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G. Krishnan is singularly devoid of the trappings of a media honcho. Maybe because, success has become more of a habit for the 40-something executive director of TV Today Network. Krishnan - who has vast experience in print, radio, television and related media spanning over two decades - launched India's first private FM channel, Times FM, as vice-president at The Times of India group. Today, at the helm of Living Media's foray into electronic media, he has led the transition of Aaj Tak from a 30-minute news bulletin on Doordarshan to a 24-hour news channel reaching 14 million C&S homes. In an interview to Alokananda Chakraborty of agencyfaqs!, Krishnan says that Aaj Tak's popularity is the function of research, technology and innovative programming - factors which could help it become the number 1 Hindi news channel in the next two years
Edited Excerpts
Simple logic says that the market for Hindi channels in India is humongous, compared to English channels. Yet, why is it that it is only now that Living Media has woken up to this fact? Were there any mental 'barriers-to-entry' that made LM fight shy?
We are conscious of the huge potential of Hindi programming in India. It is in recognition of this fact that we launched our Hindi news programme Aaj Tak on Doordarshan in 1995. The popularity of our programme was evident from both viewer and advertiser response. The popularity of Aaj Tak enabled us to extend the brand by way of other programmes like Subah Aaj Tak, Dilli Aaj Tak, Saptahik Aaj Tak, Gaon Aaj Tak and others. The duration of Aaj Tak was also increased from 20 minutes to 30 minutes, on popular demand.
A 24-hour Hindi news channel was thus a logical extension for the group. We spent several years researching the latest technology, programming etc that would help deliver a quality product. The results of this extensive research are now available for all to see. Our channel has garnered very high viewership within a very short period. The trends shown by TAM over a four-week span indicates the audience share of Aaj Tak has gone up from 7 per cent in week one to 33 per cent currently, which further goes up to 38 per cent for Hindi speaking markets. The cumulative viewership of the channel shows an over four-times increase since the launch with cumulative viewers going up from 13,82,000 to 58,64,000.
Now that you have joined the battle, what do you think is the place of news as a programming genre in India in terms of marketer interest?
Media planners are increasingly recognising the advantage of delivering their message in a serious environment to an involved audience. Some of the general entertainment channels have also realised the potential of news programming and have introduced news as a part of their offering. In fact, after Aaj Tak's entry into the 24-hours news programming arena, the news viewership pie has recorded a substantial increase. The news ad pie will thus only see a growth in the times to come.
Your strategy of piggybacking on Doordarshan and building your equity appears to have paid off. Back in those days, did TV Today envisage launching a 24-hour news channel? When and why did you realise the need to strike it alone?
TV Today launched a weekly news magazine Newstrack way back in 1988, which was a trailblazer in investigative news journalism. With Doordarshan opening up to private programming, Aaj Tak, the daily news and current affairs programme was launched. While Aaj Tak gained popularity with its viewers, a mere 30-minute bulletin was not sufficient to meet the increasing viewer need to keep themselves updated round the clock.
We collected a lot of footage during this time and various events across the country were covered in detail, even though we were producing only a 30-minute show. Running a 24-hour channel meant only a marginal increase in the production costs. As a private producer on DD, we had to pay an annual fee of Rs 6 crore to run a 30-minute bulletin whereas it costs only Rs 1.5 crore to have our own transponder.
Moreover, the C&S homes have increased exponentially over the last five years and hence there has been a shift of ad revenues to the C&S channels. All these factors collectively made us decide to launch a 24-hour news channel. The experience and equity built over five years of programming on Doordarshan have stood us in good stead, as the channel is emerging as a clear pacesetter in news.
That Aaj Tak has been well received by the viewer is a fact borne out by the TAM ratings. However, the same can be said of Jeeto Chappar Phad Ke and Sawal Das Crore Ka which soared in the first week, after which viewership simply nose-dived. Are Aaj Tak's ratings a function of novelty?
Aaj Tak has had a robust history in terms of viewership. Even while on Doordarshan, Aaj Tak drew a substantial viewership of three million from C&S homes. Ever since its launch, the viewership of Aaj Tak 24 Hours has been on the increase. This is a function of our in-depth and comprehensive coverage - be it the frenzy at Kumbh or the devastation in Gujarat. More recent examples of our extensive editorial content are the coverage of Indo-Australian cricket series providing all the details and the history by way of interesting graphics as well as special series on the Budget. Our extensive coverage, cutting edge technology and the strong equity of Aaj Tak will ensure our position as a leader in the genre of news.
