Indian television's relationship with its political class is changing: Arnab Goswami
Political parties have woken up to media. But we journalists will have to be on our guard to see that we are driven by our own judgement & not that of political parties, says Times Now's Editor-in-Chief in an exclusive conversation
In an exclusive conversation with exchange4media, Times Now Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami talks about significant changes in the mindset of political parties towards media, sustaining the channel’s momentum in the post-election period and more. Excerpts…
Do you think the objectivity in the poll coverage was lost once it became clear that BJP and NaMo were gaining the upper hand?
No, I don’t think so. If you examine the number of times a news channel went to Rahul Gandhi, it was more if not equal to the number of times it went to Narendra Modi. In terms of coverage on ground, we covered Congress, BJP and regional parties fairly. The number of rallies Modi did far outstrips the number of rallies Rahul Gandhi did, so there was more to cover. But if we were taking a live feed of a Modi rally, we would also take a live Gandhi rally. When Rahul Gandhi said something that set the news agenda, it was debated with as much enthusiasm as Modi’s speeches. For example, Rahul Gandhi made the controversial remark on what happened in 1984 - it was debated for a week not only on Times Now that did the interview, but on all channels. Similarly, if you see the number of times his interview was replayed and the promotion it was given, it is possibly the same as the treatment given to Narendra Modi’s interview. Both the interviews got talked about. So, I would argue with all the force at my command that the media did a very objective job till the very end.
Do you think this was truly a media election?
I think it was certainly a television news election - the quality and depth was far ahead of the poll coverage in 2009 and 2004, and I have seen all elections from 1996. This time, we actually put people who were fighting the elections on the backfoot, defending the subjects they raised. The media had an aggressive questioning approach. Of course, there were many other channels and much more competition, and competition begets quality, broadly speaking.
In a recent interview with IMPACT, NDTV’s Prannoy Roy said, ‘You can’t win elections in India any more unless you are an acceptable face of television’. Do you agree?
Prannoy is a leader and I have had the pleasure of working under him at the beginning of my career. I am sure what he says is said after great thought and I generally would not like to add anything to what Prannoy says, but only because you ask, I think political parties have started acknowledging the fact that their message needs to go out, in as clear a way as possible. The people who carry those messages don’t make mistakes, and therefore, the search for people who can represent the party’s view aggressively on TV. If you follow the career profiles of some of the party spokespersons, they go on to do very well in the party later. The party understands the need for effective people articulating their view. If you have the wrong person communicating on behalf of your party, a completely wrong message can go out, and ruin the reputation of the party. So, to a large extent I would agree with what Prannoy said.
What are the changes you saw among political parties during the recent elections as far as approach to media was concerned?
The election campaigns were drastically different from the previous years - there were media cells in each party. In fact, they would call and ask us about the subject for that night’s Newshour. They would try to find out who was there from the other side, try to match each other every evening on prime time. They would actually come to us with their best spokesperson.
Political parties have woken up to media. They will try to do everything possible to ensure their point of view goes across more prominently, but journalists like us will have to be on our guard to see that we are driven by our own judgement and not that of political parties.
What worked for you during Elections 2014? What was the approach you adopted while covering the elections?
Television news is an interesting confluence of graphics, production, news, promos, look and feel, editorial line, logistics, reporter placement, optimisation of available infrastructure and editorial angularity. Now why did we win by such a massive margin? The gap between us and the nearest competitor, which is CNN-IBN, in the male TG 25+ was over 20 per cent. I think it is because we got the mix right. We were able to create an editorial product that gave a completely different viewing experience, beyond comparison with any other channel in the vicinity.
Secondly, we were covering the elections with greater force. For almost three months, there was nothing but politics on Times Now, to be able to sustain that over a 100-day period with the same team means you need to get commonality of purpose within every member of your team. I am so delighted today that this group of people worked double shift, triple shift, non- stop... I had people who worked days on end, some who did not go home for weeks to put this product out. While I may be the most prominent face of the channel, it is this team that made it happen - they have done a phenomenal job. Our guest coordinators did a great job, we had over 1,000 guests and around 50 guests a day.
