The Hindu Business Line : TV news channels

THE number of TV channels in India has already crossed 100, that of round-the-clock news channels (both English and regional languages) alone was rushing past 30 as of August 2005. A recent survey reveals that the news genre has consistently maintained an impressive double-digit growth; while, in the overall, it was a whopping 72 per cent between 2002 and 2004, the regional news category grew by a mind-boggling 108 per cent in 2004 over 2003. The appetite for news is apparently insatiable for, otherwise, so many with good business sense would not have sunk so much money.

The phenomenon can be viewed from two perspectives. The first is that the more competition there is, the more the choice and the better for the viewers in terms of content, quality, accuracy, variety and presentation. Certainly, it is evident on a comparison of the usually drab state-owned TV channels with the private ones, that the latter are frantically vying with each other to win and retain viewers by adopting innovative techniques and novel formats calculated to arrest and hold attention.

They also deserve plaudits for quite a few of programmes that they have hit upon in a spirit of one-upmanship in the form of talk shows, debates on hot topics, breaking of news, no-holds-barred grilling of personages in high places, especially in regard to issues uppermost in the minds of the people and, lately, sting operations. In regard to the recent brouhaha over the unfreezing of Mr Quattrocchi's bank accounts, it was a treat watching young, perky reporters sent by the channels to Milan tackling him with gusto ignoring the brush-off they got from him.

The flip side, of course, is that the contents of the news features, including the visuals, as also the commentaries and the answers elicited in the interviews concerning a decision or happening are mostly identical, the only variety being provided by the personality and style of the interlocutor. News channels in the hands of political interests fighting each other tooth and nail also provide unintended amusement by the diametrically opposite garbs in which they put out the same news in order to run down one another. All said, there can be no doubt that cumulatively, they are ably playing the role of watchdogs of the people, and injecting a measure of accountability and transparency in public life. Long may they thrive!

B. S. Raghavan