One of the strongest criticisms levelled at you was that it's easy producing software for a half-hour programme, but producing round-the-clock news programming of consistent quality over a period of time is a different ball game. Comment.
We have invested substantial amount of time, energy and money in strengthening our network of bureaus across the country. Substantial investments have also been made in terms of state of the art technology like dedicated lease lines, best digital uplinking equipment, outdoor broadcast vans, best lightweight cameras, non-linear editing systems and dynamic graphic facilities. Our staff has had an extensive 12-weeks training by international experts to facilitate working with the new technology. The team, of course has well-rounded experience in covering various events extensively in the past five years. The content and presentation of the channel, therefore is a cut above the rest. There's little need to elaborate on this. The results are up on air for viewers to see
In India, Doordarshan still wields the biggest clout when it comes to news delivery in rural India. What chance do channels such as Aaj Tak and Zee News stand in this scenario? What are the different measures that you are taking to increase your reach?
Doordarshan, although still the leader in terms of overall reach, has limited viewership in C&S households, a segment of key importance to advertisers, primarily on account of the higher purchasing power of this segment. The C&S platform has been growing rapidly over the past five years. Today it enjoys a reach of over 40 million in urban and rural India, of these over 20 million are Hindi-speaking households.
Within two months of launch, Aaj Tak enjoys a reach of around 14 million and the figure is increasing steadily. We have a strong network distribution team in place across the country, which is working towards maximising the connectivity of the channel.
Our network distribution efforts are being coupled with a strong promotional campaign spanning all media vehicles. Besides this of course, we are generating demand pull with our in-depth editorial content.
Media observers think the biggest problem that Aaj Tak faces is the lack of its own distribution channel. All of your competitors have a bouquet of channels, while Living Media has this one channel. Does that compromise your clout in any way? Also, the big channel networks have their own cable networks, which you don't. Does that restrict your reach in any way?
It is extremely unfortunate that the Universal Carriage Obligation, which is an essential element of broadcast regulation, internationally, does not hold good in India. Wars between broadcaster-owned cable networks are therefore common.
Thankfully, for us, the strong brand equity of Aaj Tak has helped generate an equally strong demand-pull, which has left us unaffected by the cable wars. Our network distribution team has been in place for the past eight months and we have been able to distribute over 2,000 digital satellite receivers. We have achieved the desired connectivity for our channel.
Aaj Tak is a fully digital channel. That means someone at the reception end has to invest in a decoder. The end customer is not going to; so the onus falls on the cable operator. So either you dish out money and install decoders at their end or arrive at some kind of revenue-sharing agreement. What kind of investment has Living Media made on this front?
Aaj Tak is a digital channel like many other channels already on air and in order to receive Aaj Tak a cable operator has to procure a digital satellite receiver from us, which is available at a normal refundable deposit. And this has not been a problem at all with the operators. The mere fact that we have been able to distribute 2,000 DSRs with an initial penetration of over 14 million homes is a proof that the operators have not had a problem in taking the boxes on a refundable deposit. We have subsidised the boxes to ease the financial burden on the operators unlike other channels where the operator has to pay for the decoder boxes as well as the subscription fee.
Coming to your plans. While there is a huge market for Hindi news, there is an equally big vernacular market, which Zee is progressively tapping through Zee Alpha. Does TV Today too plan to venture into the regional market? If it does, how do you aim to reconcile the inherent problem with the Aaj Tak brand name (which is, by default, in Hindi), which could prove limiting?
Aaj Tak has had a wide acceptability with its audiences. The brand name has now become a household name across the country. We do not see the name being a limiting factor in our expansion plans.
Living Media is going in for more dilution of equity to raise money from the market. What are your plans on this front?
Prior to the launch of the channel, we had decided to divest 20 per cent of the equity. According to that plan, 10 per cent stake was taken by ICICI. We are planning to divest another 10 per cent to other financial institutions, as per our initial plan.
How do you plan to build on your initial advantages over the next few months? Where do you see Aaj Tak two years from now?
Over the next few months we plan to work on our content and coverage. We have recently introduced the stock ticker, which will hopefully improve our viewership. We have done exclusive interviews with cricketing legends, chiefs of militant groups like Lashkar-a-Toiba etc. More such coverage in the times to come, and we will keep viewers glued to our channel. We foresee Aaj Tak as the number 1 Hindi news channel two years from now.