Sudhir Chaudhary, Editor and CEO, Janmat

Having been associated with the television news industry for more than 14 years, Sudhir Chaudhary, former Executive Editor of India TV, moved out to take on higher responsibilities when he joined Janmat in March this year. Chaudhary is not only responsible for the editorial content, but is also involved in the sales and distribution of the channel.

A senior media personality, Chaudhary belongs to the first generation of television journalists. After spending almost a decade with Zee News, Chaudhary moved to Sahara Samay National as Senior Editorial Resource and Senior Anchor, and played a major role in the launch of the channel. From Sahara, he moved to India TV as Executive Editor. At India TV, he used to co-anchor the primetime show, ‘Breaking News’, with Rajat Sharma.

Chaudhary says he enjoyed his dual role as a reporter and anchor the most. Some of the major stories that are close to his heart include the Parliament attack and the J&K elections in 1995. He also enjoyed reporting from Kargil.

In his new role at Janmat, Chaudhary will spearhead the channel’s expansion plans. In an interview with exchange4media’s Sumita Patra, he divulges more about his plans for the channel. Excerpts:

Q. How do you define the core TG of Janmat? My core TG is a viewer who is aware about news and current affairs; who are bothered about national issues and are serious news watchers.

Q. Is Janmat currently available in UK and US? Not right now. We are already talking on these projects. We are on the verge of finalising that deal, but in the meantime, we are on Dish TV.

Q. Please share some details about the way you implement the channel’s expansion plans. Which are the markets that you would be looking at entering? Janmat will have active news bureaux throughout the country from where we will do live reporting. We might look at a bouquet of channels in the near future.

Q. Having spent almost a decade with channels like Zee News and India TV, what made you join a channel which, apart from catering to news, is essentially a views channel? Why Janmat?

I took this up as a challenge. As a media professional, I think one should be able to adapt to new situations and new requirements; one should be able to take up new challenges. I have worked for different channels. In Zee, the requirements and content were different from those I encountered in Sahara. Joining India TV after Sahara meant working for a yet different brand that had a different positioning, and thereby, different challenges.

I don’t see any problem working for a news and views channel after working with news channels. I find myself equipped enough to work for any channel now, irrespective of its content, image and branding. As a good professional, I would like Janmat to achieve greater heights, get more viewership, get better branding, and make a name for itself in the already cluttered market. I took up my role at Janmat as a big challenge.

I have joined Janmat as Editor and CEO. My earlier assignments entailed me to primarily look after content. I used to take part in marketing as well as distribution meetings, but that was not the core area of my profile. But this time, my job profile has increased. I took up this role because I also wanted an extension in my profile. It is a big challenge for me to understand television completely, since as a true media professional I should understand all aspects — not just the editorial content, but also the market and distribution forces. It is very important for a channel like us to understand all these forces, what marketing and branding mean, what role we have to play for distribution, etc. My role here is executing all functions, combined into one.

In my earlier assignments, I have at times seen a lot of gap between the content makers and the content sellers. It is very important to draw a synergy between the two, and if one person is handling both, then I think it should be helpful.

Q. Since you would be looking after content as well as sales and distribution, how would you make sure that there isn’t a clash between the content makers and content sellers? In this case, it would make my life easier because I would know what content to produce and how to sell it in the market. I will act as a bridge between the editorial team and the sales and marketing team. It is high time editors realised the market forces and generate saleable content.

Q. You have been in the television industry for more than 14 years. How has the journey been so far?

Fortunately, I have had a fantastic journey. I got a lot of opportunities to learn. I started as a Reporter and later graduated to become a Political Correspondent, with the Congress party being my beat. After that, I got into anchoring. At Zee, I used to host the ‘Prime Time’ show that was telecast in the 9.30 pm to 10.30 pm slot. I produced the show and it was one of the first live prime-time shows. Zee was basically like a school where I learnt the basics of journalism, about television, production and anchoring.