What also gives me most satisfaction is we were the only channel not based out of New Delhi or the national capital region that was covering this election. Our studios were in Delhi, our servers were in Mumbai, our anchoring was in Delhi, our graphics were in Mumbai, to bring technologies in two cities together on a pipe with limited infrastructure is a marvel of election broadcasting. I can share with you today that till the very end, we were very nervous whether it would all come together. It worked like clockwork. This coverage is one of the high points of the eight-plus years of broadcasting of Times Now. Wherever we went this time, people said they were watching the election completely on Times Now. On an average, they would say they spent 10 minutes on Times Now and not more than 1 minute on any other channel. We gained because of our production quality; we were breaking all the news first, and had a great quality of panelists.
What is the ideal mix for a television story?
There is no ideal mix... it is ‘the mix of the moment’ you think of right ingredients of the story of the moment. The team is tested on its ability to respond to the changing news flow. I have often said that TV is like the permanent first page of a newspaper, where the front page changes every five minutes.
Times Now also scored on the social media front in poll coverage. How did you plan your social media strategy?
We had a deal with Twitter, and Rishi Jaitley was very responsive to it. There was an exclusive arrangement, where we could get a real-time analysis - positive and negative feedback, link Twitter with the Newshour debate, understand how many people were feeling positively and negatively towards it. Did it lead to an increase in ratings of Times Now? I am not sure. But it did involve people on social media further with Times Now. In the last four to five months, we have grown perhaps at four or five times the speed of any of the other channels such as CNN-IBN or NDTV on social media. From being less than half their size on social media, we have crossed the gap in four months.
What are you doing to sustain the momentum?
We are far faster than any other channel on social media, with our updates and we have high involvement products like ‘Newshour’ and ‘Frankly Speaking’ which are integrated with social media. Two out of every three days, the top trending subjects are Newshour hashtags or TimesNow hashtags. This proves that in terms of talking points and mindspace, we are streets ahead of competition. This election gave us the opportunity to display our editorial muscle, in terms of social media, we are going to take it forward now and we are going to be twice the size of any other channel on social media. It is going to be a great area of focus. The quality of news broadcasting is going to gain from our coverage of the elections. The challenge is to sustain this level of interest in the post-election period. A politician asked me ‘What are you people going to do now?’ and I replied, ‘We are not as dependent on you as you would like to think!’ Yes, we are making the political class accountable every day. Our coverage of Uttar Pradesh is not political coverage, it is social coverage. We are not in the business of politician-bashing, we are in the business of making elected and unelected (it does not end with an election) politicians feel accountable.
What is the gameplan for Times Now going forward?
On a scale of 1 to 10, if our closest competitor is 1 or 2, we are 9 or 10 in terms of engagement of the viewer. I believe no other channel comes close to us in the matter of engaging the viewer; so I believe it has to have a natural follow-up. It is very interesting that on days of great performance on the IPL, we are more talked about, in terms of the subjects we speak about. We have given even sports channels a serious run for their money in terms of audience engagement. It is an area which I am excited about; I enjoy myself when I know I am learning something and social media is teaching me a lot, and I have a fantastic young team.
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ZEEL posts Rs 8168 cr as revenue for FY23
ZEE5’s total revenue for the year stands at Rs 741 crore, up 36% compared to the previous fiscal
By exchange4media Staff | May 26, 2023 8:43 AM | 2 min read
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited's (ZEEL) revenue for the fiscal ended 31st March 2023 stands at Rs 8167.62 crore compared to last fiscal’s Rs 8305.86 crore.
The company has recorded ad revenue of Rs 4057.89 crore a drop of 7.6% compared to last year’s Rs 4396.15 crore.
As per reports, ZEEL has posted a net loss of Rs 73 crore for Q4 compared to the corresponding quarter last year.
Subscription revenue saw a 2.7% growth at 3335.47 crore on March 31, 2023, compared to Rs 3246.6 crore last fiscal.
