- Long live journalism!
By: Nava Thakuria
In the eraof the World Wide Web, where consumers become used to various free internet-providing services, the news itself becomes the victim of circumstance as few people would prefer to pay for news channels and also newspapers. The increasing number of free-to-air (FTA) television channels has fulfilled the demand for millions of news consumers. But slowly the FTA is also losing its market space with the invasion of internet television (news portals with audio-video packages) across the globe.
As satellite news channels in various regional languages are booming in India, questions relating to their consistency and sustainability also become pressing. With a population of over one billion, India today supports more than 800 satellite television media outlets, half of them are news and current affairs channels and most of them face the crisis of credibility.
According to the Union information & broadcasting ministry in New Delhi, over 410 privately-owned Indian news channels survive telecasting news and news-related content in various languages, including English. Most of them are registered as FTA media outlets, but even though the news-broadcasting industry in India is a Rs 20 billion business.
Internet media outlets, available in the expanded space of smart phones, may ruin the market of news channels and newspapers. The time has really come for the managements of mainstream media outlets to reinvent themselves so that journalism lives longer
As these news channels carry the FTA tag, they are not entitled to ask money from the viewers. This implies that the news and other programmes, which are produced and telecast by these channels, are mean for free consumption to the audience. The consumers have to pay only to the distributors, either the cable transmission agencies or the direct to home (DTH) operators.
The operating cost of these FTA news channels is seemingly managed from the advertisement revenues. Indirectly it means, not the viewers but the advertisers always enjoy a say (influence) in the content of news channels, irrespective of its merit and authenticity. So it is well-taken that, totally dependent as they are on advertisement revenue, it is difficult to imagine how the television channels can pursue ethical, credible and impartial journalism.
Northeast India with a population of over 60 million today hosts many privately owned satellite news channels including News Live, DY365, Pratidin Time, Prag News, Assam Talks and so om, with a few entertainment and localized cable news channels. These channels, none being paid or payable in nature, beam news and other programmes, mostly in Assamese, English, Hindi and other regional languages.
The region supports hundreds of newspapers, published in various frequencies and different languages like English, Assamese, Hindi, Bengali, Bodo, Meitei, Khasi, Mizo etc to cater the need of dedicated readers. Most of the newspapers nowadays start websites to expand their visibility almost across the world. Some have also developed both portals as well as e-papers for the benefit of readers taking advantage of cheaper Internet access in the country.
The proprietors of Guwahati-based FTA television channels are unanimous in claiming that they have to pay around Rs 10 million, one-tenth of their expenditure, to cable network agencies annually for facilitating distribution of their programmes.
Similarly, the privately-owned DTH service providers also ask for a similar amount from them to provide space in their packages. It means the channel owners have expenditures from production to distribution.
But the cable television operators’ association in Guwahati argues that they have a legitimate right to charge channel owners. They even claimed that the carriage fee is lawful under government guidelines. It also pointed out that operators had a lot of market risk and troubles. They also expressed displeasure over the Assam power distribution company charing for the use by operators of roadside electric poles for laying wires to subscribers.
There is no clarity on how much money private DTH operators in India ask from FTA channels. However, those service providers always select channels with the motive of financial benefit only. They would hardly pay regard to the commitment of those television channels to subscribers in general.
The DTH operators in India today tap over 60 million active subscribers and the number is increasing every month. With quality transmission, the DTH operators have empowered the subscribers to select their packages (unlike depending on the mercy of cable operators in case of cable connection) and also the broadcasters to know the exact number of subscribers across the country, whereas the cable operators show lower number of subscribers to siphon a huge amount of subscription money.
In India, private DTH services have already completed a decade, the first being licensed in 2003. Initially concentrated on the rural market, where cable operators are not visible even today, soon the DTH operator reached into the cities.
By 2006, Tata Sky had joined in the competition with a high-quality signal and lots of choices for subscribers. The remaining operators entered in and after 2008 to give a huge boost to the Indian television distribution market.
Media forums including Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) and Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) continue raising voices for reforming the distribution system of local news channels. They argue that the monetary transaction between the channel owners and cable network operators as well as private DTH authorities should be made accountable under the country’s income tax laws.
When an FTA news channel has to spend for everything including the production and distribution of its news (plus other programmes) to the subscribers without claiming even a rupee, the entire expenditure has to be compensated from the advertisements and then their commitment to the viewers can be at stake.
Perhaps, it is the time to have a few payable news channels in various regional languages, so that they can survive with contributions from subscribers. Till the internet television dominates the space, news channels with a transparent and dedicated management may function without any diktat, when conscious viewers would prevail over them and finally those media outlets might become credible sources for news and views.
Needless to mention, internet media outlets have cleverly combined both the flavor of newspapers and news channels. Here the readers (also viewers) can have a text in words and also audiovisual inputs. In the long run, these outlets, available in the expanded space of smart phones, may ruin the market of news channels and newspapers. The time has really come for the managements of mainstream media outlets to reinvent themselves so that journalism lives longer.
The author is a Guwahati based media activist
