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Did you notice there are lesser number of memes mocking TV news these days? What changed? Perhaps a little bit of drama has been taken out of primetime. Banging of tables, shouting at guests and even singing of bhajans have normally been a part of primetime news, but the past few months have been different. In the absence of the BARC ratings, TV newsrooms appear to be calmer. Many editors say off the record that the absence of weekly data meant they were not in the battle to be the loudest. Some veteran journalists even suggested that if these data points are done away for good, TV journalism can become sane again.
Amid controversies surrounding viewership data of TV news channels, BARC announced a 12-week blackout period of no ratings for the genre in October 2020, but it has been more than 12 weeks and the ratings are still not back, and so isn’t the brouhaha of primetime news. Not just the audience even the newsroom heads have started enjoying the ‘no ratings’ phase of news on Indian television.
“Broadcast media has gone through some serious heavy duty churning. I am personally very relieved that TRP pressures have been taken off news rooms. Chasing TRP created cult of news managers and pushed news editors out of system. I hope we can restore the balance of sanity in news rooms,” said Bhupendra Chaubey, owner & co-promoter, India Ahead.
Sensationalism no doubt guaranteed viewership. For instance the ratings during SSR death saw an increase of 10% and 24% reaching 32 crore and 2 crore in reach in Hindi and English news respectively, leading to a Genre GRP growth from 164 GRPs to 215 GRPs which is a 30% increase in the genre of news. “There is no denying the fact that the advertisers enjoyed the reach. But times are changing and so are preferences. For entertainment advertisers are now focusing on GEC,” said a media buyer.
Clearly, the advertiser mindset is also seeing a paradigm shift. There hasn’t been any significant loss in ad revenues in the absence of ratings. Latest TAM AdEx data show that the indexed ad volumes in the news genre grew by 12% during the October-December (the first two months of data blackout) period when compared to July-September. Barring small exits, overall ad volumes continue to remain stable in the genre throughout the data blackout.
Not just the audience, even the newsroom heads have started enjoying the ‘no ratings’ phase of news on Indian television as it allows them to concentrate on the content.
“If business is not impacted then there is certainly no need to increase the newsroom decibel. Newsrooms brawls were started by one channel and followed by the rest and soon became a part and parcel of shows that garnered maximum viewership. While one had the option to love or hate the trend, there wasn’t any option of ignoring the entertainment-packed news being served on Indian television. Advertisers also looked for the drama because that promised maximum reach and popularity. The trend might not be gone forever but it has definitely taken a backseat for now,” said the head of newsroom in a popular Indian language news channel.