The company said that its other sales and services revenue YoY was down 25%, and up 71% QoQ aided by new launches and higher syndication revenue.
The company's expenditure was up 10.3% to Rs 7364 crore compared to Rs 6674.14 crore. EBITDA for FY23 was down by 38% YoY due to a decline in revenue and elevated strategic investments across the business. It fell from Rs 1780.33 crore to Rs 1101.1 crore this fiscal. EBITDA margin came in at 13.6 % compared to 21.7%.
The operating expenditure for the fiscal increased 10.5% to Rs 4468.6 crore from Rs 4041.79 crore. Profit after tax for the business has dropped by 76.1 % from Rs 1053.8 crore to Rs 251.4 crore.
The total revenue for its OTT platform ZEE5 stood at Rs 741 crore, up by 36% in FY23 compared to the previous fiscal.
The company said that the programming and technology costs were higher YoY due to higher content cost in movies, investment in ZEE5 and Sports.
Personnel expenses decreased from Rs 826.1 crore to Rs 823.8 crore YoY.
Advertising & Promotional expenses surged by 23 % to Rs 1055.4 crore from Rs 858.5 crore as new content launches on Digital increased the marketing cost on a YoY and QoQ basis.
Compared to the last quarter of FY22, the advertising and subscription revenue of the company fell by 5%.
The platform's global MonthAly Active Users (MAUs) stands at 113.8 million in March 2023 compared to 104.8 million in March 2022. The number of Global Daily Active Users (DAUs) has increased from 10.5 million to 11.1 million.
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Arnab Goswami tenders unconditional apology before the Delhi HC in 2016 case
The case was filed by former Executive Vice Chairman of TERI R.K. Pachauri against him and others
By exchange4media Staff | May 25, 2023 6:48 PM | 1 min read
Arnab Goswami, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV has tendered his unconditional apology before the Delhi High Court in a 2016 contempt case.
The case was filed by former Executive Vice Chairman of TERI R.K. Pachauri against him and others for "fragrant and willful disobedience" of the court's earlier orders restricting them from publishing certain claims against him.
"I hereby tender my apology to this Hon'ble Court and request that this Hon'ble Court may graciously be pleased to accept the apology and close the instant proceedings against the deponent," reads Goswami's affidavit submitted in court on April 28.
The affidavit further stated that Goswami is a law abiding and a respectable citizen of the country, holds all courts in high esteem and has the highest respect for the Delhi High Court.
"I had no intention to commit any act/ omission amounting to disobedience much less, wilful disobedience of the orders of this Court. I say that the alleged broadcasts were done under the bona fide belief that the same was not prohibited in terms of order passed by this Hon'ble Court on 18.02.2015 passed in C.S. (OS) 425 of 2015. The alleged broadcasts were made as part of fair reporting in view of the liberty under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India as recognised by this court in the aforesaid order," the affidavit reads.
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India Today Group to launch its free-to-air English news channel in the UK
The channel will be launched on May 31
By exchange4media Staff | May 25, 2023 4:49 PM | 1 min read
The India Today Group has announced the launch of India Today in the UK market from May 31. This is a follow-up to the launch of the Group's Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak, in the UK market. Previously operating as a hybrid channel, Aaj Tak and India Today served UK audiences with unique content.
With the launch of India Today, the English news channel will now be available as a free-to-air service, broadcasting in standard definition (SD) and accessible on Sky Channel No. 523. This will position it alongside other prominent English news channels, including Sky News, BBC News, GB News and Talk TV, the group said in a press release.
Meanwhile, Aaj Tak will continue to be available on Sky Channel number 710, providing uninterrupted access to Hindi content for viewers. The India Today Group, renowned for its comprehensive news coverage and commitment to delivering high-quality content, is thrilled to bring its linear presence to the UK audience.
“With its launch in the UK, India Today aims to captivate audiences with its insightful reporting, engaging programmes, and unwavering commitment to journalistic excellence. The channel's introduction is a testament to the India Today Group's dedication to delivering informative and relevant content to viewers worldwide,” read the release.
