sahara Samay. We have a common server and we can easily shift between regional and national. If there is an interesting story from a remote place in UP, we would pick that up and show it on the national channel, but for our competitors, it would be pretty difficult to match our potentials in terms of our regional coverage. We have a good amount of regional reporters and stringers. We are also much ahead in terms of having VSAT connectivity, OB Vans, Fly Aways and helicopters.
Q. On its Target Audience Our Target audiences are the masses. There again our Chairman was very clear that we would not be the elitist in our approach and that we would not be catering to a particular segment of the society. We are a channel that believes in certain positive nationalism. Its a channel which believes that a lot of people in this country do not have a voice and that voice should be mirrored. And that is an aim towards which our channel is working.
Q. On the 'Breaking News' concept in News channels In terms of Breaking News on a day-to-day basis, we are much ahead of our rivals. At the same time we are not shouting that we are 'Sabse Tez' or Sabse Pehle'. We are Sabse tez, but we are not bothered about it as we are the people's channels and somewhere down the line if peoples channel is Sabse Tez then its fantastic for the viewers.
Q. On the USP of Sahara Samay The USP of the channel is that Sahara Samay is what we call the peoples channel. Here we do not indulge in quantification, or push our views on the viewer. It is a channel, which presents news in a very credible and crisp way and backed by some top of the line technology that has never been used in India. It is the first time that such a combination has been assembled and it has all been done with the vision from Saharashree. It is his vision that Sahara has come out with a bouquet of news channels. No other media company in this country has ever attempted a bouquet of news channel. We are going to have seven channels between now and July. The national and UP channel are already on air. So there will be one national channel and six regional channels. With it will come the city streaming. Wherever the regional channels are present, the viewers will get a lot of city specific news. For example if you are in Varanasi, you will receive the national channel, the UP channel and within the UP channel you will receive a lot of city specific streaming of news. This is the kind of format, which no one has ever attempted. Huge amount of resources have been pumped in. Its a mammoth effort with over a thousand journalists will be part of the process. The point where Sahara will score is in its regional coverage. No body has the kind of reach in the regional area like we have. There were a lot of talk about the NDTV and the Star news and we were not that much in the news. We kept ourselves on a low profile because we believe that our work should do the talking. And now that the channel is on air, there is a tremendous buzz about it. Its being talked about in media, its been appreciated by politicians, academicians and general viewers across the country, and the major compliment is that our rivals are taking us seriously. So Sahara Samay is here to stay.
Q. On Advertisers feedback You will be surprised to know that the feedback from the advertisers has been tremendous. In the past few days, we have received several queries from our regional advertisers because no one has seen regional channels in the past that have been brought out so well. The colors, the graphics, the looks and the production quality is of a very high standard. This country always lacked a blue-chipped Hindi News channel and I don't think either Zee News or Aaj Tak ever filled that slot. Sahara Samay can fill that slot. But when I say 'blue chip channel, I don't mean that we are snooty, or we quantificate or we have our nose up in the air. It is very close to the people. it has its roots with the people. But it brings certain brand value and certain brand equity it wants to create, which will be of a very high standard. And all that is possible because we will bring in certain amount of freshness to the table in terms of our programming.
Q. On programming on rival channels I don't want to comment on any rival channels because it will not be appropriate. I have seen a lot of comments being made by others who are heading the channels saying that our channel is not up to the mark, or making sarcastic remarks. I think we should treat everybody with certain amount of respect. Yes, I do feel that the existing news channels have certain flaws are we are very aware of it and we will always let our work do the talking. We don't want to enter into a war of words, let our rivals fear about our channel. Even before Sahara Samay was launched it was seen as-I don't want to use the term 'under-dog'-but a channel, which was not a serious contender to the rival or existing players. That perception is changing and will further change with time.
Q. On the issue of how 'different' the programming will be on Sahara Samay Our basic thrust always is that who so ever tunes into the channel gets the news first. The views can come later. So in that respect we are a hard-core news channel with back-to-back news. But where we have plans to be different is through segments. We will make it very interesting for the viewers throughout the day. We will keep bringing in different segments at different points of time. You will get segments on health, education, crime, legal, and entertainment. The staple segments will of course be Sports and Business. Our special segments have been planned and executed in such a way that they are interesting, informative and a value addition for the channel. That apart we will be converting our weekend band into a special property where we will have special shows. In every show we will try to involve the viewers so that there participation becomes crucial. Besides the guests in the studio, we will make it a point to go live to the place/people in news related to the show. A lot of channel had spoken about this concept but till date haven't done enough. Or wherever it has been done, it's more of a symbolic gesture. See now whatever you are seeing on air is a good channel. But we have deliberately held back a lot of cards up our sleeves because we further want to shock our rivals, which they will get within the next two weeks. There are a lot of stuffs, which are currently not used. At the moment we are present in straight format of hard news that is back-to-back and crisp. Of course we did some special shows on World Cup and the Iraq war, which were appreciated, but there is much more to come. Very soon we will reach a stage where the number of news items that we give out in a day will go up significantly and this element of rehashing and churning the same news will be minimal on our channel. But if you look at other news channel, there is a lot of churning and rehashing of news is taking place, which irritates people. Also, we will be running far more hours of live coverage of news on our channel then any other channel.
Q. On the definition of 'News' for Sahara Samay We will cover everything and we are not here to give the political news a push. All segments are important for us—be it political, entertainment, sports or any other field. We want to give every segment its due. But the organization has got fantastic reach, be it in the field of entertainment or sports. We have the advantage of accessibility and we won't have to hunt for newsmakers like some of the other channels have to do. So as far as setting the agenda for news goes we would take it on a priority basis. If there is a world cup cricket happening, it will be top priority, if something happens in entertainment, it will get the top priority, similarly if there is an election, then politics and election coverage will get top priority. We are not here to promote any political culture through our reporting... We have also devoted a special section on 'Positive News', which no other channel does. When any natural calamities happen then media breaks the news and exclusives are put. We have created a section called 'Manchahi' which is channels own creation and its a reporting on positive news. If some one does a good job somewhere in the country then we would report it in this section. We have a separate team working only on this segment on positive news. Why is that only bad news is news for media? Why does the news channels believe that only bad news will sell? If one attempts to package some good, positive news in a decent manner, people will watch it and like it. 'Manchahi' is an attempt in that direction. It's a small step that will make an impact on the viewers.
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