Future of TV in India

The Campaign A-List has collated the responses of over 300 Senior Professional from the Media Industry. In a recent, blog post "A-List of Changes"  I discussed what are the changes that these professional seek from media and advertising. Here, I am presenting a review of what all do they specifically expect to change in Television.

Here, of course I am ignoring ideas that are too extreme (like - ban TV) or too difficult to digest (such as - add smells to TV). Of course! TV was one of the mediums that had the most variety of comments for its future. I have classified these comments in 5 broad categories, each concerned about the following:

• The TV Technology
• The Advertising on TV
• TV Content
• Pricing of TV Commercial Time
• Research & Measurement for TV

The slide here illustrates the different comments received and hence gives a glimpse of the changes once can hope for in the future.

The A-List is most worried about the overdose of advertising. Hence, in the future of TV wants ad-free channels, limit commercial time, limit ad-durations, limit frequency of ads, zap commercials, stop TV tickers and logos on screen, and so on.  

Overall, in TV Technology the Media Seniors want to have 2-way communication on TV thus making it Interactive. Other wants are - digitization of Cable, making TV HD, Addressability for DTH. Yes, they also want to have a like/dislike button on TV for giving feedback on content and advertising.

In Content, the primary concern is for News Channels about paid news, anchors getting hysterical and dramatization of news.

The Creative people still have not had enough of indulgence in Television and are dreaming of having cheaper ad-rates so that they can make longer duration ads - since 30s is just not enough to tell a story.

TV Measurement as always is wanting - larger sample and better coverage but this time there is more concern about what we are measuring. Instead of TVRs, the A-List seeks to have TV Respect Points and TV Watchability Ratings. Advertisers want to go beyond CPRPs to Ad-effectiveness measures and Impact measures.

Interesting thoughts, which if materialized will certainly change TV for the better in the future. So, I sincerely hope that the A-List is able to bring in the changes that they seek - for if they cant then who else can !!!

A-List of Changes

All of us have our own view of the future of media and advertising and each one of us is working towards the changes one wants to make on the media canvass. But, have you ever wondered what is the collective view of such individual wishes and actions?

Well, here is a perspective.

I looked at the recently released A-List - courtesy Campaign India and Dainik Bhaskar Group. About 300 media professional shared their view on what they would want to change in media. I must say, it was very interesting reading - at times entertaining, some views shocking, some thought-provking and insightful; but overall - a read full of learning.

It was so exciting to read what all different people envision for the future of different media. There are different personalities that emerge from a simple analysis of this document:

the extremists - who want to totally ban some media;

the romantics - who still want the old era charm to be retained even in the new media;

the dreamers - who want no limits to creative expression;

the technologists - who want to infuse better technology across media;

the liberals - who are either not concerned or believe that change is anyways happening;

the accountants - who want more measures to do better evaluations;

the believers - who believe that all is well and no change is required;

.... and so on.. cant think of any more categories..

But, what is the big-picture that this A-list reveals for the media industry. What are their primary issues and concerns? And, these are best captured in this word map below on the basis of the changes that are sought in this media industry.

The primary themes that I read from this for the future of media here in India can be listed below:

• Reduce, Stop, Ban, Remove, Spam, Clutter, Less: Less advertising clutter
• Interactive: Every media to seek 2-way communication
• Measurement, Effectiveness: Better measurement and evaluation
• Digital, Bandwidth, Internet: Digital has arrived
• Accountability, Transparency, Truth: Responsible business dealings
• Better, Aesthetics, Cheaper: Deliver More in Less

The changes wanted most badly - by the number of people suggesting these are the following (not in any order):

• Stop Half-Jackets on newspapers
• Spare the Newspaper Front Page
• Reduce TV advertising Clutter
• Stop SPAM on Mobiles
• Remove Ugly Outdoor
• Remove 'intrusions' in content on TV
• Reduce Celebrities in Ads
• Better Measurement for OOH
• Better Measurement for Digital
• Reduce regulation for Radio

I would love to discuss each media in detail separately, as the expectations of different people from each media are so different. While, some want to ban a media; some are looking to regulate it; some want to indulge in it for their creative delight; some want to re-orient it for the future; some are worried about measurement and some about its rate....

But, I will decide to write on that basis feedback on this write-up. Hope you found this interesting.

Media - Child's Play

Have you seen and remember the movie named "BIG" of Tom Hanks. A delight to watch like most Tom Hanks movies - the story is how a kid makes a wish of becoming an adult and his wish is fulfilled overnight. Now, other than all the funny situations that the movie takes you through - it shows how the kid becomes successful in a Toy company. The company is managed by adults and our Adult-Kid is the only one who understands kids in the true sense and so is able to make the best toys for the kids.

Do watch the movie if you already haven't :-).

Today, we need a "Kid" in many companies especially from the perspective of "media". Most managers in even very senior positions have grown up in the media-environment of the yester years and just cant fathom the relationship between the new media formats and the new generations.