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ZEEL to appeal against NCLT order: Reports
The network is expected to contest that it did not have the opportunity to present its arguments
By exchange4media Staff | May 24, 2023 8:57 AM | 1 min read
ZEE Entertainment Enterprises is likely to move the NCLAT against the NCLT order, media networks have reported.
The network is expected to contest that it did not have the opportunity to present its arguments. ZEEL may challenge NCLT's jurisdiction regarding the non-compete fees issue.
The NCLT will be moved in a day or two, reports said quoting sources.
We had earlier reported that on May 11, the NCLT directed the exchanges to reassess the approvals, which previously got a thumbs up from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
SEBI has passed an interim ruling against one of the promoters of the Essel Group, which owns Zee.
The exchanges have also been asked to review whether the payment method for the non-compete fee between two Mauritius entities is in accordance with the relevant SEBI policies.
The proposal for the ZEE-Sony merger has already been green-lighted by the BSE, NSE, Zee shareholders and the Competition Commission of India.
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Sarah Jacob quits NDTV
Jacob was associated with NDTV for over two decades
By exchange4media Staff | May 23, 2023 5:37 PM | 2 min read
NDTV’s popular anchor and Senior Editor Sarah Jacob has quit. Jacob, who has worked at NDTV for over 20 years, also hosts the show We The People.
In an email to NDTV staffers, Jacob described NDTV as an “amazing newsroom filled with the most creative and driven reporters”.
“I cannot thank you enough,” she wrote. “Working with the best in the business has been an honour.”
"Last night, I resigned from NDTV. To Dr. Roy and Radhika Roy, Thank you for building what was one of India's great media institutions. To my many colleagues of over two decades, thank you for the memories.
It has been a fantastic ride from 2001 to 2023 at NDTV in various capacities. From being a reporter to having my own show has been rewarding and I am forever grateful for all that NDTV gave me and continues to offer. To be in the middle of the most spectacular years of the Indian TV news industry boom, that too at NDTV, which has set the standard of excellence for the industry, has been a magical career thus far. I hope future generations get to work at a place like I did, while learning the ropes. A most special thanks to my viewers, supporters and critics. You all had just as much to contribute in making sure I improve, introspect and learn. Your feedback keeps us honest. I will miss my show 'We the People' immensely and hope that whoever takes over from me will continue to ask the tough questions, but for now this is Sarah Jacob, signing off from NDTV," she wrote.
Many prominent names associated with the channel have quit the network recently and they include: Ravish Kumar, Nidhi Razdan who stepped down as Executive Editor,Group Editor Sreenivasan Jain, NDTV Group President Suparna Singh, Chief Strategy Officer Arijit Chatterjee, along with Chief Technology and Product Officer Kawaljit Singh Bedi.
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Leading from the front: Punit Goenka
The MD & CEO of ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Goenka, who controls one of the largest media empires of India, is an industry leader who focuses on value creation for shareholders
By exchange4media Staff | May 23, 2023 4:14 PM | 4 min read
Exchange4media is starting a monthly column 'Leading from the front' to profile top business leaders of India
Media and entertainment industry is abuzz with developments and speculations pertaining to Zee Entertainment and Sony Group merger, as decks are being cleared one by one. Sony-Zee together would create a $10 billion media giant, with over 100 entertainment channels in the bouquet.
Kenichiro Yoshida, Chief Executive Officer of Sony, said last week that the company is expecting to close the Zee-Sony merger in the first half of this fiscal year, that is by September.
Punit Goenka is the man of the moment. After all, he was one of the major architects of this historic deal. Goenka, who is the managing director and CEO at ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), has, however, maintained a silence on the matter.
There have been several turbulences in the merger. On Monday, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) asked the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to reconsider their initial approvals for the Sony-ZEE merger.
Goenka perhaps awaits for an opportune time to speak. The company officials are in the “silent period” anyway, as ZEEL’s quarterly and FY23 results are awaited on Thursday.
