BY SIMRAN SABHERWAL
On April 18, 2016, Network18 re-branded and re-launched its decade-old English general news channel CNN-IBN as CNNNews18. The insight behind dropping the IBN (Indian Broadcasting Network) tag and replacing it with ‘News’ is that the word ‘news’ conveys immediacy, says Avinash Kaul, CEO, IBN News Network & President of A+E Networks|TV18. For starters, the re-branded channel has a less cluttered screen, and aims to hook the viewer with its new approach offering immersive journalism, a consumercentric approach and disruption in primetime content. Since the beginning of 2016, the channel had slowly been inching up the ratings ladder, but after the revamp it showed a rapid rise. From number four in Week 6 of BARC ratings, (All India (U+R): NCCS AB : Males 22+), the newly revamped channel now stands at Number Two (Week 17: All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+), though it still has a long way to go to catch up with the leader in the English news television space.
IMMERSIVE JOURNALISM
While refreshing a brand to keep up with the times is the norm, Kaul says the re-branding was done keeping in mind the network’s plans for the next 10 years. At first look, CNN-News18 appears sleek and clean, though Indian news channels are miles away from the uncluttered screens of international news channels. “What does one expect from a television news channel and a credible brand name? More insights, more in-depth reportage and multiple angles getting covered than just the ‘Breaking News’… It is about curating content around multiple angles and you cannot do that until you have the people on the ground. That is what we are looking at,” explains Kaul.
Admittedly, the last decade saw the emergence of the debate culture – low cost content that many attribute to falling investments in media that led to cutting down of resources. In addition, digital platforms have today all but usurped the erstwhile ‘Breaking News’ role of news channels. Kaul says that the internal mantra of ‘less is more’ means that focus is not on how many news items have been covered, but how well they are presented. This thought process has led to the strategy of ‘immersive journalism’ where additional resources on the ground bring out a well-packaged news story with multiple angles and viewpoints.
The other strategy is reflected in the channel’s new tagline ‘On Your Side’, and the effort is to make news more objective and keep the viewer at the centre of the content strategy. An extensive ground research was undertaken in this regard to understand the customers’ needs and expectations from a news channel. The survey revealed that people wanted to see content other than politics. The demand was for global news, gadgets, crime, health, entertainment, and content related to careers and even news that could be helpful for living on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, the decision was to keep the consumer at the centre, along with great story-telling and content, bringing in universal journalism and breakthrough formats to be a more well-rounded news organization, in line with international news channels.
One just had to sample the primetime content of CNN-News18 once to believe its claim of having a consumer-centric approach - while rival channels’ programming was on the drought in Maharashtra, return of the Kohinoor diamond to India and the Ishrat Jahan case, CNN-News18 presented the Delhi government’s crackdown on Uber and Ola to curb surge pricing and a debate on the delay people faced in getting possession of flats they had bought.
While debates have become the hallmark of many channels, many viewers feel that they have degenerated to a shouting/ slanging match between the participants and the anchor. On its part, CNN-News18 is looking to take discussions to a much higher level, with emphasis on informed debates. The channel has roped in well known journalists Vir Sanghvi, Ayaz Memon and Swapan Dasgupta to appear exclusively on CNN-News18 and more experts will be added soon. With star anchors ruling the roost, Kaul says that the new avatar is not about one single star: “For us, it is more about the brand being centre-stage rather than just the individual being put up there,” he states. This thought process is reflected in its marketing campaigns, where all the anchors have been given equal importance.
BEEFING UP THE NEWSROOM
Kaul says that while the two key pillars of the content strategy will be debates and news reports, the third pillar is ‘disruption’. Therefore, ‘The News That Wasn’t’ – a news satire with funnyman Cyrus Broacha - airs on primetime at 9.45 pm. Meanwhile, beefing up the line-up is Sudeep Mukhia, who makes his comeback to Network18 as Executive Editor to specifically handle primetime content. Says Kaul, “We have allocated more senior resources to the pillars that we are investing in, which makes the quality go far higher, which eventually will mean more enriched content.” With news being the focus on weekdays, weekends tend to be ignored by most news channels. CNN-News18 has identified this as a focus area, where viewers will see long format feature content. Anuradha Sengupta returns to Network18 to drive the weekend agenda. Also catching viewer attention on weekends will be Virtuosity, a show anchored by Vir Sanghvi, which will feature a big news story from the week and provide added context, insights and nuance.
CNN-News18 will also leverage its association with CNN to air popular shows from the American network such as ‘Fareed Zakaria GPS’, ‘Amanpour’ and ‘Quest Means Business’. With the United States Presidential election scheduled for later this year, this association could be a big plus point for the channel. Says Kaul, “You will see a lot of collaboration between CNN and CNN-News18. The level of interaction will be far higher than what was seen earlier, with more collaboration with CNN journalists on live stories as well.”
NEXT UP FOR REVAMP: IBN7
After the rollout of CNN News18, the next stop for Kaul will be the Hindi channel IBN7, which will be re-launched in the next three to four months. Terming last year’s performance as “satisfactory”, Kaul reveals that subscription revenues have grown substantially. A key finding, post the addition of rural ratings, has been the traction seen in smaller and even rural areas for English content. Tapping into this potential viewer base and expanding distribution will be key, says Kaul. “A healthy proportion of viewers are in the rural segments and channels, including us, are now looking at expanding. The footprint has to be all-inclusive, not just looking at the second screen which aims at the top of the pyramid, but also the bottom of the pyramid, which is in terms of the expansion into rural territories. That is an ongoing journey,” he adds.
