2
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
INDIA’S CHANGING
MEDIASCAPE
F
or serious news readers
quickly shuffling through
catchy print media headlines before reading the
items they are interested in, it could
be often very irritating to find the
front news page buried under two
or three sheets of ads. That is the
way it is with many large selling
newspapers, these days. Similarly,
the ad interjections, often exceeding
the regulated two-minute spread at
a time in electronic media, cause
major detraction to TV news audience. It is not that India’s media
barons are unaware of the growing
public uneasiness with their operational styles. But, they could be
helpless. The modern media is an
expensive business. Ad revenues,
paid news or reader-style space or
time sale are becoming important
to keep the media bottom line outside the red. The bottom line has
to stay in the black, at least for the
long run. The exercise is not easy.
Media owners know this better
than most readers or viewers of the
day. As a result, the control of the
media is often compromised with
big and regular advertisers. The latter could be the governments, central and state, industry and ruling
political parties. And, the media is
often forced to compromise the socalled ethical norms with relentless
pressure of commerce. The likes
of Mahatma Gandhi, printing and
editing newspapers without solicited ads, have little space in the modern media industry. Gandhi’s early
Today’s media is no longer the holy cow of previous
two centuries. It is now part of a package under the
banner of ‘entertainment’ industry covering a host of
products such as print, television, radio, film, music,
out-of-home, animation and VFX, gaming and
digital advertising, says NANTOO BANERJEE
nue dominates the industry. The
Gandhian philosophy and canon
of journalism have little relevance
to the modern context. The present media scene often bristles with
unheard of turmoil. Investigative
journalism requires management
(editorial and commercial) consent
including means adopted – fair or
foul. Few can deny the over-riding role of market forces that edge
out strong and independent editorials by advertorial, response and
response features. The media is also
more into projecting celebrities,
political or otherwise, and models
as the icons of modern society.
My days in journalism that
started in Bombay in 1969 with a
major multi-edition English daily
can’t be compared with the experience of present day entrants. The
first time I saw the employer’s name
and pic. in the paper when he was
arrested during the Emergency,
almost six years after I joined the
20th century print media publications – Indian Opinion (in English,
Tamil and Gujarati), Young India,
Harijan and Navjivan – are part of
the history. The modern Gandhians
and social activists use social media
such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs and
websites to vent their views, ideas,
social news and information at little
cost to themselves while the service
millenniumpost @3
NEW DELHI | MAY 2015
providers make money through
ads posted in the system. They follow their own rules to control the
posts although the service providers
often grudge external control, especially from government. Today’s
media is no longer the holy cow of
previous two centuries. It is now
part of a package under the banner
of ‘entertainment’ industry covering a host of products such as print,
television, radio, film, music,
out-of-home, animation
and VFX, gaming and
digital advertising.
The ad reve-
SHOW ME THE MONEY
newspaper outfit. Our editor-inchief used to write front-paged editorials under the banner of ‘Myth
and reality’ constantly slamming
the then prime minister and her
party in the strongest possible language. In one such pieces, I still
remember, he wrote: “The administrative machinery is hamstrung like
a floating kidney in the air. Nothing moves, except the tongues of
politicians.” The political and
administrative atmo-
sphere may not have changed much
over the last four decades. But, few
will have the courage to editorially
express such disgust and disapprovation of the political system in the
media in present times. Interestingly, I, in my near mid-20s then,
was very supportive of the socialistic
policies of the prime minister and
enthusiastically reported government actions such as nationalization of sick mills, banks, insurance,
bonus review committee proceedings, and the pro-public sector, selfreliance, pro-worker and pro-poor
measures by political executives. The editor did not fiddle with factual reports. I did not lose my job for
writing on even the possible defeat
of my media owner at the hands
of a Bidi king in Madhya Pradesh
while covering Lok Sabha election
prospects the state. He did lose the
election. Towards the end of 1971, I
was asked by the news editor to trail
Jayprakash Narayan (JP) and report
all his meetings for three months.
JP was totally anti-PM and Cingress-I. To my surprise, I found the
newspaper’s Delhi bureau chief, a
Kashimiri Pandit, was absolutely
pro-PM. All those did not trouble either the media owner or the
editor as long as the reports were
objective. Interpretative reporting
was uncommon, those days. Media
(only print and radio, then) was not
part of the entertainment industry. Media was taken seriously
as an independent opinion
leader. V V Giri, who later
became the President
of India, Ms. Nayantara Sehgal, Pandit Nehru’s
105
Serving the nation for the past
Years
niece, were among regular contributors in the edit page of my newspaper. And, the media bottom line did
not entirely depend on a handful
of big advertisers and ruling political party satraps as the production cost was low. Morarji Desai’s
nephew, Manu Desai, was among
the top reporters. Ironically, he was
not allowed to cover Morarji’s Congress (O). In contrast, the modern
media is a serious and expensive
business. Industry, government, top
political entities and society know
it. The CII-PwC survey titled ‘India
Entertainment & Media Outlook
2014’ had forecast the industry
turnover is expected to exceed Rs
227,000 crore ($36.49 billion) by
2018, growing at compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent
between 2013 and 2018.
In 2013, the business of overall
entertainment and media industry
was estimated at Rs 112,044 crore
($18.01 billion) and grew by 19 per
cent over the previous year. India’s
television industry has emerged as
the largest segment. Significantly,
with the increased penetration of
smartphones and expansion of
3G network in India, the country
is likely to see around nine billion
mobile application (apps) downloads during 2015, which is five
times more than 1.56 billion in
2012, as per Deloitte’s India Technology, Media & Entertainment and
Telecom (TMT) predictions. This
uptick in app-downloads is also
expected to increase the revenue from paid apps to
an estimated over
Rs 15 bil-
lion ($241.16 million) as against
Rs 9 billion ($144.7 million) in
2014, Deloitte said. The government has allowed foreign investment in media.
The DIPP data on foreign
direct investment (FDI) inflows
in the information and broadcasting (I&B) sector (including
print media) recorded $3.9 billion
between April 2000 and January
2015.
Presently, there are 350 broadcasters which cater to 780 channels. “We want more competition
and we wanted to open it up for
the public. So far, we have approved
the licences of 45 new channels.
It’s a mix of both news and nonnews channels,” according to Bimal
Julka, I & B Secretary, Government
of India. Television and print are
expected to remain the largest contributors to the advertising pie at
least till 2020. Internet advertising
has already emerged as the thirdlargest segment, with a share of
about 16 per cent in the total M&E
advertising pie. It would be foolish
to imagine the growth and stability
of the modern day media industry,
print and others, can be had without
sub-serving the interest of the key
revenue sources such as industry
and government, the key contributors to the bottom line. Packaging
and entertainment will continue to
play pivotal role in media business.
The author is a
senior journalist
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