Business acumen
Zee and Sony's merger is going to be the biggest deal in the Indian media and entertainment industry, with Punit Goenka at the helm.
It's not just a coincidence that Goenka was conferred with the Game-Changer of the Year award at the International Advertising Association’s (IAA) Leadership Awards in 2022. He was also conferred with the IMPACT Person of the Year award by the exchange4media group in 2014.
His vision and acumen in the media domain enabled ZEE to become the frontrunner in India’s burgeoning entertainment industry, leading the company to achieve a global stature today.
Goenka grew up and studied in several Indian towns and cities before being sent to Institut Le Rosey, a boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland. This is where he transformed and grew up with leadership skills. His journey to becoming one of India's most prominent business leaders is a captivating story.
His remarkable ability to steer ZEE Entertainment through testing times, including legal disputes with its largest shareholder and challenging macroeconomic conditions, is lauded by industry leaders.
“Goenka's ability to stay calm amid turbulence is probably what helped Zee rise from a medium size broadcaster into one of the largest and steadiest media companies in India. Even in the face of adversity, his exceptional leadership skills have ensured ZEE's unwavering course, maintaining stability and strength,” his critics opine.
With an extensive tenure of over 15 years in the company, Goenka has established himself as one of the most influential figures in the industry across Asia.
He emphasizes values, prioritizing them above mere valuation. Goenka, in a quarterly call with investors in the past, stated, “With its resilience and sharp focus on growth, ZEE has successfully expanded into new areas of business and consistently delivered immense value to all its stakeholders. We stay committed to building a value-generating institution for all our stakeholders.”
Stressing up on his commitment to building long-term value, he said in an investor’s call in the past, “We are currently going through a phase where we are focusing on building value in the long-term, and are persisting with our investment themes, given our strong positioning and an attractive market opportunity ahead.”
"In addition to strengthening our current offerings, we are also consistently identifying newer growth opportunities for value creation," he noted.
People’s man
Focus on human capital has been instrumental in driving innovation and excellence within ZEE, under Goenka’s leadership, experts believe.
“Goenka has a knack for selecting the best people from across industries and nurturing them. Besides, he is a people’s man. He backs his senior team, even when certain decisions do not work in the short run,” one of his aides quips.
Ahead of the curve
Goenka transformed ZEE into a crown jewel, significantly reducing the debt burden of the Essel Group promoters. Through strategic initiatives and prudent management, he has meticulously fortified ZEE's foundation, expanding its footprint across domestic and international markets.
His peers in the industry believe that ZEE’s proposal for a merger with Sony Pictures Networks India serves as a testament to Goenka’s ability to anticipate industry trends and identify expansion opportunities ahead of the curve.
Content King
Goenka is credited with strengthening ZEE brick by brick, expanding its presence across domestic and international shores with a diversified portfolio that captures consumers’ hearts across touch points. The strong content creation capabilities he has built within the Company have enabled stories and characters from ZEE to resonate across markets and households for decades.
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NCLT directs NSE and BSE to review initial approvals for Zee-Sony merger: Report
The exchanges have been asked to issue no-objection certificates before the next hearing on June 16
By exchange4media Staff | May 23, 2023 9:16 AM | 1 min read
In a new development that could pose trouble for the Zee-Sony merger, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) reportedly asked the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to reconsider their initial approvals for the merger and issue no-objection certificates before the next hearing.
The bench headed by HV Subba Rao and Madhu Sinha will hear the case on June 16.
News report says that on May 11, the NCLT directed the exchanges to reassess the approvals, which previously got a thumbs up from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The new instructions come close on the heels of SEBI’s interim ruling against one of the promoters of the Essel Group, which owns Zee.
The exchanges have also been asked to review whether the payment method for the non-compete fee between two Mauritius entities is in accordance to the relevant SEBI policies.
The proposal for the merger has already been green-lighted by the BSE, NSE, Zee shareholders and the Competition Commission of India.
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