I am past 40 and was born in the non-TV era of India. Till then Radio was the favoured media and Amin Sayani was a celebrity. At 8.00 am in the morning there used to be pin-drop silence as our father listed to the "News" on Radio. And, at 8.00 pm at night our whole family huddled around the radio to listen to "Hawa-Mahal" the prime-time hit on Vividh Bharti. We used to be scolded by our parents for getting spoilt and whiling away our time and future if we were caught listening to songs on the Radio. The announcements of the farmaishi programs and the farmish from Jumri-Talaya and the Fauji Bhaiyon ke liye..etc are still so etched in our memories.

We saw the mass roll-out of the TV Stations while we were in school. I suppose they were inaugurating a TV-transmitter a day for a year or so. We used to wait for the TV telecast to start so that we could watch the starting Doordarshan Signature Montage.  TV was telecast only on DD-1 to start with and that too only for limited hours in a day. We only had black&white TVs and some enterprising people used to put a coloured screens over their black & while TV to get a feeling of coloured TV. Don't laugh :-). Of course, having a 8 channel TV was considered a waste of investment since there was only one channel. A remote was unknown. Gradually, DD-2 started and gradually channels increased. And, mind you there used to TV Antennas on the buildings and it was such a nuisance when the kite season started. But, size mattered even then.. the rich people had big TVs and big Antennae too. Going to a neighbours house and 20 - 30 people sitting and watching a cricket match or a Sunday movie or the mega-serials is an something many in my age group will identify with. Chitrahaar was the ultimate song show and it gave a beating to the radio songs.

All this while the newspaper was a stable and sure media in most houses. There used to be one newspaper in the city (2 - 3 at max in larger cities) and we used to get the same newspaper for years and years.. so much so that the newspaper vendor was like a family member due to the long relationship. Not getting the newspaper used to cause a lot of physical and emotional trauma to the elders in the house. We used to be told to read the newspaper to improve our English and to prepare for GK in competitive exams as we grew up. Borrowing Newspaper from neighbours though a subject of many jokes was a reality too.

Magazines were few but we used to read them cover to cover. The Illustrated Weekly, the India Today, Readers Digest, Sarika, Greh Shobha, Champak, Mirror, Span and so on.. were some of the favourites I can recall.

It was quite a time before the "cable" happened and Zee TV took the fancy of India with its fancy song-shows and the proliferation of channels was started. The content available exploded and I remember studies that were done and articles that used to be written how the TV was going to be the doom of the next generation. Parents used to lock-up the TV in a box during exams. TV was held responsible for eye-sight problems, education problems and many more social ills.

Cinema was a loved media though it used to take a lot of dare to go for a movie in the first few week of release. Good movies used to go on on theatres for at least a few months and the classics blocked theatres for over an year. English movies used to  release in select theatres and either were the classics or the adult types. Movie going used to be a family affair often with neighbours and relatives included. We used to listen to full audio of the films on radio or on cassettes. I remember my cousin who not only had seen Sholay for over a dozen times but could mouth the while story with dialogues, songs and a fair amount of background music too.

So far, we had heard of computers only in newspapers and magazines and paperback novels. Internet was a word we had never heard. On Star Trek serial which was the most sci-fi thing for us ever - we used to wonder at the "Communicator" never even imagining that we all would be carrying one a decade later.  Telephone had advanced a lot and now we did not have to go to the Telephone Exchange to make a Truck-Call but had STD at home :-).

A trip to the post office was customary almost every week and it used to be a chore to sit and write letters to friends and relatives who would maybe write back to us in a reply that would reach us a few weeks later at the earliest. Looking back now it seemed like a conversation in slow motion. We used to know the location of all the post-boxes in the vicinity and knew the pickup times from them too. The postman also was like a family member and I remember how we used to wait for him on the road to our house to intercept the "report-card" from reaching to our parents :-). The yellow post card, the blue inland letter, the international letter, the envelope, the registered post, the money order.. there was so much to manage..

Hoardings were few and we never paid heed to any but still recall the Amul one which we used to see on our way to school. Besides, that it was only movie releases that used to be on hoardings or paper posters plastered across the city.

That was all till I guess I turned about 20. That was one generation and the amount of change that happened in the next 20 years can be termed phenomenal. We now have over 400 TV channels, a dozen radio stations per city, a multitude of newspapers and a score of supplements, hundreds of magazines,  mobile phones and Internet rule our lives, the post-office is a relic while we move ahead with emails, chats, facebook updates and tweets communicating in micro seconds.... I wont describe this much. .just look around you.. the world has totally changed...and the relationship of the young today with media is far more transitory than the manner in which we used to engage with it. .but paradoxically is far more interleaved into their lives than it ever was in our days. Earlier, it was just an add-on but now it is a part of life.

And, this changed media world requires brands and media custodians to use media very differently but most of the managers as I said belong either to my generation or earlier. Howsoever much, we may claim to understand the perspective of the young.. we cant even come close to their realityy. So, if we really want to apply media and design media solutions for the current generation, we need to get them into our teams.. 

Just as in the movie Big, the kid coming into the toy company turned their fortunes so will the fortunes of our  companies change if we induct the kids into our teams. Lets go for the BIG change.