It was then time to move ahead and implement all that I had learnt. I shifted to Sahara and there I learnt how to launch a channel. I was part of the core group that launched Sahara Samay. So I gradually kept moving ahead, and did not restrict myself to do only anchoring or reporting. I slowly learnt all the aspects of production. Later on, apart from learning about television, I also tried to learn management since it is very important to run a channel.

I look at my career as a very eventful journey. All these years have been very fruitful in terms of learning. I still consider myself a student of television because the fun of television is that you have to learn everyday. It is graduating everyday, the scenario is changing every day, there are new concepts coming up in the market, new treatments of the same story, new trends in sales, marketing and distribution. So there is lot of experimentation going on. You cannot be static; you cannot say that I have learnt everything. You have to learn every single day.

Q. How has television news changed over the years? Is it for the better or worse?

I started my career when we used to have just one news bulletin a day on Zee TV at 10 pm. That was before the launch of 24-hour news channels, sometime in 1994-95. There used to be a half-hour slot on the mass entertainment channel Zee TV in the evening at 10 pm for a news bulletin. I used to work for that news bulletin. The trend of 24-hour news channel started from that point onwards. It used to be a big challenge to fill up all that space for 24 fours. With many more such news channels coming up, the way was paved for new experimentations. Every year, you see a new trend. At times, you see more and more crime shows, and when those fade out you see more and more sensational stories. I feel that at any given point of time, we have an overdose of something or the other, be it that of crime, cricket or entertainment. I think we have to get away from this trend of overdose. Today, the biggest challenge is how to cater to the news demand and at the same time, how to get market share, numbers and revenues.

The TRP number game is very confusing. There is a clash between the editorial minds and the marketing and sales minds because as a professional, you have to address both markets. But I am still very sure that there must be some solution to it.

Q. So the editorial team is always under pressure from the marketing team? Nowadays, there is a great deal of pressure from the marketing and sales teams because they have to sell the product and you need numbers to sell. If there are good numbers, then you will be able to sell your property better. Hence, it is important to have coordination between the editorial and the sales team. The editorial team must know what kind of programming will sell in the market. All channels are commercial ventures, newsgathering is expensive, the revenue pie is not increasing, number of channels are increasing — so it’s a huge challenge for all the channels to sustain in the same market. That’s why everyone is in a very proactive mood. Everyone wants to attract more and more viewership, everyone wants to experiment day in and day out, and everyone looks for a differentiator in its content.

Q. So in a way you don’t have many good points to mention about the evolution of news…. I would not say that because India is one of the rare countries where television media and news channels are so proactive. I think in terms of speed, treatment and experimentation, any other country’s media can learn from us. I would say that television channels have really reached a point where they can say that they are far ahead, with respect to professionalism, speed and competency levels. Television news is very young in India. Most of the channels are not even five-years-old, except for Zee and Aaj Tak. So television news is still maturing, and people are still learning. We have very limited manpower who are running TV channels due to the lack of good institutes where one could get a formal training for television journalism. So if you consider all those factors, I think we need some more time to graduate and mature as news channels.

Q. There are plans to revamp the channel. What is the need for that? What kind of changes are we going to see? When is it likely to happen?

When we talk of Janmat in a new ‘avatar’, which you will see within two-three months, we will introduce some new concepts of programming and interactivity. Interactivity will be the USP of our channel. We are in the process of chalking out some new strategies and concepts where we can connect with our viewers directly. Janmat would give them a far larger and better platform for interaction, to put their views across the country in a better and effective way. We will try to satisfy the viewers’ urge to get more information, to get hooked to the channel and to make their TV viewing experience more useful.

In fact, I would not call it a re-launch or revamp, but would say that we are entering phase II now. Phase II has got different challenges, targets and paths. I would not change anything just for the sake of it. We will conduct proper research before embarking on anything; wherever I see the need for change, I will just fine-tune accordingly. Phase I was about establishing the channel, making people aware of a serious channel called Janmat. We have done all of that. Now it is time to move ahead, increase the news base, do some more fine-tuning, and prepare for 2010.

Q. In the current scenario, how would you rate the pace of television journalism? It is amazing and remarkable. In terms of technology, we have come a long way. But in terms of the content, we still need maturity. There is a mad rush for breaking news and everyone wants to be the first in that, which, at times leads to misreporting. We have to learn all these things. We have to be mature enough to put in place some control mechanism. We should focus on responsible journalism.