DIGITAL METAMORPHOSIS
As part of the re-branding exercise, the digital platform has also undergone transformation, with the IBNLive.com website now being called News18.com. The emphasis is on treating the digital platform differently from the television screen. It’s no longer about editing the television content and uploading it online, but “a complete re-launch of the web with a lot more news content which is completely native and digital first”. Also in the works is a new News18 app, which will be released soon. Says Kaul, “It doesn’t matter which platform we are on - the first screen or second screen - the brand should permeate everywhere. The strengths of CNN will also be utilized on the second screen to get out the best-in-class products when it comes to digital as well.”
The network was the first in Asia to launch Facebook Newscast and among the first to get white-listed for Facebook monetization of videos. The company has seen a huge amount of traction around video views on social media platforms. At the same time, it is also on Twitter videos curating specialized made-for-Twitter content, which goes on its news feeds.
THE RATINGS GAME
Analysing the ratings of the channels he looks after, Kaul says, “Ratings are fairly important in the Hindi space. In the English space, the relative rankings of the channels play a role, but I don’t think it is really that impactful because the quality of the product and content is more important.”
“Hindi is very number-driven. Last year, IBN7 had a 5% channel share, this year we are between 6.5-7% on an average. We have grown and our business has also gained substantially on account of that. But we are not happy where we are, and with the re-launch, our endeavour will be to at least move into the top 5 bracket within the financial year and then obviously train our sights on a higher rank.” In terms of numbers, this effectively translates into 202 million viewers who were engaged during the quarter Q4FY16.
Talking about IBN-Lokmat, Kaul says the channel “has been consistently a decent performer”. “The differential between us and the Number 1 player is not really too big and we are hopeful that we should be able to navigate nicely as far as the Marathi news space is concerned,” he adds. In Q4FY16, IBN-Lokmat reached out to 38 million viewers with a 24% market-share.
Coming to History TV18, a big push for local content helped garner impressive growth, with shows such as ‘OMG! Yeh Mera India’, aiding the channel climb up the ratings ladder to Number 2 position in the factual entertainment space (BARC Week 17: 6 Mega Cities : NCCS AB : 4+ Individuals). According to Kaul, while evolving into a premier factual entertainment destination, the emphasis will continue to be on local content with 30-35% of overall content likely to be local productions, with approximately 10 local shows to be added in the coming year.
As a whole, Kaul expects the re-branding of the channels to inject some positivity into news programming. “We are looking at bringing back a little more positivity into news. A lot has been said and talked about news that has lost a lot of its sheen in the recent past. We are just trying to get some of that sheen back into journalism overall,” he sums up.
‘We can only go higher and higher from here’
Avinash Kaul, Chief Executive Officer of IBN News Network, joined TV18 in mid 2014, and leads news channels CNNNews18, IBN7 and IBN Lokmat. Around the time Kaul joined the company, Reliance Industries Limited owned by Mukesh Ambani took complete control of Network18. This was followed by high profile exits of the senior management, including founder Raghav Bahl, from the media conglomerate. In March 2015, Kaul was appointed as President of A+E Networks | TV18 and given the additional responsibility of handling the joint venture which operates History TV18. A seasoned professional, Kaul has worked across genres such as news, general entertainment, kids, regional entertainment, movie and lifestyle channels in the course of his broadcast career. Prior to joining TV18, he was CEO at Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd (TV Division) and was responsible for managing ET Now, Times Now and Zoom channels. Here are excerpts from our conversation with him:
Q] What were the challenges you faced last year?
Last year was pretty challenging due to the environmental challenges – there was a new measurement system and also the internal challenges of a new management. We haven’t done too badly, given the kind of turbulence in the environment around. I believe we will have a great year ahead of us and most of the turbulence of the past is behind us. We can only go higher and higher from here on. There is more focus and emphasis on growing the business substantially. We are just about prepping ourselves for the next lap, which will be a high octane, high energy lap as we move into the next year and the years ahead.
Q] As you mentioned, when you joined Network18, there was a lot of flux in terms of management changes and high profile exits. What were the challenges you faced in keeping up team morale?
Whenever there is a management change, there is likely to be a sense of disruption in people’s lives, but I don’t think it was that bad. Obviously, some people are used to a particular style of functioning for a long time and then there is a new way of thinking/approaching things which is to do with a lot more scale and enhancement of vision. Some people are faster to adapt, while others don’t adapt fast. That’s what leads to some amount of dissatisfaction in some employees, but otherwise by and large I think we have really held our team together. Most of the people are the same and that’s what is pulling the entire re-launch together, everything is getting streamlined and I don’t think we have any reason to complain.
Q] If you were to rate yourself on your progress, how would you score?
It has taken a long time for us to relaunch our channel. The proof of the pudding will only come a year down the line, depending on how CNN-News18 performs and how IBN7 performs after its re-launch. The momentum has picked up in the last six months. History TV18 saw its first year of profitability this year and the channel has grown substantially over the last year. We are also re-investing back in the business in a big way and launching one more channel. So I am satisfied with the work we have done. We have also made many strides on the digital front, bringing a lot more interactivity onto the channel. Yes, it could have been faster but it’s a business which takes a long time for things to move, because it’s not just a cosmetic overall which needs to happen. It is about 1,500 people gravitating towards a new philosophy, a new thinking and a new era of immersive journalism. Everybody has to contribute and you have to get all the pieces together.
Q] What are your key focus areas?
The key focus areas are essentially to create great content, get it well distributed, market it well and monetize it.
Q] What do you believe will be the game-changers for the network?
The game-changer has always been great content. The next new format hasn’t really come in for a long while. It’s not likely that you will get it right the first time around, but we are forever on a search for the next new game-changer. As is oft said, we are one chance away from hitting that great new format and it’s an iterative process, so we will continue to be in that space.
@ FEEDBACK:
simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com
