So the news channels are up in protest against a TRAI notification.
Maybe some other channels too. And what is their grievance? That if the TRAI advertising
limit of 12 minutes per hour is enforced most of them may find the business
unviable and shut down. That would probably be good for people. Some news
channels are simply not even news channels. If you add up the content of any
news channel for a whole 24 hours the net content wouldn’t be more than 2 hours’
worth. The rest is made up of repeats and advertisements or even religious
discourses. Almost everyone has either watched IPL or any other Cricket match
but you wake up in the morning to catch up on some news you are likely to find
these matches being discussed and clips being played over and over again. There
isn’t any news-worthiness or original content in such programmes. Still, let us
give them the benefit of airing what they choose and when they choose. Even if
they have collectively forgotten that ‘news’ is public service.
So what are the TRAI guidelines that seem to have upset our honest,
truthful and nation-building news channels? Here are excerpts from an IndiaToday report:
The TRAI notification says, no broadcaster shall carry in its broadcast
of a programme, advertisements exceeding 12 minutes in a clock hour and
any shortfall of advertisement in any clock hour shall not be carried over…..The ads in the clock hour shall include
all types of commercials including those promoting the TV channel itself… that the ads carried on its channels
are only full-screen advertisements and there shall be no part-screen or
drop-down advertisement….that the audio
level of the advertisements carried in its channel shall not be higher than
the audio level of the programme being broadcast in the channel.
And India Today adds its own two cents: These restrictions on
advertisements will reduce the earnings of the news channels and make it
difficult for them to operate. Most news channels are running into losses or
operating on wafer-thin margins as they have to make huge investments in
preparing the news programmes and then bearing the entire cost of uplinking the
content to the satellite from where it is downloaded by the multi-service
operators.
Alright, so you might be led to think the news gangs are protesting
some new TRAI notification. Not at all! The 12-minute rule has existed for a
long time and the channels have simply been brazenly flouting all norms and
rules of advertising for many years. So
what they really want is the license to continue flouting the rules else they
will die. Isn’t that nice? What if I tell you I want to beat up a few
people because unless I do that I can’t live in peace? So the law should allow
me to break laws for my survival. The recent TRAI notice was one to only remind
the news channels of the rules which channels should adhere to. It was required
to issue this notification in response to many complaints it had received against
illegitimate advertising by news channels. In January 2011 a NGO, Utsarg, had filed a petition
against the news channels with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate
Tribunal (TDSAT) on this very issue. TDSAT had to then take up the matter which
has finally culminated in the fresh notice by TRAI. Prior to this, in a post
titled ‘Fradulent Invasion of Privacy…”
I had listed the evil of Pop-up ads and screen-blocking ads.
The print news media, in contrast to TV, is allowed over 60% of paper space
for ads and commercials. While I am not debating whether it’s fair or not, at
least with a newspaper you have the option of skipping the ads and reading the news
and content of your choice. Even so, sometimes there will such gross features
that you’d find it impossible to miss the images. Hmmm, this is particularly so
when it concerns products for which ads are banned – tobacco and liquor. Take a
look at this Hindustan Times article
on the increasing popularity of Vodka among younger consumers: “Splash of white”. Ah well, new
Vodka brands launched since 2011 can’t have mega launch campaigns or ads. But
if you wanted to know which the new launches are, HT is there to tell you. And
not just that, the huge images of Smirnoff
and KetelOne aren’t even the new brand
launches listed. That makes me wonder if Smirnoff and KetelOne and others make
this a form of ‘paid news’. Only HT
can confirm or deny. HT is not the only one, many other liquor and tobacco
products are carried as “Features” with images larger than even normal ads in
almost all newspapers.
If journalism was also about ethics, our TV news channels have
absolutely no qualms about breaking rules, carrying surrogate advertising by
every liquor brand and even carrying propaganda for political parties. The 12
minute advertising limit can surely be negotiated and increased a bit but
beyond that all the fraudulent pop-ups and screen-blocking ads during
programmes must surely stop.
Lastly, it would be naïve of anyone to believe that our news channels
survive purely on advertising revenue. That used to be the old model. If this
were true for the present then no news channel would be able to explain the
illogically high investments many are still receiving from the corporate
sector. Recently, Reliance has made
huge investments in the TV18 group (CNN-IBN), Aditya Birla group has made investments in Living Media (Aaj Tak,
Headlines Today). Surely, if Reliance or Birla wanted to seek great profits
then news media is hardly a great prospect going by the wailing of the news
channels over thin profits or losses. If the current 24-hour model of news TV advertising
is not generating enough profits I find it hard to believe there can be a 48-hour
model. The greed and avarice that drives the lust in our news channels to
deliver a cocktail of Bollywood, Fashion shows, Cricket, Beauty Pageants, Page
3 culture, Surrogate liquor ads, Propaganda is really not about News at all. A
serious investigation into the finances of major news channels by a statutory
body, like CAG or ED, will reveal a lot more than “News”.