Q. Janmat was launched in November 2005. How do you view the performance of the channel so far?

The most remarkable feat achieved by Janmat is that it has created a niche for itself. The channel has been successful in achieving a different image. When you think of Janmat, it reminds you of in-depth analysis. So Janmat has definitely been able to achieve a different branding for itself; a different space in this cluttered market of news channels which we would like to carry forward with the help of technology and new concepts.

We are looking at phase II now, which will be expansion in terms of volumes and profits, latest technology, more interactive live stations across the country, better network of newsgathering. We would also make it a 24-hour live channel, which means that we will increase the news content. Until now, Janmat had more of analyses. I would not like my viewers to go to different channel for news; I would like that people come to Janmat for news as well as analyses. I want to give other channels a run for their money. We will also try to make the channel more vibrant. It is going to be a cocktail of news, views and analyses. Moving ahead, we would like to expand our viewership in newer markets; we would like to expand our viewer base; we would also like to expand our marketing, sales and distribution to larger avenues now.

I want my channel to focus on three-four key areas. I want Janmat to be an electronic NGO. I want to show people news that they can use in their lives, news that affect their lives, and news that would be simplified. I want the common man to understand news.

Q. Janmat is based on a low-cost model. How will you ensure the profitability?

Being on a low-cost budget gives us more chance to attain profitability, and more scope to recover money. I cannot give you a mantra right now as to how that will be achieved, but I am very sure that with interesting viewer-friendly content, and aggressive sales and marketing, we will try to get new media buyers, new brands on our channel, and recover money as soon as possible. Being on a different segment will help us get more revenues from the same pie. We will have some dedicated media buyers who will come to our channel because they will have a specified audience. This is a perception game. We will target the perception and number game too. If we get both things in place, there should not be any problem with branding and getting revenues.

We will also try to innovate by having some new revenue-generating models, by means of creating our own events and getting exclusive rights for some events. There is a lot of money in events and having exclusive rights to them would help too.

Q. Five years down the line, where do you see the channel? Five years down the line I see Janmat as a major force that sets the national agenda — a channel that cannot be ignored by any section of the society or government. I also see Janmat as a channel, which will ride high in terms of numbers and perception both.

Q. You have shared with us the roadmap for the channel. How are you going to achieve that? Any particular strategies? I have already made a blueprint for the expansion, but blueprints are not to be disclosed. However, I would like to say that we are going to buy the latest state-of-the-art technology, we would go for OB vans. We will look at virtual sets, we are going for state-of-the-art studios with robotic cameras; we would also look at newsroom automation. We will go digital completely, with better-looking graphics and studios, and more television tools to support our content, supported by smart programming.

Q. Janmat is seen to be more of as a views channel. Do you think there is room for more such channels in India? I think there is still some space. If channels are handled properly, if the treatment is good, and if one specifies the genre and the target audience, then it can work. There is room for specialised channel, but not for a generic one that goes into every belt. News has become a generic term; you have to move ahead of news. I think every channel should look at specialised packaging of news.

Q. What kind of channels would you be looking at? We have already launched Mi Marathi in Maharashtra, which has become the No. 2 channel within a month of its launch. Sri Adhikari Brothers are known for their production values. We will see how we can use the core strength of the organisation. We might synchronise all this in some form, which I cannot divulge about right now. It can be entertainment or another specialised channel or a news channel. We have kept our options open but it is too early to say anything right now.

Q. What kind of growth have you targeted for?

For me, the market share should be directly proportional to the revenue share, which means that if you have five per cent market share in viewership, you should then also have five per cent revenue share in the market. That should be our role model to achieve. We should break even within a year’s time. We will try to innovate in the way channels are being marketed, and in terms of spot buying. I have to use all the properties very effectively. Only then will we be able to break even within a year’s time.

My sales and programming teams will have a very aggressive approach. We will have to work towards creating an image where more and more media buyers would want to be associated with us. They should ride on our popularity.